ShadowMoon

Terrible narrator, mediocre story

Revisado: 08-17-23

Narrator, narrator, narrator. Don't audiobook creators understand the importance of a narrator? This narrator was in the top 5 worst I've encountered. Very flat delivery and no sense of engagement with the story, just bland. I struggled through for awhile and gave up - not spending 61 hours of my life listening to him.

The story was very mediocre. If you're going to claim kinship to American Gods, you'd better write an American Gods level story with interesting characters. The characters in this book were flat, one dimensional and as uninteresting as the narration. The story lacks cohesion. It seems like the author scanned some mythology books and just grabbed whoever he came across and lumped them into whatever part of the story was being worked on at the moment. When a book makes me say "who cares" more than once a chapter it's time to give up.

Unfortunately I bought this on one of the sales so I can't get my money back. I should have paid attention to the bad reviews before spending my money.

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Good story but the narrator ruined it for me

Revisado: 11-26-22

I had previously read this series in paperback and wanted to revisit it. I've been using Audible for some time to allow me to listen to books while I work on other things. I listened to the sample and wasn't sure about the narrator, but decided to give the book a chance. That was a mistake. His voice gets very irritating fast and he tends to end every sentence by catching his breath. I could ignore this for only so long at which point it was about all I could hear. Too bad, as I like these stories and would like to listen to the rest of the series, but not with this narrator.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Just no, don't bother

Revisado: 12-10-21

I love cynical and dry humor. The description says " clever and occasionally downright dark parodies of the classic kids genre", but it was none of these. Truly awful, poorly done stories, none of which were funny, cynical or dry. Not the first time I have been severely disappointed by an Audible original.

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Good Narrator, Not a Good Story

Revisado: 12-10-20

As always Richard Armitage is an excellent narrator. However, the material he has to work with is terrible. I'll state up front that I've never been a fan of Charles Dickens, only liking Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol, so maybe I shouldn't have bothered with this one. This is far bleaker than A Christmas Carol. Even though I understand what Dickens was trying to do with these stories, this one does not have the literary cohesion to be of interest or make his point. There is repetition by some of the ugly upper class people early on that set my teeth on edge, especially the one person who wants to lock up everyone he disapproves of.
I can't recommend this story to anyone. If you're looking for a Christmas story with meaning and heart, stick with A Christmas Carol.

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Will be listening again

Revisado: 09-17-20

This book was an overview that wandered far and near. As a condensation of, and introduction to, Nordic mysticism and Nordic mythology (not a run down of the gods that we all pretty much know, but how they have ebbed and flowed in followers) a lot of ground was covered.

I found myself wishing I had taken notes of all of the various sources mentioned so that I could review them, thus my need to relisten to this book. Some sources seemed credible, others seemed to come out of fringe history. That said there wasn't a lot of value judgement placed on the sources, leaving it up to the listener to do their own research and form their own opinion.

What I really loved was the last chapter that covered the Nordic and "neoNordic" music and their influences starting with Led Zeppelin. Happily my very favorite band, Sigur Rós was mentioned. Other bands from the Faroe Islands, Germany, Scandinavia, and elsewhere have given me some new music to checkout.

Simon Vance is an excellent narrator. I pretty much always enjoy his reading.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Like um, you know, so, totally yeah, this is bad

Revisado: 07-19-20

This review is for all 3 episodes I've listened to so far. I will stick to the newsletters in the future. These podcasts are really badly presented. I lost track of how many times "like" "you know" "totally" "um" and "so" were used in place of expressive, intelligent language. Having read the newsletters, I expected more. These should have been good podcasts as the books highlighted are excellent reads. I listened to these podcasts to learn about the books I hadn't heard of before. But the lack of cogent discussion of the material and poor discussion ruined this.

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Like um, you know, so, totally yeah, this is bad

Revisado: 07-19-20

This review is for all 3 episodes I've listened to so far. I will stick to the newsletters in the future. These podcasts are really badly presented. I lost track of how many times "like" "you know" "totally" "um" and "so" were used in place of expressive, intelligent language. Having read the newsletters, I expected more. These should have been good podcasts as the books highlighted are excellent reads. I listened to these podcasts to learn about the books I hadn't heard of before. But the lack of cogent discussion of the material and poor discussion ruined this.

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A perfect book!

Revisado: 05-08-20

Excellent book, clever plot, superb narration! After a string of really bad books and audio books, I was getting ready to take a reading break until I decided to give Nutshell a try. This is one of the best books I've listened to in a long time. I plan to purchase a hard copy so that I can reread and linger over the stunning language. There are so many phrases and sentences that deserve quotation. I found myself rewinding and re-listening many times as I was floored by a particular turn of phrase.

The plot is very clever. A modern take on Hamlet, where Hamlet is still in utero, omniscient yet not. The book is from his point of view as the goings on between his mother Trudy, his father John, and his uncle Claude carry out the main themes from Hamlet, but with a few twists. The ending was as it should be, but still left me wanting more. This book could have been twice as long, and I still would have enjoyed every minute.

Rory Kinnear is a gifted narrator. He manages to set the tone perfectly, providing the right inflection for each character. His voice, as the soon to be born Hamlet, conveys every nuance of the written words.

Just a perfect book!

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Too bad I can't return this

Revisado: 03-11-20

I struggled to find an Audible Originals monthly selection of interest and this one turned out to be just awful. It's not the first Audible Originals I didn't like. I'm reaching the point of never choosing any again - free doesn't equate to good or worthwhile.

I couldn't even finish this story. The narrator has a whinny voice. Although that fits the lead character - Psychologist Margot Scott, her daughter, and all of her clients, it doesn't mean I want to listen to 6.5 hours of whine. I'm more than 2 hours in and I could care less about anyone in this story.

The Audible description for Tell Me Lies was far more interesting than this book turned out to be. It's boring and predictable. My thought, for the amount of time I lasted, was that a 2nd year Psychology student wrote the basic story for an English class assignment. It's filled with 1-dimensional characters and too many psychological tropes.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas

Excellent Overview

Revisado: 01-07-20

It's been a very long time since I read any of The Divine Comedy, and felt it was time to reacquaint myself with Dante. I heard part of this production on BBC Radio and just loved the narrators. Blake Ritson is the voice of young Dante and is a brilliant reader - he's on my list of favorites and I listen to anything he reads. John Hurt and David Warner are excellent as well. It's very helpful when the narrators make you want to keep listening!

This abridged version provides a good overview of the three parts highlighting enough of the poem to leave me wanting more. Why did I wait so long to delve more deeply into this amazing work?! After finishing this version, I added to my library the 3-part Naxos AudioBooks / Heathcote Williams version, the Clive James / Edoardo Ballerini version, and The Great Courses Dante's Divine Comedy (Ronald Herzman & William Cook). I know that narrators matter as well as translations and wanted to try multiple versions.

If I could influence Audible, I would really like Blake Ritson to narrate a full version.

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