HowAboutNope

Great story but the narration got a downgrade

Revisado: 04-02-25

Please, book world, let’s all agree that this duo should be forbidden from doing British accents ever again. His is slightly more consistent, hers wanders from America to London to the Industrial Revolution and back. Both are ghastly. I say this as an American who lived in the UK for decades. Just stop. Please.

I know Kramer and Reading are a big deal, but I would like to remind everyone they recorded hundreds of hours of Wheel of Time and somehow, despite being married and coworkers on a 15-book series, they never had a convo about how to pronounce half the names in the book. They are more consistent here but the disconnect is real. His telling feels like a different book from her telling. I’ll never understand why they don’t have a more cohesive product.

The original narrator for this series NAILED it and did an amazing Delilah especially. These two just couldn’t pull it off because they can’t do a London accent and London is important here.

The story is great. You’ll like it. And the narration is passable. It just irritates me that someone thought going with a bigger name would mean a better performance and they were mistaken.

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So boring

Revisado: 03-30-25

Not my cup of tea, I guess. The characters were so twee that it felt like Ned Flanders wrote about his wild night out. And the narrator has a nice voice but truly is coasting by on that luck because his performance is so flat and boring and sounds like he is trying not to wake up anyone else in the house.

Sorry, I wanted to like it.

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Lazy editing

Revisado: 02-11-25

I wish I knew how to block a reader because I would. They have a nice voice but read like they’ve been given the text four minutes ago and are totally winging it.

Further, just volume 3? Does this story have a name? It seems to mostly (entirely?) be one story so far.

The story is okay. Reminds me of Moby Dick in some places but he keeps talking about how spooky it’s going to get but it mostly just gets racist, as old books often do.

It would be cool if the Plus catalog books were worth the subscription!

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Andrew Wincott!!

Revisado: 12-17-24

Although the troll voices can grate a little from time to time, I remain in awe of Andrew Wincott as narrator. So many voices, all done so well and so distinguishable. One of the few male narrators with a deep voice that reads not just one but many believable female characters. What a phenomenal performance. Whatever they paid him, he deserves double.

This was my second read of this series and title as I get ready to read the recently released finale. I have them all fresh in my mind at this moment and have to say that Empire of Grass is probably my favorite. Usually, the second book in a series suffers from middle-child syndrome and not much happens but I find the elf-lore and court politics in this one to be so great. There are a lot of interesting characters in this half of the Osten Ard books, like the giants and the changelings, and I deeply love the inside look at Norn culture. Ten stars.

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A far cry from murderbot

Revisado: 08-06-24

Couldn't get into it at all. The writing is poor and the acting is too juvenile.

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Gross

Revisado: 07-24-24

I was skeptical when this author made a child rather ambivalent about being raped. Then he describes someone's lover as half a woman, half a child. Men writing women strikes again. I didn't finish it. I wasn't enjoying it enough to sit through that.

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The single narrator one is so much better.

Revisado: 07-18-24

Having just finished this series as read by single narrators, I wanted go to back immediately and reread the first book. On a whim I grabbed the full cast recording this time. It's awful. The acting isn't very good and the background music is too loud, long, and distracting. By chapter two I gave up, called my twelve bucks a loss, and went back to the other version. The series is really interesting. The first book is confusing intentionally. Book two clears it all up. The narrator changes on book two and they are brilliant once you understand their role. Give them a chance.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

I owe the narrator an apology

Revisado: 07-17-24

I panned the narration on this the first time I tried it. It was so different from the first reader and also hopped right into some confusing and accented portions that felt out of place. But I set it down a while and tried again, and was able to see that the problem was me. In the end, I've decided this narrator was brilliant. Truly! There's a place in the fourth book where he's reading a single paragraph in two voices and it was so well done. He had a lot of characters to cover and did well. I'm a convert.

If you read book one and are confused just keep reading. The protagonist is unreliable and he is intentionally confusing because he is confused. As you go on the story unfolds and starts to become clearer. I've finished the series now and enjoyed it.

It helps to have a passing familiarity with the Iliad before going much further, though. Caveat emptor.

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Give it a chance

Revisado: 07-17-24

Here is what you need to know about this series:

1. It's intentionally confusing. Book two explains a lot. Just go with it.
2. The narrator change in book two is jarring but I came to decide he's brilliant.
3. It helps to have a passing familiarity with the Iliad before reading this.

There's a lot to think about in this series and sometimes I felt the concepts were too idealistic or too overstated. But I enjoyed the thought exercise as well as the main character's wild rants.

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Interesting concepts but kind of a slog

Revisado: 06-18-24

I love long space operas and enjoyed a lot about this book. But there are a lot of characters and leaping around and it can be tough to follow. A lot of this is due to the narration. The accents are corny and overdone and too similar. By the time they hit the big reveal I was confused who it even was because of the muddle. It really feels like nothing truly happens in this book because it’s all a setup for the next book. So maybe that’s okay, but I didn’t think this was as brilliant as others here thought.

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