Jaye

First Classs Story!

Revisado: 12-11-20

Such an interesting story! Good plotting, good characters, good narration, loved it. On to Book 2!

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Richard Armitage as Narrator is a Wonder, For Real

Revisado: 01-13-19

I have both versions of this wonderful book--one read by Simon Vance (usually my very favorite narrator) and this one, read by Richard Armitage. While the Simon Vance version is as enjoyable as everything he reads, I must say this version read by Richard Armitage is nothing short of a wonder. Armitage's range of voices is a joy--he manages to make me laugh out loud as he articulates Dickens' tiny gems of absurd, razor-sharp humor. David Copperfield was said to be Dickens' own favorite among all his works, but in truth every time I've finished it, a few years later I never quite remember what it was about. But now, having listened to Richard Armitage read this classic, I will never forget the details again. If you love Dickens, do yourself a favor and listen to RIchard Armitage bring this jewel to life.

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I'm SO annoyed with this audio book.

Revisado: 05-06-16

Would you try another book from Elizabeth Chadwick and/or Katie Scarfe?

Yes, her writing is fine, narration is fine, EXCEPT....

Who was your favorite character and why?

It should be Eleanor, EXCEPT...

Any additional comments?

I was so looking forward to this book, I read everything about Eleanor and have for years, so I was happy to find this. HOWEVER, I don't think I can even get through it, after several annoying and frustrating hours. And why is that? The narrator (or whoever gives her orders and directions for her performance) decided that Eleanor's name should be pronounced 'Ahlia-Nor.' Because 'that's the way she would have pronounced her name.' What??? We could not have understood a word anyone was saying in that time, but today we're trying to listen to a story about some person named Ahlia-Nor, when everyone on the planet knows Eleanor of Aquitaine as Eleanor. Every time the name is spoken, and every time Ahlia-Nor speaks, my brain stops and says 'oh, wait, they're talking about Eleanor, or, this is actually Eleanor talking, not some unknown person named Ahlia-Nor. My brain keeps telling me this is not in fact a story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, but a fictional account of some young woman I've never heard of, someone named Ahlia-Nor.

Imagine if you happily sat back to listen to 'Gone With the Wind' and then the narrator told you that she's going to refer to Scarlett by her given name, which is Katie. Try to slog through Gone With the Wind as you listen to 'Katie' speaking her lines, 'Katie' having her experiences during the Civil War, Katie and Rhett, Katie and Ashley, Katie and Melanie. Then you'll see what I mean about this production.. Scarlett is Scarlett, not Katie. And Eleanor is Eleanor, not Ahlia-Nor. SO annoyed, grrrrr.

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Ridiculous

Revisado: 01-28-14

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Young teens, perhaps, but only if they want to spend a LOT of money or a LOT of credits on this series.

How could the performance have been better?

The reader is handicapped with poorly written material, but even so, its performed as though the readers are reciting a boring newspaper article.

Any additional comments?

Let me say, I love zombie stuff. I also love that Audible occasionally offers free 'shorties, and I always give them a listen, so I was happy to see a zombie 'shortie' come along. That said, I don't know which I found more annoying, the flat writing, the flat readings, or the flat-out outrageous marketing ploy which basically takes what should have been at most 2 or 3 ordinary length books (total 38 hours for the entire series) and breaks them into 7 books. Or, if you don't want to use your credits, you can pay $71.16 for the series.

Books 1, 2, 3 and 4 combined, total 14 hrs 45 minutes. Easily one book, but you have to buy each one separately (after Audible gives you the first one free).

Insulting marketing ploys aside, I found the writing so ridiculous that I laughed out loud several times--and I don't think one is meant to burst into laughter while zombies are tearing someone apart. And then it got worse--the first narrator is a husband who races from his office to get home and save his wife and daughters on the first day of the zombie outbreak. The family gets together and they try to escape, but are cornered. The husband sacrifices himself so his wife and daughters can escape in a boat. The last she sees of him, while zombies are ripping his intestines out and chewing his legs off is (are you ready?) him smiling at her as she motors away. HAHAHA, seriously? Wow, that's a really brave dude!! Even without his intestines and legs.

Absurd.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Deliciously Vicious--A Masterwork

Revisado: 12-22-13

Any additional comments?

I just finished listening to Faithful Place--for the second time--and found it as wonderful an experience as I had the first time. And I'm sure that sometime in the future, I'm going to listen to it a third time. An extraordinary tale, the story of Frank Mackey and his siblings, from childhood into adulthood. Their barely-scraping-by family in lower-class Dublin defines the word 'dysfunctional.' Their interactions among themselves, and with their drunken physically vicious father and bitter, verbally vicious mother are so well-written and so well spoken by the narrator that I felt myself--right in there with Frank--desperate to somehow escape these family ties, wash my brain clean of the scenes and images of a family so hopelessly bound up with one another.

All that may sound depressing, I guess, but it isn't. Frank Mackey is telling the story and he is alternately laugh-out-loud funny and darkly, smartly vicious himself. This is very, very smart writing. A great deal of the story moves forward via long passages of dialogue among the characters, and that dialogue is spot-on. Never once through the entire book did I find myself thinking: This is not real. It was real, it is real--painfully, scarily, hilariously, wittily real. A great, great listen. Don't miss it!

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Narrator....reads....soooooo.....slowly. zzzzzz

Revisado: 10-31-13

Any additional comments?

I should have paid more attention to so many previous reviews. The narrator reads sooooooo...very... slowly, and then pauses in between little chunks of phrases, like this:
'She... ran... up... the stairs... (pause) and, looking...down...the hall...(pause) saw that there...was...no one...there.'

Trust me, if you ever suffer from insomnia, turn on this audio recording. You'll... fall... asleep...in...no...time....

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Bummer--I should have listened to the reviews

Revisado: 10-22-13

Any additional comments?

I should have listened to the reviews--if I had, I wouldn't have tried to listen to this book. The reader is fine, no problem, but... the story? I love dystopian 'end of the world' stories, whether the 'end' is via zombies, flu, nukes, whatever. I enjoy reading and thinking about how one copes with harsh new environments, trying to survive. But this book is not... that. This is a tedius, finger-wagging LECTURE, period. The protagonist is a professor (surprise, surprise!), everyone around him, after the EMP hits and destroys the U.S., endlessly asks him 'what's it all mean? And, 'what's it all about', and the professor LECTURES them (and us, alas) ad infinitum, boringly and endlessly, about our reliance on technology, til you could just keel over and die of boredom. The book pretends to have an actual story--the professor has two daughters, one of whom is diabetic, and of course, medicine is an immediate emergency, but to me anyway, the actual 'story' is thin and fake. The book is simply an excuse--an excuse for the author to lecture (endlessly!) about mankind's reliance on technology. Boring and annoying--trust me, don''t waste a credit.

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Incomparable Morse - Pitch-perfect reader

Revisado: 10-19-13

Where does The Daughters of Cain rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Morse is one of my all-time favorite English detectives, period.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

I don't read or listen to Morse stories for the 'edge of the seatness' of them. I listen for the elegance of language, rapier sarcasm, and sometimes laugh-out-loud hypocrisy of the good Inspector Morse.

Have you listened to any of Frederick Davidson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I LOVE Frederick Davidson's readings so much that when I finished Morse, I browsed Audible looking for all the other books he's narrated. I frequently see criticisms of his readings in these reviews and I can understand those readers' objections--Davidson's voice is sooooo exquisitely posh that, well, you either love it (as I do) or hate it (as other readers have remarked.) I am an American from the Midwest and to me, even the writing here of the words 'exquisitely posh' makes me happy, because the words are, well, so exquisitely posh--just like Davidson's voice. I now have many of his readings in my Wish List and look forward to listening to him for many hours to come.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas