Laura

This is a fantasy story, and not something most people would think of when they think of Stephen King. So, if you are in the market for the stereotypical horror story King is so famous for, this may not be a good choice for you.

But, King does write fantasy, and he writes it well. I enjoy his fantasy books just as much and sometimes more than his horror novels. This book is set in a similar world to his Gunslinger series. I did not know this going in, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. And, the villian has made an appearance in other forms in others of King's books. I always like to see the connections and overlaps between King's books.

The story itself is a more traditional fantasy, with kings and queens and castle, dragons and evil magicians and good vs evil. But, as with most things I've read from King, its not "traditional" fantasy, you know the kind with cookie cutter cardboard characters and predictable plots. As always, King delivers believable and very "real" characters that really pulled me into the story.

The book is written, though, as if it is a story teller is relating the tale, and some may find that annoying. I'll admit, I USUALLY do, but in this case I found it didn't detract from my enjoyment at all.

And lastly, the narrator, Bronson Pinchot, did an absolutely amazing job. The voices of the children were spot on, the villian was creepy, and the women didn't come across as nasal or whiny. Things like yelling and far away speakers and whispering was very well done. He is one of the best I've listened to and will definately be looking to see what else he has narracted.

I would recommend this book to someone only if they are a HUGE Koontz fan.

I would recommend this book to someone only if they are a HUGE Koontz fan.

Lane did a great job narrating a mediocure book. I wouldn't have kept listening to it if not for his effective narration.

No follow-up necessary. In my opinion, the story in this book ended halfway through and there is nothing to follow-up.

The first half of this book was pretty interesting. I thought koontz had done a unique twist on an old theme. I found the characters ok, though rather cliche and two dimensional. I found some of their actions unbelievable and some of the plot events unrealistic and more unbelievable as the characters. At times I felt Koontz had to bend over backwards in his explinations to make certain actions/reactions plausable, and in my mind failed, especially in the second half of the book.

As I said, I found the first half of the book interesting. The characters were ok, and the plot themes interesting, but then, half way through, the main protagonist is killed and the rest of the book goes on and on without him. He is personally described and involved, and to have him die halfway through, left the second half of the book rather empty for me. The threat and personal involvement of the evil bad guys was greatly diminished for me. And, the interesting character development and plot of the first half of the book de-evolves into one shot out after another and constant running, and its during this run and shoot second half where the rather unrealistic and difficult to believe plot developments occur. The whole second half was rather uneffective and uninvolving for me and I put it on fast playback speed to get through it.

Up front, I will admit, I was expecting more straight poetry reading than commentary. However, this audible offering is mostly a lecture on the lives, learning, deaths, influences, and poetry analysis of Sexton and Plath. There was very little actual poetry.

However, my biggest complaint was with the audio quality. This sounds like an old and porrly done casset tape recording of a lecture a student took while in class, or a terrible phone connection on some radio show. In addition, the lectuer speaks very fast, stumbles of her words, sometimes says the wrong word and has to repeat. She also repeats statements and ideas and analysis more than once, which I find irritating.

Overall, not a good offering. If there is a sample available, I suggest listening to it before purchase.

T.S. Eliots words are exsquisit as always. I've read them many times.

I was very disappointed in this audio version, however. The background music is LOUD and overpowering. At times I could not make out the words AT ALL for the overpowering background music. In addition, there are times when the narrator uses a really annoying, unnecessary hallow echo effect as if speaking into a metal tube. It is distracting, strange and not needed. Really. Just Elliot's words are enough. Just read his words, please. No cheesy, silly, over powering music or special effects are necessary.

I enjoyed this book for the most part, once I got past the beginning. I am very interested in dementia as I had a grandfather that suffered from alzheimers. I have read articles and books on the brain, alzheimers and autism. I find it facination and informative.

This book had some good information. However, the beginning is so long and boring, full of explinations of anatomy. I understand that some set up is neccessary. Fine, I'll wade through what ever setup is applicable to the subject at hand. However, i don't want to sit through hours of not only anatomy lessons and cell types, but a history lesson of not only who discovered the cells/processes, where they discovered them and how, but also THEIR history, such as who made a mad dash for the north pole and who went on to invent mining machinery. Seriously? How is any of that relevent AT ALL? Why do I need to know that so-and-so who discovered x-y-z cells or invented such-and-such cell staining methods was also an althetic dare devil who journeyed to the north pole in a boat drozen in an ice sheet, had to eat his dogs to survive and lived with eskimos? I don't. It drove me crazy and made me dislike the begining of this book. It was bad, and went on and on and on. This whole mess is in terrible need of an editor. I kept asking myself how this extrainious information made it into the book, and the only explination I could come up with, was that is was fluff to fill up space in a book that would have been much shorter.

The narrator did a good job though. Even through the boring, extrainious information, he had a good tone of voice, conveying interest and emotion.

The real subject of the title, disorders and illnesses and such, didn't start until 1.5 hours into it. If you already know the anatomy of cells, the brain, the nervous system and the methods of study/staining, you could probably skip to the 1.5 hours mark and not miss anything.

I have listened to all the Dresden file books on audio and loved each and every one. i tried reading them once upon a time, and couldn't get through them. I found the characters boring, cliche and flat. I thought Harry's dialogue madae him sound simple and stupid. Then, the first book in audio format went onsale and I decided to give the series a second chance. I am SOOO glad I did. James Marsters breathed life and personality into the characters, making them entertaining and endearing. And I had mistook as stupid, obvious comments on Harry's part became hilarious sarcasm.

I bought Ghost Story without thinking, or looking. I didn't realize the narrator was different until I started listening. I would have thought it was the wrong book, if it hadn't been obvious that is was in fact Harry's story. My disappointment was immediate and accute. I felt angry, betrayed and stupid for buying an audoibook this bad. I immediately shut off the audio book and didn't go back to it for weeks. Then, i tried again. I literally only got a few more minutes into the story, and stopped again due to the same dissapointment. The narrator isn't bad. He's really good, in fact, I've listened to him on other books and he is truly a good narrator. but NOT as Harry Dresden. The characters don't sound like themselves. The sarcasm that was whitty and charming and endlessly entertaining, but flat, silly and cringe worthy when read by Glover. I actually deleted it from my player and it sat unlistened until I pre-ordered Cold Days, the next book. I knew I'd have to read Ghost Story. I went online to buy the Kindle version several times, but didn't want to spend more money on a book I technically already owned. I finally gritted my teeth, put the play back on "fast" and suffered through on the high pitched whiny tone of fast forward to get it over with as fast as I could. I thought I'd get used to Glover and his different rendition, but I never did. I am so happy Marsters is back doing the next book, I can't even tell you.

The story is as good as all the others Butcher has written about Harry. I like that things are a little broken and twisted in the wake of what happened in the last book. I like that some very minor characters are included. I like that Mort has a bigger part. He is something different with this cowardace and self preservation. Molly's development is facinating and troubling at the same time. As always, I enjoy Murphy's character a lot. She manages to be tough, strong, scary, striking and femanine at the same time. So, 5 stars for story.

I have never read The Exorcists, nor have I ever seen the movie, so I had no idea what I was getting into. First, I should say this was not an easy story to listen to in that it was at times very disturbing. Mr. Blatty doesn't soften any blows, and since the subject in distress is a child, I found this story very difficult at times. Still, the story itself was so intense and unusual and disturbing I couldn't help but listen without pause. Even though the child was in such distress and her predicament was so disturbing at times. I felt Blatty wrote her and her situation in a way that conveyed great sympathy and empathy.

My favorite part of Blatty's writting was the dialogue. The dialogue is written extremely well. And read extremely well as well. I didn't realize until I got on here to review this audio book that Blatty also narrated it. He did an escellent job. Really well done. The dialogue, the voices, the tones of voices and nuances were perfect. Especially on the detective. The dialogue and narration perfectly conveyed the intriguing combination of shrewdness, cunning, self defacing manner and sympathy that made his such a facinating character and a smart, insightful detective.

The only complaint I have was with the ending. There was this imense build-up, the suspense was almost painful. Then, the exocrcist is brought in, and . . . he's involved for a very short time. And then the resolution somes very, very shortly afterwards, and its rather aburpt. I was left with this feeling like the author built up this crazy amount of suspense and wrote himself to this plot climax where he wasn't really sure how or when or where to resolve it, so he just, well, ended it. I don't think this was really the case as Blatty seems a much better writter than this, but that was the feeling I was left with, and it was a little bit of a let down. I had all this anticipation and adrenaline built up, and I was left thinking "uh, is that it?". Perhaps my expectations were just over blown. However, it was a small complaint. The overall story was so intense and well written, it more than made up for any let down I personally felt at the end.

I highly recommend this listen.

I have listened to Friedman's Coldfire trilogy and was looking for more of her books. In Conquest Born rated highest among readers at Amazon. Some said it was their favorite book of all time. So, I went in with pretty high expectations, and was disappointed.

The story is not terribly, but nor it is really good. An excellent narrator makes up for much of this, making what was in my opinion a medicore story easy to listen to.

The characters: I felt no connection, empathy or sympathy for any of the characters. The main characters often not only did or said things objectionable, but contrary to their character, without any truly interesting inclinations or complexities like Gerald Torrent of the COldfire trilogy. I often didn't like or agree with torrent but he as complex and interesting and a hell of a character. In addition to this, I was often confused as to who the main characters were going to be in the begining. Several characters were introduced in great detail, and often one or more scenes would be told from their point of view, only to have them disappear never to return.

Plot: Boring, predictable, a lesson of black and white polar opposites where bad is bad and good is good and as I reader, I always knew who was who and what was what within this frameworkd. I had expected sci-fi or at least sci-fi fantasy, but what I felt like I got was a rather distant and it seemed to me, improbably love story. Not what I expected based on the book's description and customer reviews. I prefer a little more science in my science fiction and a little more unique, unexpected systems in my fantasy. I don't usually read romance, but would expect more angst, struggle, some strong emotions, not a bland depiction of fate.

Backstory: I usually don't have much to say about backstory or set up in books, its there, sometimes delivered in fake feeling dialogue or just delivered in paragraphs of backflashes or descritpion. Its not great, but what ever, all these devices get the job done, and I realize this usually has to be done one way or another. But, I was really frustrated with the way this book delivered the backstory/set up. It used communications for much of it, letters,phone calls, telepathic transmissions, which I found really disconnected from emotion, characters, and I kept listening thinking, people don't really write/talk like this, and I found it really distracting.

Ending: I saw it coming a mile away, what else can I say?

There were some interesting parts, but for me they were all secondary or behind the scenes things. For example, I found the idea of genetic manipulation, such as to develop human telepathy, and all the controversy that comes with that, and it was touched upon, but didn't ever get much attention.

Overall, not a bad listen, and I listened to all of it. Most people seem to REALLY like this book, and I thought the narration was excellent, so you'll probably like it.

Arrrggg!! I am so tired of male narrators reading women voices in a nasally whine! This audiobook is by far the worst in this regard, and it utterlly ruins a great story for me. The female military ship captain sounds like a nasally, whiny, high school vally girl. No kidding. It is terrible. I litterally gasped out loud in dismay and irritation when I first heard this presentation of a strong, powerful female lead! I have read and loved this book. The story is a good one, one of C.J. Cherryh's best in my opinion. If you like C.J. Cherryh, complex socialiology, complex characters, or good political sci-fi stories in general, you'll like this story. However, perhaps you should listen to a sample if available, to get a feel for the narration. I was excited to see some C.J. Cherryh books added to the audio offerings on AUdible, as she is my favorite author. But, I would have thought twice given the narration.

I like most of King's works, and the Gunslinger is one of my favorite audio books. I've listened to Gunslinger multiple times. I did not enjoy Drawing of the Three, however, partly because it wasn't as exciting for well plotted as the rest of the series, but mostly because of the narration. I felt Frank Muller narrated with a strange husky, drawn out whisper at the end of each sentence, and just read with an incredible over acting in general that set my teeth on edge and distracted terribly from the story. I found myself listening to the narrator, the tone and pace of his voice rather than the story itself. Not so with Waste Lands. I thought perhaps I had just gotten used to his style, but I played Drawing of the Three at a random place, and, no, found the narration still grating. In Waste Lands, I was not distracted. I didn't feel there was much exagerated, over acted drama added to the reading, not much, but a little, not enough to distract or take away from the story. I realize from the reviews that most people absolutely LOVE Frank Muller's narration, so this may not be an issue for anyone else but me. In that case, I'll just end by saying, Waste Lands is my favorite book in the series, the description of Middle World, getting to know the characters, getting Jake across, the pacing, the plot, the characters, I love it all.

This book is not great. King has written much better and slightly worse. The writing was ackward at times, full of adverbs, those "ly" words that can at times feel silly when overdone, as in many places in this book. I enjoyed the Gunslinger very much, one of my favoriates, and enjoyed the subsequent Dark Tower books. The Drawing of the Three is my least favoriate by far. I'd give it three stars in comparison to the others, but compared to other books I've read, its really not that bad.

However, the narraator is truly horrible. I can't understand why people think Frank Muller does a good job. Every book I listen to that he narrates, I can't hardly stand it. I've stopped listening never to go back I dislike his narration so much. I now avoid anything read by him to matter how much I might want to listen to that particular book. Seriously, I can't stand him, and the more I listen the less I can. He is overly dramatic, with drawn out words and a husky, dramatic near whisper as if every paragraph and every word is a supposedly dramatic,scary scene in a bad B-movie. His tone, the way he reads, sighs, draws out words, over acts and reads voices in an annoying nasal tone sets my teeth on edge. The story was good enough that I suffered through it, but when compared to the first Gunslinger novel, whose narration was spot on, listening to Frank Muller here was nearly unbareable.