Steven

At 29 hours long, this is at a times a difficult listen. The story can be dry and lacks the imaginative preoccupations of fiction. That being said, the narration gives the feel that you are hearing the stories from the mouth of Herodotus himself. Like an entrancing old man who rambles on and on, you half listen out of respect to him, and half in wonder at things you've never heard before. I enjoyed the story and narration, but the audio quality was a little lower than I would have liked.

For a fan of ancient history, this is a must listen which sheds new revelations into other pieces of classic literature and in many respects sets up the mental stage for them.

I've attempted other listens at these stories, and each time quit before getting too deep into them. The narrator really is everything here. Enjoyed the stories immensely, a superb rendition.

had heard a lot about this book, wish I'd read/heard it long ago. This story should be required reading in ever high school!

*Background
My first encounter with the Thomas Covenant series was 16 years ago when I was still a student in high school. Difficult at first because of the writing style, the first book Lord Fouls Bane was an amazing story which I admit took more than a month to finish. The story Donaldson laid out was so mesmerizing the following five books took less than a month to read combined. After such a long time, I was both excited at the prospect of new additions and skeptical of the idea at the same time. My first fear was "Is this simply one last attempt at making a buck off of a past success?"

*The Audio Book
Though expertly read by the narrator Scott Brick, I found myself quickly reminded of how painful Stephen R. Donaldson's writing style can be. Though it is a bit difficult to describe, I will say that at times, it is akin to reading a scientific publication. The authors strong English background is readily apparent, and the descriptive portions of the text are minimalistic yet completely thorough. At times the text may seem unnecessarily repetitive, however after the first 45 minutes of the audio book, this feeling was lost in favor of the story. The story translated surprisingly well into audio format, truly a testament to the strength of the narrator. The story which is laid out here in the last chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a great addition to the two previous trilogies. I find myself impatiently awaiting the audio recording of the next book, Fatal Revenant.