Laura

Way too much preachiness. The characters had to repeat almost every statement...sometimes with slight stutters. That little artifice grew old fast. The Hero came across as "namby-pamby" rather than sensitive and loving. I really felt kind of sorry for his son. Poor whiney kid needed his dad and was consistently ignored throughout. He'll probably grow up to be a seriel killer. Gita was incredibly naive and unbelievable. The author ineptly diguised the sermons that flowed unending from her lips as "truth". The book could have been very interesting had the author not kept continuously beating me about the head and shoulders with the metaphoric religious angle iron. Overall a ho-hum listen.

I listened to this book in both the unabridged and the abridged form. The unabridged version was just too long and too slow. Normally, I prefer unabridged listening but in this case the abridged version was MUCH better. Will Patton reads the abridged production. He captures the flavor and the mood of the story perfectly. All the really good lines, similes and metaphors that make Burke's books so mesmerizing remain but the story plot moves along at a much more intense and crisper pace.

In no way would I compare this book to The Lord of the Rings. I suffered through over 8 hours of this tiresomely boring story. Enough is enough. It never goes anywhere. The characters repeat every single thought or utterance 2 or 3 times. All the characters are,without exception, either stupid or ugly (or both). And to top it off, their voices and accents grate on your eardrums unmercifily. In over 8 hours I heard not a single musical or cheerful dialog. I'm glad I only purchased book 1 in this series! I'm removing the 2nd and 3rd books from my wishlist now!! In this case, an abridged version would be an improvement -- at least 85% could be cut easily!

My husband and I just finished this audio book and we anxiously await the next installment of this imaginative and unpredicable story. The characters are richly drawn and the story constantly kept us amazed and guessing. Ms. Weis is not afraid of getting out on a limb and that is one thing that makes this story so fascinating and unique. The narrator is well-choosen. The book is told in a well-paced voice with good character differenciations. I loved being carried away to the land of dragons and the unpredictible human pawns during our long commutes to work.