'lexu

By Heresies Distressed continues much as By Schism Rent Asunder. Glacial and deliberate.

Character development and plot are consistent and make sense, but the narration move too slow for my taste. If Conquerring one safeholdian nation after another, one boot at time, is the intended modell of the series, then I will stop listening.

The change in narrator, and with it the new rythm and less consistent "character-voices" for the lead characters, were hard to get used to.

The story's strength is dialogue and ridiculous, funny situations, not clever plot and suspense. The characters are human, well distinguishable and believable. They are not mean, saints in disguise or boring gray non-entities.

The story is "compact" in that it doesn't have complicated side plots and doesn't verbosely narrate scenes to the bitter boring end ... but sometimes it is a bit too compact and sketchy .. as though the author felt she had more to say, but the need for minimalism tied her tongue.

As in a Jane Austin romances you will know early on who the lucky couple is. Not a problem since "Getting There" is what it's about.

The reader is no Kate Reading, but she works for the story and didn't distract me anymore after a short while.

I liked both the author's story telling skills and the reader's performance, but there are severall places where the audio has weird and disconcerting background noises, that reminded me of a fax machine or modem connecting. So I've rated story and performance 5 stars each, but only 4 stars overall.