Chaz

I would like to LOVE this series but the narrator is not very good at this type of narration. She makes the battle scenes boring and reminds me of a newscastor rather than an actor. She would probably be perfect for some other type of series but this is sci-fi with tech heavy dialogue and intricate descriptions of battle in space. She also seems flat and emotionless during romantic moments, tragic moments and periods of self reflection. The stories come off as one dimensional and at first I thought the problem was with the writer. but, sorry, no. It's the reader. Compare her narration with those of the "Lost Fleet" narrator and see what I'm getting at.

I'm glad they fixed the audio problems that plagued the first book in this series. My complaints are few and the story whisks along at a decent clip. I do wish the books could be at least twice as long with more detail and character/story development. These two books together provide just enough for one book.
Our heroine Gwyneth seems to never rise to the occasion and stand up to her cousin, her aunt , her etiquette teacher, or her love interest. Her main weapons seem to be crying and acting baffled. I find myself wanting her to use some of her own advantages to prevent the constant bullying and browbeating she gets from many people.

With the pace of these two, I can't see the story being wrapped up in 3 books. More like 12, one for each of the time travelers. I should've waited for the entire series and read them all together. I wish the author, and publishers would hurry and release them all.

I wanted to "read" more by the author of "Cloud Atlas" so I picked this at random. It's a splendid display of craftsmanship. David Mitchell's grasp of japanese culture is on display as is his artistic touch with words on paper.

Here he stirs beautiful words into complex sentences into well wrought phrases into beautifully descriptive paragraphs, into this wonderful book.

I just discovered a new favorite writer.

I love this series.

I thought I would've been used to the new narrator by the end of this book but.... nah, It's not merely the pronunciations but the accents as well.

It's bad enough to speak the Compi names in such a screwy manner, it's far worse to make seemingly random decisions about the dialect and therefore the origins of several characters. This narrator Colacci decided, for some reason, that people with names like Nikko Chan Tylar and Kotto Okiah should sound like U.S. southerners and the older roamer men should all sound like grisly characters in a western shoot-em-up. Even the "Alien with British Accent" clich'e finally becomes less than outrageous but really, rednecks in space? Not even genteel southern gentlemen but crusty old gosh-darn dusty pantsed cowpokes? Perhaps a listen through of the earlier books for continuity would've been informative.

Perhaps they should've started from book 1 with the new narrator thus buffering us from the shock of being forced to leave the marvelous George Guidall for this hideous treatment.

sigh.

The story worries me like the first encounter of a Dire Wolf and satiates like the "Milk of The Puppy" (poppy, I know but the phrase sticks). It's an excellent epic story with complicated relationships, intricate politics, sex, violence, disaster, and glory. Martin seems to have no problem killing off a major character thus causing us readers anguish and anxiety at every scene.

You'd think "so and so" would last through the entire series and be the Frodo Baggins/ Ender Wiggan/ Darth Vader/ Harry Potter of the series?

Nope lol.

Here, the mystery and intrigue is palpable because we have no idea who will still be around. I try to distance my feelings for these characters for this reason but Martin is such a great writer that he Makes me interested in them anyway.

Roy Dotrice is an excellent reader. He reminds me of Patrick Tull or George Guidall, superb salty voiced readers who render their characters with grit, fire and hard earned experience. What he lacks in young feminine voices, he more than makes up for with his multi male voices. There are hundreds of characters with varying degrees of intelligence, education and class and Dotrice does a handy job at voicing many of them.

At times the many many characters makes the story a little more confusing with an audiobook than with an actual book book where you have the luxury of quickly skimming back to, say chapter two, to check the name of some guy you read about. However this is a great start to what promises to be an excellent series.

Sorry but the series is pretty good but I kept trying to get used to the narrator but finally, I gave up. That I made it this far- through 7 books- is perhaps a testament to the storyline but I have never before so hated a narrator than this woman. People pay their money to be entertained, not distracted. She sounds as if she's reading a news story and she never seems to care about that which she is reading. I've been an Audible member for over 10 years and have listened to hundreds of books but this is the first time I've been so nauseated by a reader. I've heard other books by her and she was fine, but in this series actually makes me angry. lol.

Sorry, but I have to pile on...The first three books in the series were produced by Recorded Books and the last few by Brilliance Audio. Perhaps this is the reason for the glaring and startling differences. I do wonder what happened that the series was started by one company and finished by another. Regardless, I do wish they had been finished by the great George Guidell. I've heard other stories narrated by David Colacci and he is a really good reader but the difference here is jarring.

The pronunciations and accents are unsettling, especially when you consider that Brilliance Audio didn't start from book one, which to me means they meant these to follow the first three from Recorded Books. Too bad the producers and/or Colacci didn't make an effort at continuity. Especially nauseating is the Ildirians accents and pronunciations; I was like " dude, really?" ZonNnNn? The series and riviting but the change in narrators is almost as upsetting as the narrator in the Honor Harrington series who is horrid.

Joe Morton lives and breathes this wonderful look into the life of an exceptional American who tells a story of life in this country. We couldn't have had a better, more passionate narrator.

Ellison delivers to us a rare glimpse into the lives of those who truly depict the soul of America and the state of the country in all its savage complexity and psychopathic depravity. The man with no name is all of us. Ellison says, in one book, what many great novelists take their entire careers to say. This is America at the crossroads and at the beginning of modern American civil rights.

It's a great book and a superb production.

I'm sorry to say that I keep trying to get used to the reader and , through all the books, I still have NOT. I'm ready to give up on the series because of the irritating narrator.

I agree that Audible should make an effort at a sequence order list.

This book does a great job of of setting a common American story, that which describes the experiences, differences and similarities between immigrants and natives of (perhaps) the same ethnic group. This group of girlfriends explore the varied hardships, adventures,and joys that comprise the latina experience in the USA. The well written stories are sad, thought provoking and at times hilarious. This would make a great movie and do much to show other Americans how varied Hispanic life and culture can be. The only problem with this book is that it wasn't long enough. I would peek at the timer and lament that this book was almost over.