Kathleen

"The Lacuna" is a wonderful book.
A sensitive, powerful, interesting story,
With themes of important matters of human civilization and history, it never is idealized or didactic.
Despite these large issues the book like the main character Harrison Shepherd always modestly comes back to the life of one person.
The author's skill and judgement and intelligence are daunting.
Most of all it is superb entertainment with the luxury of being performed by the author as audiobook.

The narrator's voice is good-except for the strange squeaky feminine voices.
But I'd call him a 'master of mispronunciation' in English and French.
Aren't these recordings edited or rehearsed?

The central character in this book is a linguist, but the narration is full of mispronunciations and cartoon russian and italian accents.
An obscure but central culture in the book , Yoruba, has not been researched for pronouncing names or places-Oludumare(O-LU'-DU-MA'-RAY), Obatala(O-BA'-TA-LA), Ile Ifa(EE'-LAY EE'-FA)
also Trastevere(TRAS-TE'- VER- EE)a section of Rome.
In the Russians' accents I am reminded of Bullwinkle-Boris and Natasha.
And do educated english speaking Italians really add an 'a' after every syllable?

Harriet Walter is the finest narrator I have yet heard. Her ability to suspend disbelief is perfect. Her knowledge of other languages and accents is also perfect and highly educated.
The Balkan series is complex with many characters and nationalities. She not only balances and simplifies, but does overall service to the author by presenting these excellent books in a way that they are always clear and enjoyable to readers.
I know that she is a distinguished Shakespearean actress, but
Narration is a special art for which awards should be given.
Congratulations to Harriet Walter.

sounds like a video game description
undeveloped characters
'nukes' and 'kills'
disturbingly unreal

This is an intriguing book on the subjects of coyotes and predators, a different view, while the parallel women, one a solitary by choice living as a ranger in the wild and the other solitary by rejection chooses to be a farmer rather than a scientist/academic. Both share reticence, opposition and progressiveness re nature. Both eventually also come back to children, joining the wildlife quest to reproduce, protect young and be part of the society. Once again Barbara Kingsolver presents a very complex story and idea with amazing detail and intelligence.
The author's reading also reflects her understanding of sound and language. In particular she is able to make the accent of the country people into an extreme but softened voice. Whereas most readers seem to adopt simply a harsh generic twang for all southern accents. I feel exactly the opposite of the criticisms of Barbara Kingsolver as reader (particularly after her book 'the lacuna'). Perhaps subtle and sensitive is not understood today.
Ironically this seems an underlying theme of this author's writing.

This is the best use of voice change I have ever heard. The narrator modifies or adds only a hint of an accent instead of a complete change. He is a very talented and unique reader.
The book itself is extremely interesting and articulate as if it was written to be spoken.

The narrator goes between twang and donald duck to create distracting offensive character voices. It would be better if she just used her own voice.

I wish publishers would oversee their narrator's use of voice changes. It is amateurish acting. Some in this book are harsh, others silly-sounding like 'marbles in mouth'. I had to stop listening to the book, though I like the author, P.T. Deutermann, very much.

deeply and well researched and detailed, full of surprizes all the way through, definitely better than da vinci code, reader excellent-after a fast 19 hour listen it left you wanting to hear more.