Avishy

Hi, I purchased this book just to discover that the sound quality of this audio book is terrible - nearly unintelligible - be forewarned.

Once I started listening to this book - i couldn't stop until i reached the end of it! This is a magnificent piece of work!!!

Witty, Funny, Riveting - The plot is captivating, the characters (especially Bartimaeus) are hilarious, the narrator is EXCELLENT - this series is the best one I've listened to in a long while!!!
Worth every penny!

The great idea of a clockwork earth was what excited me about this book in the beginning, and it lived up to its promise - at the beginning. But as the plot continued, the main character sunk a bit too deep in religion, and lurid congital encounters which i found to be in poor taste.
The idea of the book has a the potential for a great book and even a great saga.
However, the book itself, from middle to end, was rather disappointing.

Indeed Dotrice is a better narrator for these books - it's difficult to accept a change in narrator, after he's been with you for such a long time, and in a way, has become the characters themselves.
HOWEVER, once you get passed that, this great story continues and George R. R. Martin is as brilliant as ever!
John Lee is a great narrator (I've listened to him narrating many other books "Redemption Ark", "Revelation Space", and more) - and he makes it work.

(Still, I hope Dotrice will be coming back for the next book - It's just not the same without him...)

The book starts off great with a captivating plot of an apocalyptic future - but then it takes a wrong turn and looses some of its mystery. The ending, however, is the most disappointing part of the book - it is somewhat forced, as though the writer has ran out of ideas for the book's ending, or if this ending was planned in advance - it hadn't come out right.