M. Eglestone

By Heresies Distressed is the third book in David Weber's "Safehold" series. I have to agree with a number of others who objected to the loss of Oliver Wyman as the series narrator. The change to Jason Culp caused me quite a few problems with vocal character identification. It was a terrible move on the part of Macmillan Audio. If Wyman was not available at scheduled time for recording the book, they should have waited for him to become available.

As for the book itself, I had the same feelings about the audio version that I did about the printed. Unless Weber plans to become another Robert Jordan, he needs to move the story line along a bit faster. The politics involved are devilishly delightful, but they take up too much story time. We don't really need a blow by blow account of every political and religious move on the entire planet to enjoy the action. If nothing else, that level of detail makes recapping the next volume in the series a tediously lengthly process, and makes fans lose interest before the new story lines starts. I did greatly enjoy the new story, what there was of it, but it could have been a lot better with less political detail and more action.

I give the book and audio recording 4 Stars, and Jason Culp's rendition 2 Stars for effort.

I'm not sure what went wrong with this story. It might have been the deliberate lies or deceit among the main characters. It might have been the years of totally unnecessary secrets between mother and child. What ever is was, I felt absolutely nothing for any of the folks involved in the book. Even the ending left me cold. Needless to say, I have no desire to read another book in this series.

Burning Lamp is a fine story and a welcome addition to the Arcane Society series. Unfortunately, this audio book is the beginning of the end for narrator Anne Flosnik.

Somewhere along the line Ms. Flosnik decided that her performances were Shakespeare plays and that she must over pronounce her words by dragging out the endings of words in an overly dramatic stage voice. Nearly every one of her works after April of 2010 suffer from the same problem. Simply put, she destroyed herself with that process. I do believe that's one of the main reasons that Recorded Books picked up the Amanda Quick books. Of course, Barbara Rosenblat isn't that much of an improvement.

As usual, The Ladies of Lantern Street Series is excellent. The Mystery Woman story is well constructed and follows the standard Jayne Ann Krentz formula. The only problems I ever have with her books is her need to explain every mystery down to the last detail by having her villains confess to each criminal action or her by having her leading characters lay down every single fact. It gets very, very annoying. The other flaw in her otherwise great stories is her aversion to firearms of any kind. You will not find a single story by the author where guns are used to an advantage by any of her leading ladies or gentleman. She just flat won't allow it. Of course, in real life guns are used daily to both save lives and take them. It's an aspect of life that will never go away; except in Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, or Jayne Castle stories. If you didn't already know, they are all the same person.

With these exceptions in mind, I highly recommend this paranormal series. They are outstanding stories!

I keep listening to this series to see if any of the characters wise up. Unfortunately, none of them do. They keep secrets from each other even if the knowledge will save a life. I have no clue why this is. When my friends and I were that age, we did NOT keep secrets when someone was in danger, and we certainly did not allow others to distract us when passing on critical information that another needed for decision making purposes.

I like this series, but I think Kelly Armstrong needs to take a closer look at today's teens. They seldom act the way she is depicting them in this series, and they certainly aren't as paranoid about life.

By the end of chapter 7 I was fairly well insulted by the author. Making her leading lady appear to be Brain Dead was bad enough but, adding insult to injury, she also had Janet totally IGNORE every screaming sign thrust in front of her nose that things were very, very wrong with Nick.

No, folks, this was a badly written story. Allyson James should be ashamed of herself for submitting us to this sham of a story. I am done with this series.

One of the biggest flaws in First Person narration is the lack of perspective. The reader is locked into the thoughts and sights of the primary character. We have no clue what fits and what does not fit unless the leading character figures it out for us.

In Firewalker, the author tries to weave many story lines together. But, she flounders around and fails to pick a primary line which the reader can lock onto. Personally, I have no problem following five or six story lines at a time as long as the author follows a logical progression from time to time. This offering fails to do so in any meaningful way. The result, for me at least, was a total let down at the conclusion. Put another way, the means did not justify the ending.

Hillary Huber is, as always, Hillary Huber. Everyone sounds the same and each character carries the same vocal inflection regardless of the authors intent. I put up with it - but I don't enjoy it very much.

Quite a bit of explicate sex followed by a fairly predictable story line. I was less than impressed by either. I would have had no problems with the sex if it wasn't the only vehicle the author used to present the story or, if the story was unique in any way. Unfortunately neither applied. Suggest Christine Warrens "Others" series or the "Psy Changeling" series for a proper mix of sex and unique story lines.

First, let me say that I love this series and follow it closely. However, I'm not exactly sure what went wrong with this addition. I wasn't necessarily unhappy with the events as they unfolded, but I was not thrilled with the way they related to the ending. If I had to put a label on tale, I would have to say that it was poorly constructed and left me feeling unfulfilled and relieved that it was finally over.

As always, Lorelei King did an outstanding job with the narration. I have always said that in the hands of an accomplished narrator, even a mundane story will shine.

I wish every audio book producer would pay closer attention to the people they pick to narrate their stories. There are hundreds audio books that I just flat will not buy, or listen to, because of the person they picked to do the narration. Loved the books, but hate the acting ability or voice of the narrator. I end up reading the hard copy edition of many, many books that are currently available in audio format.

The Honor Harrington Series used to be action packed and fun. Now, it drags on and on like a half dead sloth. David Weber's new writing style seems to be, "Never use ten clear concise words to make a point when you have 900 available." He has also managed to Cut and Paste entire chapters from previous books into his new offerings. This book is short on story but abundant on words.

The Talbott Quadrant audio books have always been narrated by Jay Snyder. He has established the voices for everyone in the Quadrant and that section of the series belongs to him. Why they spoiled this book by substituting Allyson Johnson is beyond my comprehension. If they HAD to use Johnson, they should have let Snyder do the male voices and Johnson do the females. That mix, at least, would have made slightly more sense.

I agree with most of the reviewer's assessment of this audio attempt. The story is not one of Nora Roberts finest. The biggest gripe that I have though is not with the story, but the quality of the recording by Brilliance Audio. They have always added a bit of reverb to the voice of Susan Ericksen, but in this recording they went too far. The audio quality is so thin that it hurts my ears at times. Frankly, I gave up on the Audio Book and finished the story in written format. The story wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be when I started the Audio Version. My recommendation is to read the book in written format. You may like it a lot better.