Magpie

Story to narration, this was a great listen. I am really hoping to see these authors create more work on this world.
This book does have two separate stories - not a single story of the two characters - both set in the same world where magic is powerful, but comes with a heavy price. If you enjoy fantasy at all, you will appreciate this listen. Both authors' writing styles are excellent, unlike much of the new fantasy out there that makes you wonder if an editor even looked at the book.
Highly recommended.

Don't get me wrong, I *love* the Harry Potter series - but this is a totally different animal. The only things they have in common are magic and infinitely listenable writing styles.
I don't know what I can add that others have not - I have never read/listened to a police procedural that was quite this detailed before - but I also haven't read many. I really enjoy the way Peter, the main character takes what he's learned from being a cop in general and transitions it to dealing with his wholly new experiences with the supernatural.
This is a very adult novel, it's got some horrific scenes, as well as use of language, and sexual situations. None of it is gratuitous, however, it all slides well into the story.
I read a couple of pans involving how british this book is - in that there are some words and phrases americans wouldn't necessarily get. The book was written for a british audience and I don't mind popping over to google to look up "punter" (cause it certainly isn't talking about football players) and other such words as well as place names I wouldn't know by hearing in the book.
As a narrator, for the most part Holdbrook-Smith does a bangup job. He does most of the accents so well, that when he flubbed one by not being able to maintain it, I still gave him a pass. The only thing that really gets on me are the occasional mouth noises that leave me wanting to say "swallow!". I enjoy that he acts the book as opposed to just reading it and I'm glad he does the whole series as it's been published in the US so far.
I really recommend this book to those who enjoy urban fantasy. Particularly fans of Harry Dresden. He has some fun takes on issues Dresden has encountered (such as magic farbing technology) and the main character's enjoyable wit, along with self expressed flaws put me in mind of that series. Though once again - different animals, but equally as enjoyable.

I admit it: I’m a scifi, fantasy, YA kinda reader/listener. I like light reading; “The Help” is the deepest book I’d gotten into for a loooong time before this one. So why did I pick this up? A woman I know is Mary Johnson’s sister, and she mentioned it, so I read the synopsis and thought “Why not?”
Never did I think a book this deep could “read” so easily. It was marvelous to have the author do the reading as well. She did most every accent brilliantly and I could see her “characters” through the voices she used. Mary Johnson’s story is fascinating, even if it’s difficult because of it's deeply personal nature. There were times I cringed for her, but her style of writing made is so clear and lovely, I couldn't stop listening. I wanted to know what she would choose to do next.
The thing that was toughest for me was the feeling that in the early years of Mary’s involvement with the MC’s had too many parallels to an emotionally abusive relationship. Add to that the king rat tangle of Mother Teresa’s focus on suffering and slavish devotion to dogma, the inability of many sisters to truly lead rather than intimidate, and a lack of methods for proper communication within the order and you can't help but see what hinders a group that does so much good, yet could be so much more not only for the poor, but for the sisters themselves.
To balance that, for all Ms. Johnson does to reveal the faults and flaws of the Missionaries of Charity, her obvious love for the good of it shines through. She shows clearly those sisters and Priests who are amazingly real human beings that manage to transcend the limitations and reveal the love that is Mother Teresa's most basic message for the order.
Mary Johnson takes us down a rough road with such integrity, intellect, and thoughtfulness; you can’t help but want to take this trip with her.

This book (and the series in general) remind me of a good beer. It's unlikely to change your life, but an enjoyable way to spend some time away from your everyday.
What really *makes* this book though (aside from the interactions between Atticus and Oberon) is Luke Daniels' narration. Does passable accents, smooth reader and characterization of the Widow McDunnah and voice for Oberon is flat out fun. Takes the book from a drinkable Corona to a flavorful microbrew..

I read the reviews, and thought this may have been better than "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" but felt it suffered from the same downfall.
The Vampire Stuff. It just felt shoehorned in. Like this was a biography of Lincoln and the author said hmmmmmmmm... I think we could throw a vampire in here... and here... and here... Absolutely no flow, whatsoever.

However it also had same upside as P&P&Z - as that inspired me to read *all* of Jane Austen's books. And really, that's the only reason this book is getting three stars from me: it might stir kids' interest in history. The book includes plenty of quotes from historical figures about Lincoln and by Lincoln himself, plus facts about his life. That writing alone would have made this an enjoyable biography.

What this book reminds me of, though, is those dishes from the 50's that incorporated all kinds of vegetables in jell-o. We want to get kids to eat veggies, so we'll suspend them in this sweet, jiggly medium! Genius!
Then you bite into it.

As for the narrator, Scott Holst - decent voice, good pronunciation, however I think he may have been hampered by the writing, as he sounded sort of stilted and choppy in many places.

To me this novel has it all: an epic storyline, fully fleshed out characters, and excellent pacing. It's complex without being complicated, clever without being trite, and explores conflict, and the people involved in that conflict, in shades of grey instead of black and white. Sure, there are characters and situations that are clearly bad and clearly good, but the main characters are depicted as being wholly human. And I love them all the more for it.

I don't want to rewrite a description of the book; the summary does a fine job even if it takes a completely different focus than I would. I think it's to keep from alienating the more common reader/listener of fantasy: men, as the main character of the novel is a woman.

I admit, I had a hard time with the narration. I've listened to Song for Arbonne, also written by Guy Gavriel Kay, and read by Euan Morton; it was an excellent listen. One of the problems is, I've read this book well over 20 times. It's admittedly, not the narrator's fault that he pronounces names differently than I do in my head, so I can't really criticize that. However, the accents were sometimes uneven and the language occasionally stilted. Is the narration, on the whole, bad? No, it just felt like Mr. Euan's reading skills had gotten rusty, or that he just wasn't at his best, which is a shame. This book deserves an a-game.

If there were a way, I'd have given the story 3.5 stars. It says it in the description, but in case you missed it - this audio is two books combined into one audiobook. Which is good choice on the part of the audio publishers. If I'd listened to just the first book, I may not have continued. It's not bad, it's just not something that would inspire me to listen to 5 more books. I didn't really care about the characters and it seemed like a pretty cookie cutter sword and sorcery.
HOWEVER - in the second book, the story really hits it's stride. It's nothing revolutionary, just solid writing with fun characters and an enjoyable storyline. Which, in my opinion, is more than we're getting from a lot of fantasy writers of late. By the time I got to the end of all three audio books I was hoping to find more by this author.
To quote from the author himself about this series: "The Riyria Revelations, especially in the beginning, is little more than fast-paced light fantasy. As the series progresses, I think you'll see more depth both in the world of Elan and the characters. This was a purposeful decision and a dangerous one. It means that by design the first book is the weakest of the set, but enables me to end it with a resounding bang."
And he absolutely did.

I'm sure I can't say here anything that hasn't already been said, however I was so impressed, I felt like I had to. I also don't want to reveal anything, because the minimal knowledge I had before listening made the unfolding of the story so much more fun! This was such a solid listen on all fronts. The characters were engaging, the story interesting, the source of the mystery was terrific. By the time it had ended I wanted to hear more!
The absolute best thing, though, was the narrator. If there were some way I could give Ray Porter more than 5 stars, I'd give him an enthusiastic 10! His accents were credible, pronunciation:impeccable, and timing and flow: spot on! The thing I loved the most is that his interpretation never got in the way of the story he was telling. I've never found a narrator, aside from Jim Dale, I felt I would gush about - Ray Porter is gush-worthy!

Listening to this book left me sad on a lot of levels. I *loved* this series in my teen years. I must have read it 10 times. What I didn't realize then was how sexist it is (much as the rest of the genre written in that era). Sure, one of the main characters is a strong woman, however most of the other women, when portrayed, are incredibly stereotypical.
Most horrific was a passage I didn't at all register as a young reader: a drunken rape by a main character of his wife. And while the character registered he felt sorry for his act - there was still more of an emphasis on it's justification because his wife would not give him sex willingly. And for good reason in my opinion!
I still love the story for what it is - but I found it almost impossible gloss over the telling now as I could when I was a kid. That disappointment was compounded infinitely by the narration.
Beierle is flat out awful. Even if I could get past the issues I previously mentioned, there is no way I'd make it through even one more book of the series as currently narrated (and he narrates all of the Belgariad and Mallorean) The man cannot maintain an accent for more than a few words and forgets which accent he uses from character to character - often in the same conversation! I don't know which I liked less - his attempt at a Connery-esque brogue for Belgarath or the mouthful of rocks and phlegm for Barak.
Place and people names are also inconsistent and often defy the laws of american english (or even english english) pronunciation. Admittedly, in fantasy books, we all hear our own pronunciations in our heads unless a book specifies them to be different. But the Belgariad does not (except Ce'nedra). It almost seems like Beierle made them up out of some sort of desire to make the story feel more fantastical, which is incredibly grating and not at all necessary.
I only have one positive thing to say about this narrator: the presentation of Garion. One reviewer mentioned not appreciating Garion sounding so whiny. Garion *is* a whiny little boy til the 2nd or 3rd book.
I'm sorry to pan this book so thoroughly - nothing would have given me greater pleasure than to say I had come home again in this audio edition.

I really enjoyed Brandon Sanderson's "The Way of Kings" as well as the "Mistborn" series, so I thought I would try this standalone which was his first published book.
While I like the basic idea for the story, the execution was slow, with too much expository and self congratulations on the cleverness of the characters. It wasn't until the last 1/3 of the book that I became truly interested in the story. Sanderson has, over the course of his books, become an excellent author - this one is just obviously an early effort.
The narrator may have caused some of my issue with the book as well, because, while I must admit his pronunciation and flow were great, the constant over emphasis of the reading drove me half nuts. It made me think of how a radio personality like Casey Casem might read a book. Unless I really really wanted to listen to a specific book in future, I personally would avoid this narrator.

First I have to mention how much I really enjoyed the narrator - she was great! Voices were terrific, phrasing never choppy, mispronunciations either minimal or nonexistent. If it weren't for the unevenness of this book, I'd give it four stars for the Narrator alone!
Unfortunately the book *is* uneven. There are some really funny moments in the story, but they almost entirely involve the Jagermonsters and other secondary characters. The main character, Agatha never seems fully formed and disbelief has to be suspended beyond the plausible when it comes to her absolute inability to understand what is happening to her. It's dragged out *waaaaaaaaaaaaaay* too long. I don't know if this book would have even gotten three stars if it weren't for the narrator - I just don't think I would have enjoyed the story as much.