Ross Henderson

I had loved this book when I read it some 30 years ago, but upon revisiting in audio form it I was quite disappointed. While the basic story line is good I found the writing style very dated and slow moving. The dialog between husband and wife is particularly hard to take; very stiff, upper class English diction, and the endless "darling, darling, darling" as they address each other is at times nothing short of grating. But I struggled through it and it does pick up in the last quarter. It has however caused me to reconsider purchasing the other Wyndham works.

I found Fall of Giants highly enjoyable but this sequel simply did not work for me. Bringing all the children of the characters in the first book together in the second is preposterous and strains the 'suspension of disbelief' too far. Further, the story sags badly; in the first instalment you spend hours of mind-numbing boredom in Buffalo, where everyone speaks with a grating Bronx accent (?) - the female American accents are particularly awful. I hung on for 7 hours but then bailed out. I'm going to return it, something I've never done in many years of being a member. I would add that John Lee is one of my favourite readers but he should do some study of American accents...

In 20 years of listening to audio books I would rate this as one of the top five I have heard. Kerr's story is wonderful and I won't give a precis of it here. I had read the books many years ago, and as I had loved them I was interested to see how they would translate into audio form; the result is a masterpiece. John Lee's delivery is superb! His tone, inflection, voices and characterization are exceptional. I can not recommend this book too highly. I looked forward with great anticipation to the daily commute to and from work so as to dive back in.