Tom

I have been slowly going through the BC series, and have enjoyed them all thus far. But I want to comment specifically on the reader, Joanna Ward. There have been some comments on this, and other BC books, about her being a bad choice. I have to strongly disagree. Of the readers I have heard so far, she is clearly the top one. Her ability to add Welsh inflections, where needed, are terrific, and her male/female character voices are as good as anybody else's given that any reader, male or female, is going to be challenged to sound authentic doing the "other sex".

I have just started "Virgin in the Ice", and the reader (Vanessa Benjamin, I believe) is already bothering me immensely.

I wish that Joanna Ward had read them all.

I had not read any Lem before, and had to use some Audible credits. This came up as a "classic" in SF and so I gave it a shot. Wow. What a brilliant story. I'll have to get the written version now and go through it again, it was that good.

As far as the audio book goes, the narration was quite good, but not as excellent as some of the other books I have heard through Audible. My biggest annoyance was with the narrator's attempt at a female voice. If I actually read the book, it will be hard for me to get that depiction of Harey out of my head. But otherwise this was a very entertaining listen.

This is my first Brother Cadfael story, and I loved it. But more to the point, a number of other reviewers have panned Johanna Ward's reading, and I have to strongly disagree. I not only found her easy to follow, but her Welsh accents, when needed for the various characters, added a great deal of authenticity.

I will agree with another reviewer, though, that the sound quality left something to be desired. Sometimes it sounded clear, but other sections sounded as though she were reading from inside a closet.