Craig

Sorry, but I'm afraid I simply must agree with several others on this point. The Dragonlance novels are great books and I think they're being done a very poor disservice, albeit possibly unintentional. Audible, you simply MUST find a new narrator for these books. Ax Norman MUST GO! Sorry Ax, I'm sure he's a great guy, he's absolutely ruining the Audible experience for these books. If you read this review, buy the books on Kindle and read them until you see a different narrator listed for any of the Krynn novels. Anyone but Ax that is; remember ax the Ax!

I'm going to be quick about this review. This was a terrible book. The narrator was good, not great, but good, but after an hour of listening to him, I seriously wanted to strangle the man. I blame most of this impulse/need on the writer. His material is just SO terribly overdone, that it stretches and stretches and stretches on, for days, weeks, years. Some writers can do detail in such an interesting manner that it draws you in and keeps you there, keeps you interested in the story. This writer does not do that. His story sucks you in and tries to drown you. Overall, the story itself is dull, lacking, overinflated (How can it be lacking and overinflated at the same time? Trust me, it can.), and a downright insult to actual Oz-related literature. OK, not as quick as I should have been but I can't say enough how much I really disliked this book. Please read this, please take to heart what I've said, please, for the love of Oz, DO NOT listen to this book.

First, for those of you who think that the movie and the book are ANYTHING alike, well, think again. Seth Grahame-Smith may have had a hand in writing both, but his book is nothing like the movie except in some vague ways. Second, read or listen to the book first. It'll give you a sense of everything from that time period, how Abe felt about certain events, etc., which the movie bypasses altogether. Third, the book is historical fiction, not action/fantasy/scifi/horror. It's pretty much like listening to a journal, a man's journal, so, it can be a bit boring at times. The performance probably has a bit to do with that, but the actual text of the book doesn't help him. That's not to say that this isn't an interesting and overall good book. It is, it's just a bit slow. The pacing you get in the beginning of the book is pretty much what you get from the whole novel, so, just saying, don't expect sudden upbeats or anything like that. Even the moments of violence and "action" within this novel are rather slowly paced, so, fair warning. Fourth, now that I've warned you of the bits and pieces you might not care for, I should tell you, it is an OK book. It's not great, the performance isn't great, so overall, it's just not great, but it is OK. It's a good way to kill time and for some, a good way to get to sleep, but it isn't some spectacular breakthrough book, nor is it some horrific disaster. It's just an ordinary piece of historical fiction with a few quirks added. That said, if you want something that's action packed, something historical with touches of dark comedy, horror, and fantasy; if you want something where Abe Lincoln kicks vampire butt, don't listen to this book, go watch the movie.

This is what I'm talking about! Give us more David Suchet doing Agatha Christie's Poirot books and short stories. Any and all of them. It's that plain and simple. He's a perfect narrator for ANY Christie story really but he's the master of performing Poirot. He's always been great onscreen and now he's great on audiobook. If you've ever wanted to read a Poirot adventure or one of Christie's classics, buy one of the full Hercule Poirot audiobooks read by David Suchet and you will not be disappointed.

Well, like the title says, I think this was a rather good book, with a rather good narrator as well. There's not much else I can really say about it. While James Marsters is a decent storyteller for the Dresden series in general, I found that John Glover was great for this particular story. I liked him, I liked his voice, and I liked the different character voices he did as well. No one can claim I'm biased in the respect that I've listened to both Marsters and Glover, and I like both of them just fine. In fact, in many ways I happen to prefer Glover over Marsters. I know many people will disagree vehemently and that's their right, but it's my right to say otherwise. It's just my opinion after all. About the book itself, it was magnificent, simply magnificent. Excellent story, excellent characters, and excellent ending. I can't wait till the next book!

The performance itself was marvelously well done. The choice to use two narrators, one for Bella's two books and one for Jacob's one book, was a very wise decision. Both narrators read with vigor and personality which made it very easy to listen to and follow. I've found that sometimes when readers personalize what they're reading into character voices and such, it can be interesting but at the same time it can get very tiresome and irritating after a while; however, some people seem to manage to not overdo or "under" do a reading and that's what these two did quite successfully. As for the story itself, it was a relatively good story that flowed nicely and wrapped things up for this series well enough, but I have to say, Meyers sometimes stretches the writers' saying "show don't tell" a little bit too far. I like detail, but there is such a thing as too much detail. Tolkien often comes close to that edge, but Meyers jumps right off, especially with the first book of Bella. I'm sure that many out there would disagree with me, but personally, I think that the story could've been told with just a few less words is all. Overall, this particular audiobook was very good, not great, but very good nevertheless.