Empress Orchid

By: Anchee Min

Narrated by: Alexandra O'Karma

Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

The critically acclaimed author, Anchee Min, paints a fresh portrait of the last Chinese empress in this brilliantly fictionalized tale set during the waning days of the empire.

Seventeen-year-old Orchid belongs to an aristocratic family that has fallen on hard times. Unexpectedly, she is chosen as one of the emperor's lesser concubines. Within the Forbidden City are thousands of women hoping to bear the emperor a son and become his empress. Orchid, determined and resourceful, schemes her way into the royal bed and seduces the emperor. But as the opium trade erodes the might of the Ch'ing dynasty, Orchid find herself at the center of a crumbling nation.

A colorful depiction of one of history's least understood women, The Empress Orchid is another enthralling masterpiece for Anchee Min.

©2004 Anchee Min

Critic reviews

"Powerful and brilliantly conceived....[An] insightful, magnetic, and quietly revolutionary resurrection of a remarkable woman." (Booklist)

Ending was abrupt

The read had a unique voice but at times pulled me out of the story.

Incredible story

This is a fascinating story of an amazing woman. Wonderful way to learn history even if liberties are taken. Challenge for audio is keeping the names straight without seeing them written. Biggest complaint is the audio recording covers every sound of the reader’s mouth- a little but gross honestly, and quite distracting. Like taking a big in breath before speaking and we can hear it. Also some weird drop-offs that I wonder come from translation?
A long, but great listen.

Poetic

I loved the way the main character handles each setback in her life with grace, despite also making it seem like shes only reacting the way anyone would act. Absolutely beautiful descriptions of a distant world.

Good story, bad narrator & editng

I very much enjoyed the story and generally enjoy audiobooks. However, in this particular recording every few seconds you can year the narrator swallowing her spit. Its very disgusting and distracting. Because of it I found it very difficult to finish the book. Who ever edited this book should have done a better job, a narrator cannot speak & swallow at the same time, it would have been easy enough but time consuming to edit out the swallowing noise.

Not unabridged

I bought the unabridged version, got Part 1 & 2, each close to 9 hours. The end of Part 2 is NOT the end of the book!! I would like to get the rest, but you do not show a Part 3.

Great story but the narrator was a little iffy

I loved the story, very captivating, the only issue I had was with the narrator. she has a lovely voice but was a bit drab and I could hear hee swallowing throughout. It's not a crime but it was very noticeable.

Wonderful

I really did not want the audiobook to be finished. It is wonderful to listen to as a romance.

Power to the Empress

I couldn’t put this book down. I thoroughly enjoyed this historical fiction book. I got such a kick out of the Empress’s description of folks she encountered throughout her life. Even though woman weren’t supposed to use their intellect, she found ways around that and reigned, influenced and survived.

Reader ruined it for me

Two minutes into this audiobook I had to stop listening. The reader's breathing, gulping and pauses proved way too distracting. Never mind the delivery which was so monotone I wondered if she was bored with the story herself.Hopefully I can go back to it later and listen on my computer as opposed to my Otis where the sound is right up against my ear. My fault for not sampling first. Lesson learned.

slow

What I didnt like:
The Narrator, she read like she was 1/2 asleep and kept on swallowing into the microphone which was very distracting. She also seemed to take long pauses in the middle of a sentence.
The story was pretty slow and dwelt primarily on Chinese court ediquet. Even at the few sensual and suspensful parts the narrator made me feel like I was falling asleep.
What I liked:
The historical acuracy. The book followed true historical events very well. (Maybe that is why the story was so slow)