Midst Toil and Tribulation

Safehold Series, Book 6

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

David Weber's New York Times bestselling Safehold series of military Science Fiction adventure, which began with Off Armageddon Reef, continues with Midst Toil and Tribulation

WAR AND FAMINE

Once the Church of God Awaiting dominated all the kingdoms of Safehold. Then, after centuries of stasis, the island kingdom of Charis began to defy the edicts of Mother Church—egged on, some say, by the mysterious warrior-monk Merlin Athrawes, who enjoys the Charisian royal family's absolute trust.

What vanishingly few people know is that Merlin is the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which aliens destroyed Earth...and that since awakening, his task has been to restart the history of the long-hidden human race.

Now, reeling from the wars and intrigues that have cascaded from Charis's declaration of independence, the Republic of Siddermark slides into chaos. The Church has engineered a rebellion, and Siddermark's all-important harvest is at risk. King Cayleb and Queen Sharleyan struggle to stabilize their ally, which will mean sending troops—but, even more importantly, preventing famine. For mass starvation in Safehold's breadbasket is a threat even more ominous than civil war...

©2012 David Weber (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Re-record this novel with a different narrator!

What did you like best about Midst Toil and Tribulation? What did you like least?

Continuation of a good story.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Changed the pronuciation of virtually every character & place name from previous series narrators. Narrator reads EVERY LINE with same breathy, exaggerated damatization. Struggled through 3 chapters, unable to listen for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. Will finish READING novel.

Any additional comments?

Won't purchase anything with this narrator.

Love the series, HATE the narration!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. I couldn't stand the narration and wish I had actually listened to the preview before I wasted a credit on this book.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator could have listened, even briefly, to the previous books in the series to learn how places and names were pronounced. A more measured pace to his speaking would have helped greatly, he sounds extremely wound up.

Any additional comments?

Don't waste a credit on this audiobook, just buy it in print or ebook format and read it instead - I think even a text-to-speech app would sound better!

Religious War

I am not sure about this series. I read it and say no more then I find myself wondering what happens next and download the next book in the series. I am hooked on Weber's Honor series but this series can not compare to that one. I hate it when a series keeps changing narrators. My message to the publishers and author is hire one narrator for the whole series. If the narrator can not commit hire a different one. In this series Oliver Wyman narrator the first two books. Jason Culp the next two, then Charles Keating and now Kevin T. Collins. The main plots of the story and its' characters are interesting but Weber seem to go into long description trying to build a world rushing into the industrial revolution and a religious war. Merlin Athawes has a bout of survival guilt and bout of conscious doubt about killing people. Did Weber forget he is a machine? The book ends but what happened to the war in the Republic of Siddermark? Lots of question --is it coming up in the next book, if so, do I want to read it? Guess time will tell, if I again wonder and reach for the next book in the series.

STOP CHANGING NARRATORS!!!

Would you listen to Midst Toil and Tribulation again? Why?

No. Worst of some bad narrators.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Go back to original narrator. And stop changing them!

How could the performance have been better?

Get a new narrator.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I like the series and will suffer through bad narrators - but it grows weary.

Any additional comments?

GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL NARRATOR!

Everything is pronounced differently.

The narrator himself is good, but he pronounces everything completely differently than in the last 5 books, and its really annoying because after listening to everything being pronounced a certain way for over 100 hours, only to have it changed suddenly. I wouldnt go ao far as to say it ruins it, but it really detracts from the quality of the narration tp not even try to pronounce things the same way.

Good book, frustrating reader.

Great series, with multiple excellent volumes available on Audible. My only complaint is with the reader of this specific book. You would think the reader would take the time to make sure he is properly pronouncing the character names and places, or at least make sure he is using the same pronunciation as the multiple preceding readers. This was very distracting made it difficult to track which characters and places the reader was talking about after getting used to the the multiple previous volumes.

narrator is terrible

the narrator sounds like he is trying to woe a sock popet named Motilda.

Satisfied

What did you love best about Midst Toil and Tribulation?

The book captured my attention well and brought out the full range of emotion that great books do.

Although a few minor errors may exist, it definitely flowed felt better edited than some of the books in the middle of this series. Weber's trademark detail didn't feel overly drawn out and this book lacked some of the noticeably excessive repetition some of the previous books in the series had.

What does Kevin T. Collins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I found the narrator is a little too intense at the start of the book and to be honest, I disliked him to begin with. However, as the story developed and I became more accustomed to the "alternative" pronunciation of certain names and places, I grew to like him and his emotional intensity more and more.

In the end however, the variation between characters voices isn't quite as wide or distinctive as I might expect from some reading Weber and he fails to present unique accents between realms as clearly as some of the previous narrators.

** If the audiobook publisher should by some chance read through these reviews, I'll leave a few recommendations **

- Please stop changing the narrator and stick with the Kevin T. Collins. The narrator heavily influences how characters come across and when they speak with different voices in every book it creates a disconnected sense of frustration in listeners.

- Please establish a guide for pronunciation and accents and stick with it. There's no reason to change the sound of names and places halfway through the series like this.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The book is far too long to listen to in one sitting however it doesn't feel overly long and I felt myself wishing there were more to it as I whittled down the time remaining.

Any additional comments?

With the possible exception of the first book, this is by far my favorite of the series so far and I am eagerly looking forward to the the development of both characters and the story in the next few books.

Classic late Weber

If you have been following the series and Weber's writing in general, this is more of the excellent work. Weber's early work, even before the Harrington series, was much more action oriented. As he has aged, matured(?), he has moved deeper into the motivations and psychology of his characters rather than focus on plot. He is much more interested in exploring basic conflicts within the human experience. This installment of the Safehold Series is no different. Ignore the criticisms about the reader. Kevin Collins did a great job and improved as the story evolved. The civil war is mired down in Siddermark as the the sides evolve quickly from 16th century to early 19th century technology. The war, like many wars, drives technological advancement. Weber relishes the history of weapons development and uses that history throughout this work. I thought I would be bored, and I was not. In typical Weberian fashion, I am now waiting for the next installment. Charles Dickens has nothing on David Weber.

Poor choice of voice actor to change mid series.

No attempt to even try and pronounce main characters names, geographic locations, or simple every day normalcies in the vivid realm created by the author. A fail on every level.