Orca

Vlad Taltos, Book 7

By: Steven Brust

Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark, Angele Masters

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Granted, walking around with two jhereg on your shoulders is not the best disguise for an ex-assassin wanted all over the Empire. But a young boy saved his life and then needs help, Vlad Taltos pays his debt--even if it means uncovering a financial scandal big enough to bring down the House of the Orca and the entire Empire.

©1996 Steven Brust (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Engaging readers!

Excellent story, really stellar readers. Great cadence, emphasis, tonality! I really loved the accent for Kiera!

predicted the housing market crash all the way back in '93

"He didn't break the stick." Excellent change of pace while holding onto what makes these books classic.

great listen!

would recommend to anyone that lokes this series. great readers, helped my trip to and feom work

Unfortunate use of another reading talent

I’m a strong advocate for using female talent for female voices and male talent for male voices. It just makes sense, especially when the story is long enough to have multiple important characters. So I was elated to hear Angele’s voice play the part of Kyra/Cawti/Timmur.

How disappointing it was though, to hear the book use Angele’s voice for all the male parts and vice versa. I understand the characters (mostly Kyra and Vlad, of course) where relaying stories. However, when the stories take up entire chapters, it should be acceptable to just use the correct sex with the correct characters.

This isn’t just a passing conversation - it’s multiple chapters! Using a male voice actor to portray a female character when you have a female voice actor right there is dumb. I love the story, the characters, and the universe in which they live. But this is dumb.

From Property Market to Bank Fraud

Vlad continues his life on the run from the Jhereg, this time with a catatonic companion in tow.

In Orca, Vlad is searching for a way to heal his companion Savn, who the audience met in the previous installment. He happens upon an old healer who is the midst of losing her property. Vlad brokers a deal to help her keep her land, while she cares for Savn and finds a method to heal him. But there is more going on than just a property deal, as Vlad quickly finds out.

While still a good story, it feels like the overall plot has come to a bit of a stutter here, the reader could almost consider this filler. Almost. The most important part of Orca is that we get somewhat of a resolution for Savn's involvement in the story, which carries over from the last book. Full of twists and turns and even a few big surprises, the book doesn't disappoint, but you could easily skip over this without missing a beat in the overall story.

For Orca we get the pleasure of listening to two narrators. Masters gives us a great Keira the Thief, while Clark reprises the always smarmy Vlad. Masters gives a bit of a celtic accent to Keira, which Clark has done a bit of in previous novels; it's good to see a bit of vocal continuity, especially since most of the story is told by Keira the Thief.

Good story, but bigger and better things are to come later in the series.

Brust is so good!

one of my favorite Vlad stories! Love the dual narrator production as well. Both voice actors are among the very best.

A new narrator?

Another great book in the series ... though the storyline involves banking and finances. I'd prefer that Vlad would "get out of the forest" and get back to his street mystery solving.

I was nervous as a new narrator starts out this book. She does a great job, but I'd prefer to stay with Clark the entire book.

Good but weird

I liked in the end the two different narrators because of the nature of the story but it took a while for me to not hate it as Bernard is who I am use too.

Two great narrators for the price of one

As this book switches perspectives between two characters, the decision to split the performance between Mr. Clark and Mrs. Masters was great. With Bernard's well established Vlad laying the foundation, Mrs. Masters 'Keira the Thief' takes off.

Wonderful narration!!!

I found both narrators to be captivating and I tune with the characters they were portraying. I also enjoyed the creative Adventure and style of writing than Mr. Brust brings to the table. He is by far my favorite authors of all time.