Phoenix Rising

A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

By: Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Evil is most assuredly afoot - and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade... and a librarian.

These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences - the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling - will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest... and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray.

For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun - he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices - must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot... or see England fall to the Phoenix!

©2011 Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Pretty good fun

What did you like best about this story?

This story was original.

Any additional comments?

This was an overall nice read. But I am still not sure why we needed the orgy episode?

It needs more story and less sexual reference

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. It is more a book about sex than a book of science fiction. There is a good story in there it just gets lost in sex and debauchery.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Thereby Hangs a Tail

What about James Langton’s performance did you like?

James Langton's performance is excellent.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Probably not

Too silly

What did you like about this audiobook?

No, for me there was nothing I could find to enjoy. Might work for a younger reader.

How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

No

Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he achieve this?

Maybe

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

Not for me

Do you have any additional comments?

No

Narration

What would have made Phoenix Rising better?

Listen to the Narration before you purchase this book. The story might have been good but I could not get over how poor the narration was.

couldn't finish it

The story showed some promise at first, but by about halfway through started sounding more like a steampunk fifty shades of grey.
Gives me the overall impression that the author is a sad, lonely and mostly naive person

it's probably a great book but

the guy's voice was going to put me to sleep in a couple minutes of listening to it he's so deadpan it's hard to listen to

Interesting Concept but Poor Story.

Story had promise but failed to deliver. It is disjointed and, to me, has gaps in the story line that are never filled.

Awful

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Nothing - this is just plain bad writing - cardboard characters, plot slow to develop, etc. Independent of the genre, bad writing is never appealing.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator wasn't terrible but has one MAJOR flaw - he absolutely cannot do a New Zealand or Australian accent. When the heroine is from New Zealand, this becomes a major detraction in listening to the book. One of the other characters is Australian and James Langton makes both the New Zealand and the Australian accent sound like some weird low-class London accent. Really Irritating!

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom.

Any additional comments?

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It is badly written.

Not as good as hoped

Had potential, but squandered it on stereotypes and formulaic inclusions. Eliza is the prototypical free thinking female agent who is more at home with guns and dynamite than logic and reports. The number of times the character (and the author) references the curve of her ample breasts, in addition, tells you all the character will ever be. Wellington is the prototypical librarian who is more at home with protocols and reports and research than he is with guns and dynamite. You can tell they are supposed to eventually fall in love but wonder in what world that could ever happen. Since this is supposed to be a steampunk story there are the obligatory inclusions of amazing gadgets that make otherwise impossible surveillance and destruction possible, but they seem kind of thrown in to satisfy the genre rather than organically introduced.

All that would have been okay if the story hadn't taken a sharp turn south with an R-rated description of an orgy and a partial S and M rape scene that came out of nowhere and did nothing to advance the plot or character development. The sole purpose appeared to titillate and show how deserving of a violent come-uppance the bad guys were. Too, some graphic descriptions of death scenes seemed to serve no purpose at all, especially of Lady Devane, except to be graphic.

The narrator was passable, his accents being okay and discernible, except that Eliza's New Zealand accent was almost indistinguishable from a common British accent. He tended to read the narrative parts liked a BBC reporter, ending each sentence, regardless of context, with the same rhythm and intonation. This got rather irritating after 15 chapters (only 17 more to go).

Not sure if I will listen to any more. Really didn't like Eliza's rather randomly and intentionally shocking (to Wellington) promiscuous innuendos and the orgy and rape scene pretty much ruined it for me (all in the name of Queen and Country, no less). If the other books on the series continue in the same vein, I'm not interested.

Yuck...Soo predictable couldn't finish.

First of all, I don't care for male readers.I can overlook a poor reader if the story is exciting. This story was not. I listened to the book for four hours. After that, I simply could not continued. The characters the stereotypical hot tough girl and nerdy guy. An unlikely pair who get thrown together etc...blah blah blah.
It felt like I was listening to a Scooby Doo mystery.