Seer of Sevenwaters

Sevenwaters, Book 5

By: Juliet Marillier

Narrated by: Terry Donnelly

Length: 21 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Prior to making her final pledge as a druid, the young seer Sibeal visits the island of Inis Eala, where the Sight leads her to Felix, a survivor of a Norse shipwreck who has no memory of his past. As the island's healers struggle to keep Felix alive, he and Sibeal form a natural bond. But Sibeal's vocation is her true calling, and she must choose between the two things that tug at her soul - her spirituality and a chance at love....

©2010 Juliet Marillier (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Not my favorite, but still pretty good

I agree with some of the other reviewers that the story spends a tremendous amount of time building up to a momentous voyage for relatively little payoff. By the time that the voyage is finally underway, the book is nearly finished, and it seems that things are wrapped up rather quickly in comparison to the many months that preceded. After the triumph of the previous installment in the series, this one was a bit of a disappointment for me.

Kudos to the narrator for distinguishing between Irish and Norse accents, but I admit that it started to grate on me a bit. I can't precisely pinpoint what annoyed me so much about it, but I think it has more to do with the harsh, nasally tone to Felix's Norse accent verses the clear, smooth tone of Sibeal's. I got to where I really didn't want the narration to switch to Felix's P.O.V... I won't be re-listening to the audible version of this book, but rather re-reading the physical book on my shelf should I desire to do so. Overall, though, the story is still a solid addition to the series, so I can't give it a poor rating just because I'm picky about how things sound to my ear.

Almost as Good as the First Book..Spoiler Alert

You can see her formula but there are a lot of unexpected elements. I really liked the focus on magic in this one. It would have been 5 stars but the ending felt abrupt and kind of rushed.

I believe there are two narrators and the male is pretty good but the female not so much. A lot of names and places are mispronounced. Over all it is is a very good installment.

Another Winner!

Loved it as much as the previous Sevenwaters Series books. Highly recommend to Irish-tale lovers!!

good...but too much left out

again i keep wanting more. too many things keep being left out of the story. each book in this series keeps me coming back to this same theme. i love the story line, but am always dissatisfied with the endings. each book should be a continuation of the last, and they are not. they are each a new beginning with little to no bearing on the book before, except that the books are about the 'family' line in one way or another.

what started out as a wonderfully addicting story, becomes, with each new book, an unsatisfying meal with no clean segway from one course to the next. granted, you get a superb first and second course, but then, before you're ready, comes the next course without a palette cleanser.

each book seems to stop before fully completing the story. and when the next book comes along, you can't wait to start listening because you want more of the story that left you feeling incomplete. what you get is another story with little more than a few inferences to the story you want. it's like having a waiter take your plate before your meal is complete, and you're still hungry for what you've been eating!

this book is probably the worst as far as stopping too soon. if i go on the assumption that this book will be the same as the others, i can not feel the same anticipation and eagerness to listen to the sixth book in the series... i almost dread to find that once again, there is no continuation of the characters i just listened to, and their story is not finished! sooo frustrating!!!

Juliet Marillier is a wonderful author and tells what would otherwise be a wonderful series, if each book gave a satisfying end to the story of the characters you learn to love. each book feels almost like stand alone books, as no set of characters plays important enough parts in book that follows.

i don't want to put in any spoilers, so that makes it challenging for me to detail the problems i'm having with this series. but i must say that this ending is the most incomplete of all. there is so much more to be written about Sibeal and Felix and the vision concerning their life together, yet i'm afraid we will only learn bits and pieces of this in the next book, instead of a complete telling of this story.

i do want to add that the narrator does a very good job, and i enjoy her voice. although there were times when i was hard pressed to know just which male character was talking at times.

Ending had me in tears

I loved this story, as I have all the others. I almost didn't get it after reading the performance reviews, but I thought the narrator did an excellent job of telling the tale. I appreciated the softness of the voice and the inflection when needed. I don't understand why others had a hard time with her.
The ending literally had me in tears of joy. I appreciate the happy endings Juliet provides. It's always uplifting to finish a book on a good note!

the best

my favorite in the series so far! great story, great characters, happy reader. can't wait for the next book

Narration disappointing.

I agree with the other reviewer. This narration is bad. Characters seem whiny and annoying and weak. It was difficult to listen to their weird accents as well. The narrator of the other books is far superior. Such a shame.

A disappointed listener

This 5th book of the Sevenwaters series was a great disappointment. I'm accustomed to how this author seems to take forever to get a story started but this book took forever to get to the action then forever to draw to a conclusion. BORING!

The narrator Terry Donnelly was terrible. Her voice variations, especially for male characters and creature were grating, annoying or laughable (when they weren't meant to be funny). The intensity of her delivery made the characters sound overwrought, hysterical or whiny all the time without fitting the situation. I continually found myself thinking Ho hum...more histrionics...get over it. I'm sure a more suitable reader would have made this book enjoyable.

The only reason I hung in there with this book for more than 21 hours was because I was already 4 books into the series. Would i recommend it to a friend as a stand alone book? No. Not unless I didn't like the person much! If you are as far along in the series as I am and want to see the story through to the end, I wish you luck!

Never disappointed

There's always such a great reader, such a great adventure with just the right kind of plot twist and happiness!

Love the series, but has problems

I have mixed feelings about this author and series and especially this installment. On the one hand, Juliet Marillier has created a world and characters that we've come to love. While there are certain predictible formulaic aspects to the stories, she does not write cookie cutter stories. She often takes chances with her plots and characters. They aren't always the typical hero/heroine.

She also takes her time in her writing. Really takes her time. Which is not always good. This book could have been trimmed at least 20% and lost nothing. She has a tendancy to go on and on and repeat things until I start to lose patience with her. This is a long book, which I normally love and I don't feel like I'm a person who needs non-stop action, but for half the book almost nothing happens. We're mostly waiting for the male character to get well. At one point, she spends at least 15 minutes telling the story of Son of the Shadows over again. Perhaps it's because I've been listening to this series in succession, but it annoyed me for her to spend so much time repeating a story we already know.

The story itself has few surprises. It's pretty easy to guess where the story is going. This is also a weakness of this author that her plots are often pretty transparant.

The narration of this didn't help. Felix, the main male character sounds too whiney. Everything is too dramatic and drawn out, which does not help this story which is already too drawn out. I found myself wondering if I would have liked the story better if it was read differently.

So with all those negatives, would I recommend the book. Yes, if you like this series. It's still a part of the 7 Waters story, which I quite like. When I think of this story as a whole, it's a decent installment, just not 17 hours worth of story. Make sure you have something else to do while listening to this one.

It brings me back to the overall love/hate problems I have with this author. I love her characters and worlds, but I wish she had an editor that forced her to tighten up the repetitiveness and drawn out drama in her writing.