The Shadow of Saganami

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

Length: 30 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

The Star Kingdom has a new generation of officers! And this elite group hand-picked and trained by Honor Harrington herself is going to be needed immediately, as their first assignment turns out to be more dangerous than anyone expected.

What was supposed to be a quiet outpost, far from the blazing conflict between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven has actually been targeted by an unholy alliance between the slaveholders of Manpower, the rival star kingdoms of Mesa and Monica, and the bureaucrats of the Solarian League.

The alliance stands to benefit if the Havenites defeat Manticore, and are preparing for a surprise attack from the rear to divide Manticore's forces, which are already strained nearly to their limits. With their captain, the young Manticoran officers will risk their careers, if not their lives, on an unauthorized mission to expose and counter the threat to their Star Kingdom. Follow their journey as they show what they're made of.

New York Times best-selling author David Weber begins a new series that will be a must-buy for the hundreds of thousands of Honor Harrington fans.

©2005 David Weber (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Narrator too grating

Would you try another book from David Weber and/or Jay Snyder?

Yes/No I love listening to David Webber's books, but not so much Jay Snyder.

What did you like best about this story?

Takes place in the Honor Harrington story time line.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator shouldn't have tried to do female voices, even his the male voices irritated me.

Any additional comments?

You need to listen to a sample this book before you buy. Jay Snyder has that deep announcer voice. I keep thinking he's trying to sell me a used car. I kept waiting for him to say "In a world filled with bla bla bla......". He over annunciates and over acts the roles. I thought I could trudge through it until he started to do female voices. Ugh. I rather hear nails on a chalkboard. He doesn't have the range to try to do different voices. If he stuck to his own voice and didn't try to differentiate the characters I might have gotten over it. As it is, I tried my best to stick with the story hoping I could overcome the narrator. I got through an hour, but I just couldn't do anymore. It's a shame because it sounded as if it was a good story and would compliment the Harrington series. There were other audio books were the narrator would get on my nerves, usually you get used to it, especially if the storyline is good enough. This is the first book that I had to actually stop listening to because of the narrator. I just couldn't pay attention to the storyline with his voice grating me.

Horrible narrator

David Weber has many female characters in his books, but Jay Snyder makes them all sound like Monty Python characters.

Narration Ruins Otherwise Delightful Tale

I have found the narration quality of the other books in the Honor and Honorverse series to be delightful, and I am both grateful for and impressed by the care and consistency that usually goes into Weber's audiobooks, particularly given how long the series has been running. However, as many other reviewers have commented, the narration style and execution of this particular book falls far below that usual high standard. Ultimately, this resulted in a performance which was actually too distracting to read, despite the enchanting characters and stirring return to front-lines naval combat that this spinoff series represents.

I will be returning this Audible book and reading this entry into the Honorverse saga on Kindle instead, though I cannot wait to jump back into the series with Allyson Johnson's narration of At All Costs.

good story typical for Weber

I cringe every time the narrator try to do a female's voice though. 2 words

This narrator is not awesome

What made the experience of listening to The Shadow of Saganami the most enjoyable?

The book itself seems action packed.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jay Snyder’s performances?

.... Not if I had a choice. His female voice is always yelling. His male voices are always overly husky and over dramatic.
"Took another longer sip of beerhhhh."
"Send them packinghhhhh"
"Is exactly what I came looking forrrrrhhhh"
Its ruining my enjoyment of this book and series.

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

no

Really good story line. Some minor flaws.

If you could sum up The Shadow of Saganami in three words, what would they be?

Story line is same as other authors but still a good listen. I question the reason for making the Masons ( Masonic body ) part of the bad guys. Can't help but wonder if he "David Weber " is anti mason minded? I hope not but will watch his future novels to see if this point continues.

What other book might you compare The Shadow of Saganami to and why?

Several Space Military books all run about the same story line. Several use x and xx rated sections which detracts from the story line.

Have you listened to any of Jay Snyder’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

He's really good and gives a better than average performance here.

Any additional comments?

This one is easy to follow and does not jump around to much.

terrible reader

female voices are horrific, like nails on a chalkboard. don't read for female centric books!

Good book But Jay can't Sing

David ...I can say I've never been disappointed with the Honor books. if you get the chance Get them all. Worth the credits

Jay... What to say about Jay...NEVER, NEVER, EVER try and do female voices again. This book would have been so much more enjoyable if a woman would have done the female parts. I almost gave up on it after about 10 min. Because of them. I finely was able to plow on by putting the speed up to 1.5. You do kinda get used to them (Ok... truth is your ears kind go numb) after the first part. Male voices where done well and I didn't catch to many wrong words. Listen to the sample (wish i would have) if you can't stand the narrators female voices Get the paperback.

Absolutely brilliant.

Yet another absolutely amazing space opera from David Weber. Thank goodness the next book in the series is already written.

Narration too much a departure

The narration was so misaligned from other Weber audiobooks, that I would not purchase in audiobook format, but would instead read in print or Kindel.

Obviously Jay Snyder is a highly trained professional voice, but his unexpected shift to a British accent for everyone in the Star Kingdom of Manticore, including Honor, threw me. I'd enjoyed Weber's style in the prolog, and tried to deal with the too slick accent. The Admiral Harrington rendition in the first chapter reminded me of a Saturday Night Live spoof of Margaret Thatcher! It was too much, I had to forgo the listen after just 20 minutes. I could not enjoy hearing 30 hours of out of character renditions.

While I heard all of Allyson Johnson's reads, I've listened to others read Weber's books. It's not that my listening is inflexible, or that I'm an Anglophobe. It's that the performance is so mismatched, and overplayed that it ruined my enjoyment of the story.

I wish I could preview narration, but I've not made that feature work on my IPAD.