The War with the Mein

Book One of the Acacia Trilogy

By: David Anthony Durham

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 29 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Leodan Akaran, ruler of the Known World, has inherited generations of apparent peace and prosperity, won ages ago by his ancestors. A widower of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, named after the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human lives on which their prosperity depends.

Leodan hopes that he might change this, but powerful forces stand in his way. A deadly assassin sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia while the Mein also unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed, Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to his separate destiny. And so his children begin a quest to avenge their father's death and restore the Acacian empire, this time on the basis of universal freedom.

Acacia is a thrilling work of literary imagination that creates an all-enveloping and mythic world that will carry readers away. It is a timeless tale of heroism and betrayal, of treachery and revenge, of primal wrongs and ultimate redemption. David Durham has reimagined the epic narrative for our time.

©2007 David Anthony Durham (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Enthralling, literate and increasingly suspenseful." (Kirkus)
"Sprawling and vividly imagined....Durham has created a richly detailed alternate reality leavened with a dollop of magic." (Publishers Weekly)

Gave up after two tries

Based on previous reviews, I was looking forward to listening to this book. I first tried listening to it almost 2 years ago, and only got through the first 1-1/2 hours. Recently I decided to give it another go, and made it through three hours, when I realized that

I. JUST. DIDN'T. CARE.

This book just didn't draw me in. Maybe there's more character development further on, but I'll never know. Each chapter just jumped around to a different main character, never building any one of them up enough to keep my interest.

I've been an Audible customer for over two years, and have listened to nearly 100 audiobooks. Of all of these, this is only the third I've given up on.

Waste of time

Listening to this book all the way through was a monumental waste of my time. It had just enough promise to lure me into continuing to listen. I found certain elements of the book horribly contrived. Whole sections of the book could have been edited out with no effect on the story. The end of the book made the struggles of the characters totally futile. A hurried wrap up, tying loose ends into messy knots.

This was...BOOOOOORIIIIIING. Ohh my goodness.

Okay nothing against the writer as I am sure some found this a gripping read, but for someone spoiled by authors ranging from Tolkien, RR Martin, Salvatore, Grisham and many other, this book just did nothing for me, and the narrator couldn't be more boring if he tried. several hours in and it seemed so pointless and uninteresting I stopped and came back to audible to read through the reviews that encouraged me to get this book to be sure I had not looked at the wrong thing. I endured "the magicians" despite its childlike story because the narration was at least a bit engaged, but this was plainly (if not painfully) prosaic. The character development was slow and clumsy, and the story was just...slow.

If someone figures out what the point of this story, and its character are please post it here. I for one know I wont be.

Better than your typical sleeping pill.

I really, really wanted to read this. I first picked it up in Powells as a paper back, but could not get past the first 100 pages. So I thought I'd try listening to it while I did some work around the house but I couldn't! It's just too boring! Nothing seems to happen and when things do happen, it's still boring. If you think this is going to be a thrilling book full of political intrigue and fantastic battle scenes, you're dead wrong.

A good book ruined by the reader

Would you try another book from David Anthony Durham and/or Dick Hill?

I would get another David Durham book as long as Dick Hill doesn't narrate it. I got it because Brandon Sanderson said he was reading it and enjoyed it. Maybe I'll retry this book in paper form.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Dick Hill?

Michael Kramer is an excellent narrator and would have been a much better choice. He does Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson books with Kate Reading. They both do a great job.

Any additional comments?

I had a very hard time following the book because I got distracted and irritated by the narrator chopping up the sentences for no reason. He loves pausing before the last word in the sentence like he's searching for just the right... word. He does it much too... often. It was very frustrating and... distracting. Just read the darn sentence, it's not poetry and it's not... Shakespeare. I read a lot of reviews and there were a lot of positive comments about the reader, I guess the reviewers haven't listened to too many audio books before. I've been purchasing Audible books for about 9 or 10 years now and Dick Hill is one of my absolute least favorite narrators, along with John Lee. They both add unwanted pauses to sentences, making it very unnatural and hard to follow.

Don't waste your time with this series

Because this kept coming up as a recommendation, I finally caved in and gave it a listen. while the author seems to be a very capable story teller, there is nothing compelling about this story. There are too many characters receiving equal billing throughout this book. The result is that the reader never becomes invested in any one. In the end, I just didn't care what happened to any of them. Marginally more time was spent on the Corine character (not sure about the spelling)than the others, but she is an incredibly unlikeable character. Do yourself a favor and don't bother with this one. I would recommend Jim Butcher's Fury series (especially book 2 through 4).

Good, but definitely not Great!

I love long fantasy stories, and was excited about starting a new journey. The beginning of the story took a very, very long time to develop, and it could have been condensed down into a much much smaller package for the same effect. Some of the parts of the story were great, but they were few and far between. You can tell the author wanted to give each character depth and blur the line between who was good and who was evil. So much so, that it was very predictable. I guessed the rest of the book as I knew that every character was going to make the opposite decision that you would expect them to make.

Some of the directions that the author decided to take with some of the characters were appaling, and have made me seriously thinking about continuing with the series. The bottom line is his style of writing is not my cup of tea, but he is a good author and had flashes of brilliance.

Bad Dramatizations

When I first started listing to the book I thought I had downloaded a dramatize version. But no, the narator was just trying thier best to make up for poor reading ablity. Two hours and I still can not stand listing to the man!

Example: He lived(reader pronouces the word with a long I) here many years ago. That and many other things mske listing to this book unbearable.
I gave it 2 stars instead of none becase the story may be good.....

Worst Narrator Ever

The narrator made what could have been a decent book impossible to listen to. So unnecessarily dramatic that I deleted the book after 3 hours. Do not waste a credit on this book.

Second credit wasted on Dick Hill

What would have made The War with the Mein better?

A different narrator

Would you be willing to try another book from David Anthony Durham? Why or why not?

Yes, as long as its a different narrator

How could the performance have been better?

Some people may like Dick Hill, but there's something about him that makes him difficult to listen to.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The narration ruins everything. I tried to listen up to almost half the book, but I just cant do it.