Emperor and Clown

A Man of His Word, Book 4

By: Dave Duncan

Narrated by: Mil Nicholson

The loyal stableboy Rap had fought through hell and high water to rescue Inos, his queen. But once he did, he found that she had already married the accursed Sultan Azak, who had despoiled her beauty. As Inos follows her destiny, and Azak his, Rap awaits his fate at the hands of torturers....

©1991 D.J. Duncan (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

GREAT SERIES!

Even though it was clearly written for young adults, this series is one of my all time favorites! I'm SO glad it was recorded for Audible, and the narrator is perfect.

A Fabulously Written Saga

This saga is my first introduction to Dave Duncan's writing and Mil Nicholson' narration skills and I've found both to be surprise and a very pleasurable listening experience. My pleasure with this set of novels is only measured slightly more than my excitement of finding another author who has a masters level in writing skills AND has many other novels that I am looking forward to exploring.

** SPOILER ALERT **
Note: My only unfavorable comment is that of how long he stretched out the whole unrequited love aspect of the story. Yes, I know it ends up being a central theme but it still seemed a bit tiresome at the end. Even so, it is only a very small complaint and nothing so significant as to dissuade any potential reader from enjoying all the many other wonderful aspects of this novel.

PS: Duncan has an uncanny way of writing sentences in such a way that one often doesn't catch the mirth hidden in the metaphors and similes until they are midway into the following sentence. So entertaining that I'd find myself chuckling to myself, much to the bewilderment of people next to me.

this was the best in the series!

started off slow in the series but now I want more!. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Good story, distractingly bad voice acting

I love this quartet, and I’m an avid user of audible and audiobooks in general. However, this is my first time ever listening to such an awful voice performance. To start off, you can tell that mil totally phoned this one in. I found myself increasingly distracted but the constant smacking and sucking of her gums, her awful droning of the lines, and the offbeat voices she gave to our heroes. I have read this story several times and wanted to hear it through a different venue. When you read books, especially ones you are fond of, it’s good to sometimes get different perspectives, to really understand what you read and how you interpret the story and the authors vision. Truthfully I just couldn’t get past her constant smacking to wet her palette. Too distracting. Extremely disappointed. A real shame.