The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy

I've added this work to my list of things that make me go...Hmmmm??? Right now I can't say I "liked" this book, but I can say, and I am 'thrilled' that I have been introduced to the complex, brilliant, multifaceted mind of Avram Davidson. I am thankful I didn't miss his work/worlds. Experiencing this work would have been utterly unattainable for me without Robert Blumenfeld's dazzling assistance in bringing such vivid life to Davidson's complex "voice" requisite to enter this satirical, humorous, absurdist, real-ish world. Perhaps these "stories" can only be first understood after revisiting and re-inhabiting them a few times. I imagine this work will be especially relevant and more humorous to readers hailing from the British Empire and European cast and title systems. I intend to explore Davidson's more Sci-Fi, other-worldly and hopefully actual storyline oriented books which I imagine will be deeply challenging and thought provoking. Put Blumenfeld on your top narrator list and start somewhere with Avram Davidson.

Huge eructations, incognito rulers, superannuated hausfraus...I laughed all the way through this. I see now why so many people who are familiar with Avram Davidson's work are so keen to promote it and save it from oblivion. I wish there was more stuff like this around.

The narrator is truly excellent.

This was my first Audible download, but it took me over almost two months to finish, in part because the tenor of the stories was all very similiar and the narrator spoke so quickly that the unfamiliar names were difficult to pay attention to, and as the book is filled with unfamiliar sounding names that made the book hard to pay attention to.

I'm not sure if the stories were as strange as they seemed because I missed key parts or if there really were leaps of narriative glossed over in the writing.

Dr. E. Eszterhazy is a very Sherlock Holmes type character...extremely knowledgable (he holds multiple doctorates) and often called upon to explain the unexplainable.

Unlike Holmes, Dr. E. lives in the Triple Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania and often encounters *real* magic (rather than the trickery that Holmes encountered). Also, there is a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor written into these stories. The humor is smart and subtle...not many laugh out loud moments, but a fair number of chuckles.

This is a collection of short stories---and you might want to take them one at a time. In a continuous run, they begin to blur together.

I found Robert Blumenfeld's narration (or perhaps it was Avram Davidson's writing) somewhat soporific. I'm not sure why...it's not like he droned or was boring.

To describe the "plots" would be impossible. But Neil Gaiman in the preface refers to the interview process for a reader, and I can only rave at the excellent choice. He can Read!
He can pronounce words correctly! Even foreign words! He can do intonations, semi-accents, and characterization. I am falling down in delight. And for this writing that is all absolutely necessary. Because Avram Davidson was a brilliant man, with an education seldom seen these days, and a very wry sense of humor/the ridiculous.

May be more appropriate for high school or college literary-minded listeners who enjoy word play. I was looking for a good story.

It was very hard to get into and pay attention to this story. I'm 37 minutes into the story and still don't have a clear idea what it's about. Something about a king of two countries. I've already re-started it a couple of times to understand what's going on, to no avail. Too many silly references and made-up words from the beginning. I just checked the version on my iPhone to make sure I had started with Part 1 instead of Part 2 or 3. Bummer. It was Part 1.

The narrator seemed okay, given the material. It's hard to separate the fast-paced narration from the fast-paced story.

It was cheerful enough and seemed to have a good-natured attitude.

Too many characters and not enough of the main character. Silly at times. I expected more from a novel endorsed by Neil Gaiman—who I really enjoy reading and listening to. My suggestion is to find an old copy from your used book store and read it in small chunks.

This is such a complicated story to listen to, there are so many created words, that it is extremely difficult to follow what is happening, and the narrator speaks so fast that I needed to slow it down to try and follow what was happening.

I'm sure I'd like it if I could read the book, but having a lot of trouble getting a copy!

I have read &/or listened to more that 5000 books over the last 40 years. In all that time and with all those opportunities I have not finished only one title - until this book. For only the 2nd time in 40 years I did not finish a book that I had started. Believe me when I declare that I have had the urge to quit several other times, but managed to perservere. However, I just could not justify wasting any more time on a volume that provided no enjoyment or satisfaction. Actually, I did get some satisfaction by stopping the audio player. The producer's hype was terrific. The presenter did a very good job. The subject matter was geared to an intelligent 12 year old and left me cold. I wasted a credit and wish that there was some way to return it to Audible like an inedible meal at a restaurant.

I was not going to give this one star, but audible forced me to give it one, before I could write a review.

Gaimen says in the introduction, that AD is smarter then most people. I believe he is pretty smart to write such drivel and have someone print it and people bought it.

Here is one of the big puns (there are no jokes) of the book. So and so wants to meet you incognito. Answer, Why would he want to meet me incognito, when he has never meet me cognito. TA Da.

I get tired of pretentious people saying pretentious things and we are suppose to feel stupid if we don't think they are funny. How many times have you been at a comedy club and the comedian gets on to the crowd for not laughing. Trying to say we are stupid because we don't laugh at his jokes. Dude, we get the joke, and your not funny.

This book is filled with lots of big made up words, kind of like you and your friends did in first grade.

The narrator is actually great and I hope to hear him read some good books