I read Legacy of Heorot when it first came out and I loved it! Through the years it has become my absolute favorite novel. I think I’ve read it six ..Show More »times at least. I’ve bought numerous copies to give as gifts, and recommended it to many of my friends. In fact, I’ve always hoped it would become a trilogy of movies – it’s laid out perfectly for that.
When Beowulf’s Children came out, I jumped on it immediately, but it was a huge let-down. No spoilers, but I hated the way the characters that I had come to know and love were treated, and one basic premise simply sucked.
This book really needed a team of narrators to do it justice and Tom Weiner was just not up to the job. Nothing against him, I’ve loved what he did with other Larry Niven books, but he simply didn’t have enough different voices to do the job on this ensemble cast of characters. His version of Carlos, one of my favorite characters, went all over the map, and he went from sounding like an Australian trying to fake a Spanish accent, to a whining inner-city Yankee reading a bus schedule.
The story is still excellent and worth your time, but I would encourage you to actually read rather than deal with this narration. It’s really no surprise to me that there have been so many bad reviews of this great book. The narration simply ruins the story.


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