Download Audiobooks with Audible.com

38 customer reviews

Review this product

Write a customer review

Showing 1-8 of 38 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Stephen Jacob

Exciting story, rich, subtle, engaging characters, amazing audiobook production!

July 12, 2015

Format: Audible AudiobookVerified Purchase

I listened to the audio version of Hunters Unlucky.

It took me a bit longer to fully get engrossed in Hunters Unlucky than it took me to get engrossed in the author's Cowry Catchers series of books -- the first section or two did a lot of world building, character establishment and scene setting. I think the rest of the book benefitted greatly from those establishing sections, though, because this is a rich and subtle story with characters that will intrigue and enchant you and do so all the more because of what you learned earlier in the book.

Once it really gets going, it is exciting, action-packaged, joyful and heartbreaking. It is, in a word, what keeps me reading or listening to everything Abigail Hilton publishes. Her characters will make you care about what happens to them, regardless of which side they seem to be on, and allegiances forged during the course of the story may well surprise you.

This is YA in that it is not unsuitable for a young adult audience, albeit a smart and story-hungry one, but it is equally worthy of adult readers' time.

One last comment on the audio: While Ms. Hilton is an excellent reader in her own right, Rish Outfield's reading of 40+ characters, giving every one of them a recognizable voice, is quite amazing for a solo reader. She chose very well in having Mr. Outfield perform this wonderful story. You've probably heard audiobooks where the reader's amateurish voices pull you out of the story. This is nothing like that! You head the characters speak to you. Masterfully achieved with deceptive ease.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

C. W. Lester

You're going to think you've seen this story before. You're wrong.

October 9, 2015

Format: Audible AudiobookVerified Purchase

HUNTERS UNLUCKY is a hard book to pigeonhole. You've heard a lot of stories that are a little bit like this one -- enough to see the similarities and point at them -- but very few books try to accomplish everything that this one does. Even fewer succeed so marvelously, on so many levels.

First of all, this is a talking animal story. You've seen that before -- The Jungle Book, Watership Down, and Redwall, to name a few. But most of Hilton's animals have interesting twists that make them different from anything you've read about, either in the real-world or in more standard fantasy fare. The most prominent species in HUNTERS UNLUCKY, the ferryshaft, occupy an interesting ecological niche: they're omnivorous, capable of subsisting equally well on meat and foliage. While they are prey to some other creatures in their world, they are capable of being fierce and brave in their own right. As one of their would-be hunters remarks at a key point in the story, "Ferryshaft are not deer." This moves them out of the Designated Victim category in the talking animal genre, so that their fate is much more in their own hands (err, hooves) than would typically be the case in a story like this.

Second, this is a Bildungsroman (a coming-of-age story). You've seen those more times than you can count: the hero who starts as a child and becomes an adult, finding his or her place in the world along the way. This may be the most conventional part of the story, as Storm makes the journey from persecuted youngster to proud, charismatic and dangerous adult. But here, too, Hilton surprises, not so much with Storm but with the characters around him: former villains become heroes, seemingly peripheral characters rise up to become leaders, seemingly-wise mentors reveal the ways they are foolish, and even Storm himself transitions from learner to an unlikely mentor and guardian.

Third, this is an epic story: the plot spans generations and affects the lives of thousands of beings, with grand alliances, betrayals, conspiracies, and the rise and fall of entire species. Of course you've seen that before: epics are all the rage in fantasy these days. But how many epics have you ever heard of that focused on beings with no hands, no swords, no armor, no buildings in the traditional sense (though some of them get clever on that front) -- beings whose motivations and drives boil down to "reproduce and try not to starve or get eaten"? Can you really tell a story of epic scope with creatures whose lives and needs are so simple? Oh, yes. Well, maybe YOU can't, but Hilton surely did. And the richness and depth of characterization that she brings to those "simple" beings puts most epic fantasies to shame.

It is my conviction that stories, ultimately, are about people, not events, and Hilton's characters are people in a deep and meaningful sense. They have layers, and flaws, and unexpected virtues, moments of great insight and great foolishness. As alien as their world is, they feel very real. Almost all of the characters are sympathetic and relatable, even when they are at odds with one another. Some of the characters who seemed terrible and threatening at the beginning of the story ended up becoming some of my favorites by the end. Seemingly messianic figures are revealed to have deep and significant flaws. Hilton repeatedly challenges your sense of who the good guys and the bad guys are, and even when you find a character's actions horrible, there is usually some understandable, even sympathetic reason for them. (The one notable exception is something I can't talk about here, for fear of spoilers -- but it, too, is compelling, in a horrific, alien way that actually makes sense within the setting of the story.)

One reason I particularly enjoyed this book is that it not only reached for an epic scope, it actually achieved a satisfying ending. This is something that many writers struggle with, particularly when attempting something this grand. Hilton herself, for all her virtues as a writer, has had difficulty tying things up in a satisfactory way in her previous work. Not so here. The lives of the characters go on -- most of them, anyway -- but by the end of the Epilogue, you have a very fulfilling sense of having reached the end of a complete and magnificent tale.

Finally, I must give my enthusiastic recommendation for the audiobook version of HUNTERS UNLUCKY. The narrator, Rish Outfield, is exceptionally skilled: not only does he affect different accents for each species, but there are even sub-types of each accent for high-class and low-class members of those species -- and somehow he STILL manages to give each character his or her own unique voice, full of emotion and dynamic range. That is a LOT to think about for a single book, especially one with this many characters, but Outfield handles it all magnificently. This is a story that was made to be listened to, and with this narrator, the result is a pure delight.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Zonnet

Quite interesting!

May 9, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I almost didn't buy this book because of the few reviews, but I am glad I did. Very unusual world. An island of predator species, not just mammals and birds and reptiles but also carnivorous plants - and more, which I won't give away. Not for squeamish readers, but there is an engaging hero and lots of other characters who also attract the reader's sympathies. I would not recommend it to very young readers despite its young protagonists because it has a 'Nature red in tooth and claw' matter-of-factness that I myself found upsetting.
I gave it 5 stars because the story ends in a satisfactory way and doesn't require a sequel, though the author mentioned she was writing more stories about these characters. A good "round" tale is unusual in itself these days. I want to support authors like Abigail Hilton, whose work is so original and complete.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

tati13

If fantasy is your thing, this is really, really good

May 10, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I love fantasy, but I'm fairly choosy. Which means I usually read and reread the same books because most of it is pulpy schlock. However, Abigail Hilton is one of the lesser known authors who do it really, really well. I fell in love with her audiobooks/podcasts of two other series she wrote, Guild of the Cowrie Catchers and The Prophet of Panimindorah. Although I love relistening to them, I was hankering for something new and thought I would try this book. This is the first one of her books I've read rather than listened too--and it did not disappoint. The storytelling is great, the characters complex---it reminds me of the best of Ursula LeGuin, both in terms of style and quality.

Genre fiction is particular--you have to like the genre to like the story. So if you cannot read a story filled with talking animals in a made up world, this is not for you. But if this is your kind of thing, you will love it!

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

38 customer reviews

Review this product

Read reviews that mention

Showing 1-8 of 38 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.