South Face

By: C. F. Waller

Narrated by: Joe Formichella

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

2015 Readers Choice Award Winner in Paranomal Fiction

In 1989 Karl Blaine and his wife Fiona traveled to Nepal to climb Mt. Everest with their college friend Zachary. Only Zachary came back alive. Two decades later, in 2009, a French climbing expedition discovers Karl's frozen remains. Of the five man party who finds Karl, only the Sherpa guide makes it down alive. He brings with him a whooper of a ghost story no one can believe.

When a much older Zachary is notified of this discovery, it sets off a dangerous chain of events that puts Zachary and Karl and Fiona's son, Derrick, on a collision course. What did Karl have in his possession when he disappeared? What really happened in 89? Can what the Sherpa guide reported really be true? And one other question.... Is Fiona Blaine still entombed at the top of the world?

Disclaimer: This book contains dangerous airports, bribery, frozen corpses, trophy wives, gold diggers, ethnic stereotyping, and hotel staff behaving badly. Also workplace infidelity, drug abuse, bad coffee, and things that go bump in the night. Any resemblance to actual living persons is accidental, but if the shoe fits....

©2014 C. F. Waller (P)2017 C. F. Waller

Reviews are true. Horrible narration.

What did you like best about South Face? What did you like least?

I liked that the story was setup in Nepal, our neighboring country. I hoped I'd get to read about some local folklore etc. I liked the narration the least.

Would you be willing to try another one of Joe Formichella’s performances?

Nope. The way he narrated every character in the same monotone voice put me off massively. Even the female characters got the same treatment. The book being written in a first person perspective made the narration so much worse.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Probably. The storyline somewhat resembles that of Iron Fist, which I had liked, so yeah.

Any additional comments?

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

south face

great story, listening would have been better if the narrator even attempted different voices, it kind of threw me off and made the different character lines hard to follow especially the female character lines. definitely worth listening to though. longer review on goodreads.

thanks

What did you love best about South Face?

The Mount Everest part was fun to learn about. So much interesting mythology to explore.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

yes

Have you listened to any of Joe Formichella’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

gr8

Narration is a Deal Breaker

Any additional comments?

It's hard for me to give this book an accurate review. The first half of the story felt so unbelievably slow that I almost stopped listening. Once the story gets to the point where the people in present time are on Everest, the story picks up a lot. That said, perhaps the entire book is enthralling. The narration was so boring and passionless I really can't tell. The narrator didn't attempt to do difference voices for the characters so I often wasn't sure who was speaking. Basically, this story might be really quite good but I'll never know because the narration was truly awful. I hope Waller picks a different voice actor next time!

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Great story but excruciatingly boring narration.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The book is actually fairly well written and is full of interesting mythos and exciting adventure. The narrator was SO dull to listen to. It really just sounded like someone reading aloud. He had barely any inflection, all characters sounded the same because the narrator didn't appear to even attempt different voices. Had the story not been interesting, there is no way I would have finished this one. As it was, I almost didn't until the action began. I'd recommend sticking to print on this one.

A mixed review, unfortunately

Any additional comments?

Look, I actually really enjoyed this story. All of the main characters are well defined, have good back stories and contribute to the overall flow. The concept of encountering the supernatural on Mt Everest was a good one, and I didn't know where it would end.

The plot twisted and turned enough to keep me interested and it has a cool ending that I wasn't really expecting.

Thank goodness, though, that the narrator told you which character each chapter was about. As per other reviews, there was no audible way of determining who each character was via voice tone etc, so you definitely needed the context from the chapter title.

I haven't listened to/read a book written in multiple first person before and so, if you are not a fan of this, this book might frustrate you.

However, C F Waller does another good job with this book, albeit the narration let's it down.

I would like to thank the author and publisher for providing me this book via audiobook boom dotcom in exchange for an impartial review.

Everest fiction for paranormal fans

Any additional comments?

I'm not a climber but I remember the disastrous Everest year of 1996, and reading/watching books and documentaries that have appeared since then. So the cover and story blurb were sufficient to catch my interest in the story.

Some readers feel uncomfortable with multiple POV stories, or stories that bounce around with respect to timelines. I'm not one of those folks - as long as the author effectively communicates when a switch in character/time has occurred, I'll keep up. There were a few times when the author didn't make this transition as effectively as he might have, but overall I enjoyed hearing about different character perspectives. Perhaps because of these different POVs, I was able to develop clear and distinct mental images and personal opinions about each of the key characters. I also enjoyed the mystical/paranormal aspect of the story, interesting to me because all of my previous reading about Everest barely mentions the mystical aspects of the mountain at all.

I'm a little more grumbly about the use of present tense versus past tense in books. Perhaps this is because most fiction is written in the past tense and my brain seems to have to work a little harder to envision what's happening. Every time I read a story that's written in the present tense, these same thoughts occur to me - so it's not a problem with the author, it's probably something going on between my ears instead.

I listened to the audiobook version, so I have no comments to make about technical flaws with respect to grammar. I was deeply ambivalent about the narration, however. More than a few times, my mind got jolted out of the flow of the story because I was unable to determine who was speaking. In print books, we have cues through the use of new paragraphs to start new quotes when the author omits the identity of the speaker. In audiobooks, I think I depend more on the narrator to help me distinguish who is speaking during conversations when the author doesn't explicitly give me identities. Here's where a monotonous narrator makes listening more challenging (not in a good way). The narrator had, in my opinion, the perfect voice for the main bad guy mastermind of the plot. But his voice didn't do justice to the other characters at all.

I often moan and complain about narrators who voice other characters by exaggerating vocal characteristics (such as tone or pitch, especially when voicing other genders), but I still think that it's helpful for the narrator to alter his/her timbre even a little bit in stories that include POV changes. Alternately, some of the best multi-POV audiobooks that I've read uses a female narrator for the chapters focusing on POV of a female character, and a male narrator for chapters with male POVs. Anyway, this was such an interesting story! But I think it could have been even better if the narrator didn't sound like he was reciting a story from the local newspaper. Having said that, I'd certainly listen to another book from this author in the future. Also, I'd listen to this narrator again in the future - but not for a multi-POV story. I can easily envision this narrator doing non-fiction audiobooks and I'm sure I'd give him a higher rating for those types of audiobooks.

I provided my opinion in exchange for a complimentary copy of the audiobook from the author, narrator, or publisher.

A tough listen

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Narration was too tepid for my tastes and didn't rise up the occasion of the story. I left disappointed.

Any additional comments?

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost."

Good Story, Terrible Narration

The plot/story is really interesting, filled with action and good characters but the narration just does not fit. It's slow, boring, and hard to differentiate between characters, especially female characters. The novel is written in first person point of view so that makes the narration even more difficult to listen to - if it was told in a different way, the narration might work but unfortunately it really takes away from the story. I found myself having to stop and go back more than once because I was lost.

I would absolutely recommend the print version of this book but I'd advise to stay away from the audiobook.


This audio book was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Good spooky action story

Any additional comments?

This is a good story about injustice and the resolution of that in a supernatural thrilling way. The characters are well developed and the world building well done. I learned a lot about mountain climbing and it fit well in the story. A very imaginative supernatural thread throughout the world made the story hard to stop listening to. There is plenty of action and suspense as well. Good thriller to listen to. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.