White Seed

The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke

By: Paul Clayton

Narrated by: Lee Harpster

Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

A fully-realized historical thriller in the tradition of James Clavell's Shogun and Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.

One of the most haunting mysteries in American history - The Lost Colony of Roanoke - comes roaring back to life in White Seed, with a compelling cast of characters, including Maggie Hagger, indentured Irish serving girl, a victim of rape and intimidation; Manteo, Croatoan interpreter for the English, inhabitant of two worlds, belonging to neither; John White, ineffective Governor, painter, dreamer, father and grandfather; Captain Stafford, brave and disciplined, but cruel soldier; and Powhatan, shrewd Tidewater warlord who wages a stealthy war against the colonists.

©2009 Paul Clayton (P)2013 Paul Clayton

Hard to listen to

Would you try another book from Paul Clayton and/or Lee Harpster?

Despite a very stilted narration, I persevered listening to the book as the story is fascinating. But I just could not finish it due to the over-articulated stilted narration.

An interesting piece of history

This is not brilliant writing but it's a good story and told well enough. The questions of what happened in Roanoke has always fascinated me. of course it's speculative, but it's interesting.

Why oh why

This has to be the worse narrator I have heard so far from Audible. His accent fluctuates each time he reads the same character, and his butchery of an English accent is just... this will be returned as i think I would rather read the actual book than suffer through this again.

Very Slow, But the Content Is OK

I downgraded the story primarily because the pace was incredibly slow and far too long. The content was good, but could have been shortened and condensed a lot. There were too many repetitive days with similar challenges and happenings. By the time the already expected ending came about, albeit with a slight twist, it was nearly anti-climactic.

The reader did a very good job of keeping the different voices accurate, even with a large number of characters. He deserves acknowledgement for his toil.

Can’t recommend

This could have been an interesting story but for the narrators odd mispronunciations and performance. It seemed the characters were trying to channel Fonzi from Happy Days “Ayyyy” and using a hard g for gaol.

This is THE WORST narrator I've ever listened to

Would you try another book from Paul Clayton and/or Lee Harpster?

I might try another book from Paul Clayton but would not ever again listen to another audio book narrated by Lee Harpster

Would you be willing to try another book from Paul Clayton? Why or why not?

I would possibly try another book, but while it was interesting to read the historical account of Roanoke, the characters were so one dimensional. There were so many points where I thought the writer would delve further into a character's background, but he really only ever scratched the surface. I might have enjoyed this book more were it not for the narration.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

It's an absolute shame how terrible this narrator's performance was. I should have returned this book, but I kept with it because I was really interested in how the story turned out. Throughout out the book, he routinely mispronounced so many words (striated, anemic, gaol, raucous, mottled, tallow, cupboard, inexplicably, among many, many other words), that you could almost make a game out of it. It actually even started to be kind of funny, to a certain point, when I wasn't cringing inside. How an editor could have let this be published as an audiobook like this is a complete mystery. Aside from the hundreds of pronunciation errors, the stye of narration was terrible. Every woman sounded like a shrew! The narrator used such a shrill voice that he made every single female character unlikeable. Regardless of what they were saying, he made them really sound like women on the verge of hysteria. In addition, the narrator seems to start with one voice for a character and then change it completely in the space of a sentence or a paragraph, almost like he cut the recording and came back and started over another day without the faintest notion of how he sounded 3 days ago. His English accent is really bad, goes in and out during the narration from an English to an American accent, and really the "savage" voices he used were just terrible. Don't get this book...it might have been a funny lark to listen to this narrator for a bit just for a laugh...but not for an entire 18 hours.

Any additional comments?

Don't waste your time or money. I wish I hadn't.

Super nice

this story is so nice and the way it is romanticized is so beautiful. I think the character development could have been better throughout the years but overall it was good

boring

I didn't like the writing style, it was bland and the characters are uninteresting. The history was more interesting in the style of a text book.

Can't get past the narration

The mystery of Roanoke is fascinating and I was excited when I saw the description of this book.

Not sure if it is a good book or not. I simply can not get past the narration! It is read with all the inflection and drama you might hear at the library any Saturday morning when it is story time for the kiddies. Irritating. The frequent mispronunciation of common words is jarring. I'm 8 hours into it, ashamed that I have wasted this much time and giving it up.

If you really want to explore this - get the paper book, not this audible.

The worst read audiobook!

What would have made White Seed better?

The reader was horrid, pure amateur stuff. It was unbearable to listen to. The story had potential, but when it's read by an actor who can't even pronounce words correctly, let alone affect any accent- it completely ruined the story.

Would you ever listen to anything by Paul Clayton again?

I would, with the exception that someone else read his books.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator should have been taken out and shot. He was awful. Ruined the book.