Heir of Sea and Fire

Riddle-Master Trilogy, Book 2

By: Patricia A. McKillip

Narrated by: Fiona Walsh

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

By the vow of her father and her own desire, Raederle was pledged to Morgon, Riddle-Master of Hed. But a year had passed since Morgon disappeared on his search for the High One at Erlenstar Mountain, and rumors claimed he was dead.

Raederle set out to learn the truth for herself, though her small gift of magic seemed too slight for the perils she must face. The quest led through strange lands and dangerous adventures. Only her growing powers enabled her at last to reach Erlenstar Mountain. And there she discovered what she could not bear to accept. Accompanied by Deth, the High One's Harper, she fled. And behind them came a pursuer whose name was Morgon, bent on executing a grim destiny upon Raederle and Deth. Her only hope lay in summoning the Hosts of the Dead, led by the King whose skull she bore.

©1977 Patricia A. McKillip (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Here's a hint

Here's a hint to the folks who make audiobooks: If you are recording a fantasy series with fictional character and place names, settle on a consistent pronunciation for them over the entire series, and give the narrators a glossary! This narrator has chosen entirely different pronunciations from those in the previous book in this series (narrated by Simon Prebble). She also has difficulty creating distinctive voices for the individual characters, which makes some conversations hard to follow.

That said, the book is excellent, and the full series is excellent. Once you have adjusted to the strange pronunciations, the story is well worth it. I am delighted that this series is available on audio at last!

In a word: MADDENING!

Would you listen to Heir of Sea and Fire again? Why?

See the additional comments section . . .

What was one of the most memorable moments of Heir of Sea and Fire?

The scene near the beginning, where Raederle hunts down her brother in a tavern, is priceless.

What three words best describe Fiona Walsh’s voice?

Sensitive, flexible, musical.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My reaction to the narration was far more visceral than my reaction to the story, which I already knew very well.

Any additional comments?

This has been one of my all-time favorite series since I read it more than 30 years ago, and I have listened to the audio version many times. Sometimes I skip this middle book because of my frustration with Ms. Walsh's performance. Her voice is pleasant--musical, even!--and she clearly has an affinity for the tale. She does a really terrific job with accents and differentiating characters (although the pig-woman's voice should be less frail and quavering). Her pacing is excellent, and her inflection is generally good. There's obviously tremendous talent there, and I'd like to hear her narrate another book. Why, then, does her performance irritate me so profoundly that I deducted two stars? For all her skill with the vocabulary, she screws up on character names and places, which is a pretty dire failing for audio fantasy! She pronounces the heroine's name, Raederle, as "RAYer-dull" (the R in the wrong syllable) until Chapter 4; Herun is "heron" (like the bird) and Hed is pronounced "heed" throughout (but she doesn't pronounce Hel as "heel"--go figure), Mathom is "Muh-THOOM" . . . you get the idea. Yet she nails the evil wizard's awkward moniker (if you've read the books, you know the one: begins with G). Having heard Simon Prebble's delicious narration of the other two books, I'm inclined to think the way he says it, "Heh-ROON", is proper, as well as his take on the other people and place names. So why doesn't Book 2 follow suit? I blame the producers for (pointlessly) changing narrators midway through the series, and I am gobsmacked that they allowed/overlooked the bizarre, phonetically improbable, pronunciations in this performance. I can only assume they wanted a female narrator because Book 2 is mostly about Raederle, Lyra,and Tristan, but the shift to Ms. Walsh actually jars when you're listening to them in sequence. For lack of any other version, it's worth listening to if you grit your teeth through the massacred syllables, and until the producers correct their mistake by re-recording it with Ms. Walsh or (even better) just having Simon Prebble do it! But you have been warned.

Good 2nd installment

I enjoyed Ms Walsh's reading of Book 2 of the Riddle Master Trilogy with one item that really annoyed me. She pronounces the proper names of many of the characters and lands completely differently than the reader of the 1st Book. I don't understand why this was done; it was very jarring at first, and I never quite got used to it. Other than that, well done.

Best Series I've Ever Read! Terrible narrator!

This is an excellent book! I gave it 5 stars based on the book. The narrator is terrible! Her pronunciation is horrifically annoying. She slaughters the names of the characters in the book to the point that you wish she would never make another audiobook! This book is excellent and desperately deserves a better reader. Thankfully, this book is good enough that I listen to the audiobook to enjoy the story in spite of the lame narration. It would be a great service for Audible to have Simon Prebble read this book and replace this pathetic excuse for narration with a talented, better suited voice.

Story Great, Narrator Needs Help

This is the second book in a terrific series that I first read in print over 30 years ago. The first book was narrated by a man, appropriate because it was mostly told through the hero. The second was read by an incompetent woman. I wonder if she bothered to listen at all to book one so her pronunciations would mesh with it. It was incredibly jarring to hear her say names and places so differently from the first narrator (and, in fact, the narrator of the third book). Looking at the print version, our hero is from an island named, Hed, which logically rhymes with red. This narrator said Heed over and over and over. Every time it made me jump out of the story. I am happy to be done, ready to move on to book three with the original narrator.

Here's a hint

Here's a hint to the folks who make audiobooks: If you are recording a fantasy series with fictional character and place names, settle on a consistent pronunciation for them over the entire series, and give the narrators a glossary! This narrator has chosen entirely different pronunciations from those in the previous book in this series (narrated by Simon Prebble). She also has difficulty creating distinctive voices for the individual characters, which makes some conversations hard to follow.

That said, the book is excellent, and the full series is excellent. Once you have adjusted to the strange pronunciations, the story is well worth it. I am delighted that this series is available on audio at last!

Magical book, failed performance

I've loved this book, and the whole series, for 30 years. I needed every bit of that love to get through an entire audio recording about MorGOAN prince of HEED. "Heed"? Are you kidding me?! In what language anywhere is "Hed" pronounced with a long E? It's like fingernails on a chalkboard. (And it's not like she pronounces Deth or Hel with long E's, so it's clearly just some weird affectation.)

I'm glad that Audible (or someone) sponsored the creation of this audio series: it's an excellent trilogy and deserves more publicity than it gets. I think it was a nifty idea to have this middle book recorded by a female reader, and I don't even mind if a few of the names are differently pronounced (is the Morgul's daughter LYE-ra or LEER-a?) by the separate readers, though that seems such an easy thing for the series editor to have coached.

But to get the hero's name so befuddled is inexcusable. For the narrator not to remember from one scene to the next whether Raederle has a high girly voice or a lower one is guaranteed to frustrate readers, especially since Walsh has such a meager range of voice types (besides a mild working-class accent) to draw on. Great books deserve better voicing, and better quality control by the editors.

Mispronouncing names is a problem

Any additional comments?

Loved the series, but the narrator for this section should have checked pronunciations of names. Hearing Heed instead of Hed was only the worse of her errors. Really a shame.

Reader choice was poor. Book otherwise great!

Reader choice was very poor. Pronunciation kept changing. Couldn't keep even the names of persons the same during performance. Other than that, the books are great but I'd rather they'd chosen, or at least guided, the person in their performance. Very annoying.

Glad I didn't pass it up.

I almost passed up this series when I saw reviews on this 2nd book mentioning that there was a different and not well liked narrator. I like Simon Prebble and his narration was one of the main reasons I was looking at this series at all. After finishing all 3 books, I'd just like to say that, yes, it is annoying to switch narrators in the middle of a series and, yes, it is annoying when the new narrator does not bother to familiarize herself with the pronunciation of character and place names, but it didn't kill the book for me this time. I can't bear the Inspector Ian Rutledge books narrated by Samuel Giles because Simon Prebble IS Ian Rutledge for me, so I understand how it can. The narrator wasn't horrible or hard to listen to. She had a pleasant voice, wasn't hard to understand, and I would be happy enough to listen to her again. Yes, Simon Prebble absolutely should have narrated all 3 books but I'm glad I didn't pass it up this series because he didn't. I enjoyed all 3 books very much.

good story.. poor narration

shame the narrator was changed between the first and second book. this narrator hesitates and empasises the wrong words from time to time. it's just not as good..

Good book badly read

I really like this trilogy and enjoyed the audible version of book 1, The Riddlemaster of Hed. Sadly, this one is ruined by having the names of almost all the main characters and places badly mispronounced. There were a couple in book one, but I mostly managed not to let it spoil that one too much. Book two also contains some careless though minor errors, but overall it really distracted me from the narrative.
This is, I think, only the second time in a good ten years of monthly titles that I've complained about the reading of any book.

Great book, poor narration.

Was really excited to get this having enjoyed the first in the series so much. I'm afraid I'm returning this because I couldn't get past the poor narration.
I'm sorry to be harsh but this was badly done. Firstly, it's gauche to try and add inflection's to word's that clearly weren't intended to have any e.g. Hed pronounced Heed, and Morgan being pronounced Mor-Gan, these were the two that bothered me the most. If nothing else she should have listened to the first in the series and made a point of following the precedents set by the narrator of the first book.
Also, really odd accents that mostly I couldn't be sure what dialect she was going for and not the best voice acting. A real shame.

Great follow-up to Riddlemaster of Hed

Having so thoroughly enjoyed The Riddlemaster of Hed, I was slightly surprised to hear someone different narrate Book 2. But having Fiona Walsh narrate Raederle's story makes perfect sense, and while the accents wobble a little during her narration and she pronounces some words differently from the first narrator, she reads well and with feeling. I have read this trilogy more times than I care to remember, but this reading is beautifully done and very moving.