Limits of Power

Paladin's Legacy, Book 4

De: Elizabeth Moon

Narrado por: Angela Dawe

Elizabeth Moon is back with the fourth adventure in her best-selling fantasy epic. Moon brilliantly weaves a colorful tapestry of action, betrayal, love, and magic set in a richly imagined world that stands alongside those of such fantasy masters as George R. R. Martin and Robin Hobb.

The unthinkable has occurred in the kingdom of Lyonya. The queen of the Elves - known as the Lady - is dead, murdered by former elves twisted by dark powers. Now the Lady’s half-elven grandson must heal the mistrust between elf and human before their enemies strike again. Yet as he struggles to make ready for an attack, an even greater threat looms across the Eight Kingdoms.Throughout the north, magic is reappearing after centuries of absence, emerging without warning in family after family - rich and poor alike. In some areas, the religious strictures against magery remain in place, and fanatical followers are stamping out magery by killing whoever displays the merest sign of it - even children. And as unrest spreads, one very determined traitor works to undo any effort at peace - no matter how many lives it costs. With the future hanging in the balance, it is only the dedication of a few resolute heroes who can turn the tides...if they can survive.

©2013 Elizabeth Moon (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Voice is too painful

I will find another way to consume this book. The narration is too painful to listen to. The second book in this series had the best of the four narrators. You should redo this book with her voice.

Just a terrible narrator

I love the history and have every single audio book in this universe and have listened to them repeatedly. But this book and this narrator is just aggravating. The flow is of, the pronunciation it's terrible and names have changed so much that it's hard to decipher who she is talking about. The book is important for the overall series but if I could I would totally skip it. Now I just listen and dream about skipping it every tenth minute

Did a local TV news reporter record this?

The reader's repetitive cadence and nasal tone are BIG obstacles here. It's bad. It's really bad.

I am writing this review well before finishing the book. This far into the series, I /know/ I'm going to finish it... But this reader makes it so unpleasant that I may need to finish reading a hard copy on my own. The speaker's vocal habits are so grating that they frequently call my attention away from the content she's reading. I'm repeatedly losing track of the story.

What is the opposite of "immersive?"

Very disappointed.

Power in many forms reaches its limits

All the principal characters are dealing with the limits of their powers, secular, magical, spiritual - as forces begin to gather that are shattering the mostly stable societies.

Natural mage power is reappearing among all levels of society, and some fear it as a return of the hated mage lords and others see it as possibly a gift of the Gods in preparation for defending against a threat from the South.

The elves are lost without the Elvenhome generated by the dead Elven Queen, and their half-elven King Kieri Phelan, is trying to keep his blended Kingdom safe.

The Southern Duke Immer is using mageery, likely blood magery, to compel a piece of the ancient magical regalia to enhance his power - and the crown of that regalia is continuing to pressure Dorian Duke and mage and adherent of the Good Gods, in whose blood magery tinted family it had long been confined, to assume it and do something unspecified. Its very presence is destabilizing one kingdom.

A human has become a Prince of Gnomes, a thief is becoming an agent of Gird, Dragon is obviously at work in the world, and Paksenarrion has just returned from what must have been a harrowing mission.

While I agree the reader may not be consistent with previous readings, I think she does a better job than the previous reader of distinguishing voices, and definitely found it a more pleasant listen.

Love the books can't stand this particular reader.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The previous books were far better read by Jennifer Van Dyke and Susan Erickson despite some inconsistencies in pronunciation of names and places. Don't even get me started on the ongoing snafu with the different accents for every 'foreign' character that switch around from french to eastern european to spanish to irish and back again depending on the reader. I know the narrators are performance artists with different styles and accent specialties, but some attempt at consistency from actually listening to the previous books might be of help.