Dragon Haven

The Rain Wild Chronicles, Book 2

By: Robin Hobb

Narrated by: Jacqui Crago

Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

The dragon keepers and the fledgling dragons are forging a passage up the treacherous Rain Wild River. They are in search of the mythical Elderling city of Kelsingra, and are accompanied by the liveship Tarman, its captain, Leftrin, and a group of hunters who must search the forests for game with which to keep the dragons fed.

With them are Alise, who has escaped her cold marriage to the cruel libertine Hest Finbok in order to continue her study of dragons, and Hest's amanuensis, the Bingtown dandy Sedric.

Rivalries and romances are already threatening to disrupt the band of explorers, but external forces may prove to be even more dangerous. Chalcedean merchants are keen to lay hands on dragon blood and organs to turn them to medicines and profit. Their traitor has infiltrated the expedition and will stop at nothing to obtain the coveted body parts.

And then there are the Rain Wilds themselves: mysterious, unstable, and ever perilous, its mighty river running with acid, its jungle impenetrable, and its waterways uncharted. Will the expedition reach their destination unscathed? Does the city of Kelsingra even exist?

Only one thing is certain: the journey will leave none of the dragons nor their human companions unchanged by the experience.

©2010 HarperCollins Publishers (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Great book with some production issues

Another great work from Robin Hobb. Amazing characterization and character development. Finished listening faster than I’d anticipated.

The reading performance was also very good; some of the emotionally intense moments were captured just perfectly.

Unfortunately there were some production issues: a repeated line or two, too long pauses, not long enough pauses, etc. However, these weren’t numerous enough to distract from the experience.

A great book with a truly awful reader

I am listening to this book for the second time as I’m refreshing the series in my mind before listening to Hobbs’ latest book.

The reader is amazing. Somehow she can make sloshing and smacking sounds before, during and after almost every word. Listening to her speak grates on me to the extend that I can’t listen to more than 20 minutes at a time. She sounds like she drinks nothing but orange juice all day. It’s this horrible sound of her gums peeling from her cheeks as she moves her mouth and it NEVER STOPS!!!

Her voice also has absolutely no spectrum. Her voices are inconsistent and she can’t seem to do more than just her narration voice and the one single voice she has to say it’s someone speaking.

I’m horrified by Audible’s quality control which let this reader ever get published. If they had any respect for their product, they would have it reproduced by Saska (the girl from books 1 and 3).

To be fair, while I agree with some of the other negative comments that suggest that the characters seem to need absolutely everything spelled out to them. I do however love the spirit of the story being told. I look forward to the series which comes after because I love Fool.

Sorry for written such a negative review, the reader was just absolutely horrifying.

It was okay

Lot of non-action and dallying about. I felt this book heavily concerned its characters to having to worry about what other characters think about them. Kind a book about journey, if you enjoy the journey, you can enjoy the book. Maybe it was just that the voyage was quite dull filled with feeding and travelling up the river. I quite enjoyed the first liveship series. But I am starting to find the second trilogy quite dull, with those relationship dramas. Though I quite like Bellen The best part was dragons interactions and growing stronger and finding new skills, discussing how what they remember and how to handle the keepers.

Change of narrator is difficult to get accustomed

Where does Dragon Haven rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Id say in the top 25 percentile. Great book from an awesome author.

What other book might you compare Dragon Haven to and why?

The clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel comes to mind, both books featuring strong young female characters growing up in adverse environments and harsh settings.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration isn't bad and the readers voice grow on you after a while. The change of narrators between books is always difficult to get accustomed to with some varying discrepancy in pronunciation, especially in names.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Greff is a dickhead but I also felt sorry for him. No satisfaction for me in his end.

Any additional comments?

Peace.

Really worth the effort i think.

Good book with interestingly moral problems so make desicsions on. I liked it alot. Good buy

A love stor where every woman is unbelievabl naive

Hardly anything happens in this book. Almost all the plot has to do with one or another love story. To make it even more frustrating the female characters are unbelievable naive.

This book was a disappointment after the great start of the series.

Also the narrater should have listened to the first book and kept similar pronunciation of names as the first narrator. Very confusing when a city and people "change" name from on book to the next.

Wonderful

Robin Hobb is a brilliant writer and it's a real joy to listen to her stories. If you enjoy fantasy fiction this is one you must not miss. This is the second in a series of 3.

Good narration - Terrible editing

Chapters are mixed up, starting out well into the book with chapter seven. This combined with the lack of narrated chapter intros and a jump feature that doesn't match actual chapters makes it a frustrating experience. Also, there is a sprinkling of sentences that are cut short in editing. I'll be expecting a fix or a refund.
Good story and narrator.

Definitely not Robin Hobbs best series

What would have made Dragon Haven better?

Characters that are not superficial, naive and most of the time plain stupid. Characters not having to be force feed the obvious facts in front of them to understand simple concepts.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Ok but hampered by the material

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment - I have read many of Robin Hobbs' books and enjoyed them. This was weak and the homosexual threads added nothing to book and were poorly written. I found myself cringing because of the absurdities as I listened.