Gate of Ivrel

Morgaine, Book 1

By: C. J. Cherryh

Narrated by: Jessica Almasy

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Scattered about the galaxy were the time-space Gates of a vanished but not forgotten alien race. In their time, long before the rise of the native civilizations, they had terrorized a hundred worlds—not from villainy but from folly, from tampering with the strands that held a universe together.

Now the task was to uproot these Gates, destroy their potency for mischief, take horror out of the hands of the few who hungered for power by misuse of the Gates.

This is the story of one such Gate and one such world.

©1976 C.J. Cherryh (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Disapointed

What did you like best about Gate of Ivrel? What did you like least?

I absolutely love this series. I have been waiting impatiently for it since CJ Cherryh's books finally became available. Vanye and Morgaine's story is one that has been with me as a true friend for 20 years.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Gate of Ivrel?

I love Vanye's character, which as a far cry from the stereotypical heroes that we encounter in so much of today's fantasy writing.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator read the story as if she was on speed. She read so quickly that all of the nuances of speech and rhythm that go along with good writing were completely lost. I even tried to listen to it at 75% speed, but the after echo that goes along with it was too distracting. I am very sad that the editors chose to go with a female narrator for a book that is told from a male viewpoint, and then to make matters worse by allowing her to ruin to beauty of the story with her choice of pace. I'm even more disappointing that she is reading all of the books in the series.

Reader is fast

As other reviews have mentioned, the narrator seems to read quickly. It was occasionally distracting, and I agree the voice did not match Morgaine as I have imagined her, but I otherwise did not mind the narrator. This has long been a beloved series of mine and I was very thrilled to get the audiobook.

Great story, read a little too fast.

This is a great story—great world, interesting characters, great drama. The narrator did great work with the various accents, but I found the whole reading a touch too fast — Cherryh writes in a unique and interesting voice and cadence, but the pace of the narration made it hard to keep up with some of the language. There was too much urgency, too often — and this is a story about urgency, but the narration was almost always at a 9/10 on the urgency scale, so it kind of diminished the drama of the more climactic moments.
(Also, a nitpick, but this book has the word “obeisance” in it a dozen or more times, and the narrator pronounces it wrong every time.)

An Epic Tale in an Archaic Tone

The language, as written sounds oddly archaic. Having said that it flows surprisingly well and the narrator pulls it off beautifully. The story itself might seem shallow at first, but like the gates themselves their depth is deep.

Have waited a long time for this!

Would you consider the audio edition of Gate of Ivrel to be better than the print version?

No. While the audio edition is excellent, the voice of the reader isn't quite what is needed, although she did a good job.

What other book might you compare Gate of Ivrel to and why?

Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer books. Both are about a strong woman with a mission she would trade all to accomplish

Did Jessica Almasy do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes she did. Different voices were obvious for different characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes and no. I've waited so long for these books that I sort of doled them out to myself.

Now I know

Now I know what a overly involved author and a overly dramatic reader sound like.

Poor narration

The narrator's constant mispronunciation of words was a serious distraction. Really, someone who is to narrate a book for others to listen to ought to take the time to learn how to correctly pronounce the words she will be reading.

A note about narration

Narrator speaks fast, it's true.
I found it hard to keep up and that slowing down playback made my experience much better.

Most people use this feature to speed up playback so that's probably a good place to start looking for a guide for your platform.

I've loved this series many, many times.

I've read and reread the books until I lost track of them over time. Then came Audible and once again I'm immersed as only 2 other series in 52 years of reading have been able to accomplish. For me, pure gold.

Always excellent book, also excellent narrator

Do not listen to the negative reviews here, this narrator, while I will admit she was surprising at first, does a fantastic job voicing the different characters and also has a talent in truly imbuing emotion and feeling into her read. I am looking forward to listening to the rest of the series