• Lord of the Darkwood

  • The Tale of Shikanoko
  • By: Lian Hearn
  • Narrated by: Neil Shah
  • Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Lord of the Darkwood  By  cover art

Lord of the Darkwood

By: Lian Hearn
Narrated by: Neil Shah
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $16.93

Buy for $16.93

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Against a background of wild forest, elegant castles, hidden temples and savage battlefields, the adventure that began with Emperor of the Eight Islands draws to its thrilling conclusion.

The rightful emperor is lost. Shikanoko is condemned to live, half man and half deer, an outlaw in the Darkwood. Yet the mighty lords who now rule the Eight Islands are prey to suspicion and illness, and drought and famine choke the realm. Only Shikanoko can bring healing by restoring the preordained ruler to the Lotus Throne. And only one person can bring him back from the Darkwood....

©2016 Lian Hearn (P)2016 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

What listeners say about Lord of the Darkwood

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 2 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The reader is pretty much insufferable

Only a very good story being very well told could have made me listen through hour after hour of a reader unable to use proper intonation and punctuation.

It is painful to listen to sentences that seem to end in weird places, only for the next breath of the reader to reveal that the sentence had three more words. When the reader then goes straight on to the next phrase, I miss out on the content because I am still deciphering the real meaning of that strangely read sentence.

This would have been perfectly evident to the reader if he had bothered to read the book to himself first, and make some notes to himself! Listeners should be able to hear which word in a sentence is the important one. Most decent narrators automatically dramatize at least speech, but also use techniques such as a variety of tones, loudness and speed to make the story an adventure to listen to.

The reason why I do not call the reader a narrator is that he does not add anything to the original writing, he merely conveys the words as if they were found in an accounting ledger.

For a REAL narration, try listening to David Tennant make "How to Train Your Dragon" not just a great story, but a nuanced, sensitive, sweet, funny, scary and wildly exciting tale. If you can manage to listen to this book again afterwards without cringing, you're a better person than me!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!