Midst Toil and Tribulation

Safehold Series, Book 6

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

David Weber's New York Times bestselling Safehold series of military Science Fiction adventure, which began with Off Armageddon Reef, continues with Midst Toil and Tribulation

WAR AND FAMINE

Once the Church of God Awaiting dominated all the kingdoms of Safehold. Then, after centuries of stasis, the island kingdom of Charis began to defy the edicts of Mother Church—egged on, some say, by the mysterious warrior-monk Merlin Athrawes, who enjoys the Charisian royal family's absolute trust.

What vanishingly few people know is that Merlin is the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which aliens destroyed Earth...and that since awakening, his task has been to restart the history of the long-hidden human race.

Now, reeling from the wars and intrigues that have cascaded from Charis's declaration of independence, the Republic of Siddermark slides into chaos. The Church has engineered a rebellion, and Siddermark's all-important harvest is at risk. King Cayleb and Queen Sharleyan struggle to stabilize their ally, which will mean sending troops—but, even more importantly, preventing famine. For mass starvation in Safehold's breadbasket is a threat even more ominous than civil war...

©2012 David Weber (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

A New Rule for Narrators

Where does Midst Toil and Tribulation rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I would say that this book lands firmly in the middle. I like these books but they get a bit long winded.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Merlin is the favorite of course.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Kevin T. Collins?

I would if it were a new book and not part of another series.

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

Not yet.

Any additional comments?

I think there should be a new Rule for Narrators. Especially narrators that are new to a series that is already established.
Rule - You must first listen to the other audio books of this series so that you know how to pronounce the names of people and places correctly. Kevin Collins obviously did not because he pronounces character's names and the names of Cities so differently from the previous narrator that it is very distracting. Every time he says Charis ( correctly pronounced Karis with a hard k sound not the Ch as in charcoal ) it just makes me say it the right way which. Also that lends itself the pronunciation of Charissians and that sounds wrong too. There are many more examples but you get the drift.
Hopefully by the end of the book it won't bug me so much but it does for now.

Good story, jarring narrator

The multiple narrators over the series were already pretty bad, but this one changed the pronunciation of so so many names to be down right jarring. Looking forward to the next two which go back to the original narrator.

story ok, narrator was the worst

Story was ok, however mare by a narrator who couldn't be bothered to learn previous pronunciations for simple names, almost skipped this after the first few minutes

Slowest yet of the series but not bad.

My only complaint is that the reader didn't listen to the previous books and had very different name pronunciation.

Great Book - Horrible Narration

As a huge David Weber fan, I've listened to every one of his audiobooks. In addition to Weber's great writing, I've always been impressed by the quality of the narration - until now. Kevin Collins's melodramatic whining makes this one unbearable. I hope they bring back Oliver Whyman for the next one.

The story is good, and the narrator is good.

The story is good, but its not told in the same way ås previous books. This made it å bit hard to follow at times. The narrator had some other titles I have heard and they were bettter suited to his style.

After careful consideration of the performance...

Would you consider the audio edition of Midst Toil and Tribulation to be better than the print version?

Didn't read the print version

Any additional comments?

Like many other reviewers, I too was extremely distracted by the change in narrators. It ruined for me the first 10 hours of the book. However, I must be frank that Kevin lost 1 star with me for failing to provide himself with deep background on the novel. I finished the last half of the book with relative enjoyment because the performance as it stands alone is quite good. I really wish I had not had to endure this the first time but the second listening of the book, I was completely engaged and able to endure the pronunciation differences.

Weber's writing continues to improve and his character development is phenomenal. I am in for the next 6 or 7 volumes to finish the series...

Is it tomato or tahmahtoe?

I am 6 books into this series… it is really fun.

BUT

That means I’m also 3 narrators in now and holy god. This one is TERRIBLE like a child trying to add gravitas to their voice.
- And it’s one thing to have a different way of pronunciation BUT why would you come into a series and decide to COMPLETELY CHANGE the way key character and places are pronounced? Literally we have gone 5 books with different narrators but generally same pronunciation then all of a sudden this dude shows up and just wow.

This should be redone with the other narrators.

Story was entertaining, narrator better than the last one but not amazing

The story was entertaining as always, and the climax was good, but not as good as some of the other books so far. I enjoyed the strategic side of the civil war, but wished there was more from the group of 4’s perspective. The main characters did not get as much screen time either, which was unfortunate as they are one of the best parts of the series.

As for the narrator, he was better than the last one but still not amazing. He had a habit of getting serious or excited at the wrong times, (listen to the first chapter and you’ll understand), and he pronounced many of the names and places differently from how the majority of other narrators have. Overall, story was good but not the best of the series yet, with the narration improving but not at the level it was in the first few books.

Stop changing Narrators!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well if you're a fan of the series, You should get it, but if you compare to previous 5 books, you may notice considerable drop in quality.
And the new narrator doesn't help the situation.