The Scar

By: Sergey Dyachenko, Marina Dyachenko, Elinor Huntington - translator

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Reaching far beyond sword and sorcery, The Scar is a story of two people torn by disaster, their descent into despair, and their re-emergence through love and courage.

Sergey and Marina Dyachenko mix dramatic scenes with romance, action and wit, in a style both direct and lyrical. Written with a sure artistic hand, The Scar is the story of a man driven by his own feverish demons to find redemption and the woman who just might save him. Egert is a brash, confident member of the elite guards and an egotistical philanderer. But after he kills an innocent student in a duel, a mysterious man known as “The Wanderer” challenges Egert and slashes his face with his sword, leaving Egert with a scar that comes to symbolize his cowardice. Unable to end his suffering by his own hand, Egert embarks on an odyssey to undo the curse and the horrible damage he has caused, which can only be repaired by a painful journey down a long and harrowing path.

Plotted with the sureness of Robin Hobb and colored with the haunting and ominous imagination of Michael Moorcock, The Scar tells a story that cannot be forgotten.

©2012 Marina and Sergey Dyachenko (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Rich, vivid, tactile prose, with a solid yet unpredictable plot—and an extraordinary depth and intensity of character reminiscent of the finest Russian literature." (Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review)

Lame

The writing was excellent and the narrator awesome, however, the plot was lame. It was so predictable: you knew that the boy was going to be the hero in the end, you knew that he was going to get the girl, and, of course, you had hopes that everybody would live happily ever after.

In the beginning of the story through to about half way, I thought that it was really good. However, it started dragging on with nothing happening to move the plot along. Then I was super disappointed and knew I would not recommend this book to my friends. It's a shame because it could have been an excellent story with the authors' crafty writing abilities.

Save your credit!

Would you try another book from the authors and/or Jonathan Davis?

Not a chance.

What was most disappointing about the authors???s story?

The general plot of the book wasn't the problem. The writing and the performance combined to make for a miserable listening experience from the start.

What didn???t you like about Jonathan Davis???s performance?

I have gown accustomed to performers such as Scott Brick and Simon Vance, where different characters actually sound, well, different. The few times Davis finds a different voice, it comes out sounding absurd...particularly the deep voice of one of Egert's peers in the Guard. The reading is overly dramatic, but perhaps the author is partly to blame for this. There is never a rhythm achieved in the prose. It feels forced and artificially dramatic.

Any additional comments?

The generally high ratings this book has received baffle me. Never in my years of listening to audiobooks have I stooped listening to a book before finishing it. If you, like me, are looking for great writing and a dynamic performance, keep looking!

Just drags on

Not sure what made me listen for so long. It just dragged on and on. Some may say it ended well, but I will never know, because it is the 1st book in a long time that I quit listening to after 7 hours of drudgery.

detestable character

What would have made The Scar better?

I would have enjoyed seeing more strength coming from the main character in fighting the curse of "cowardice." I still have ugly thoughts of the scene involving a stagecoach & robbers. The authors worked so very hard at making the character look like a complete jerk in the very beginning & then such a feeble excuse of human flesh throughout the rest of the book I had a hard time getting the love story. When I read a love story in fantasy & truly enjoy it, it requires that I fall a little in love with the characters myself to make it real. In this case I just couldn't see how any woman (save those missing some marbles) could find anything remarkable or loveable in the main character. Yeah he was a good looking guy (throughout the book this is really obvious) but otherwise he was such a jellyfish!!

What could the authors have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Make the character more human.. less like an insect.

Have you listened to any of Jonathan Davis???s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Jonathan Davis did an excellent job narrating the story. I find no fault with his work.

You didn???t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I liked the idea behind the story which is what brought me to the book. I thought if written differently I could have really enjoyed it.

Any additional comments?

I listened to the first part 7 hrs & then 3/4's of the 2nd part before I gave up on the book. The last straw was when the heroin got put in prison & tortured & our gallant knight would do nothing to help her for fear bringing the torture down on himself. This is the initial impression.. I have no idea what he eventually did if anything because I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore.

Just not feeling it.

Accolades about this book (nay, 'great LIT'rature') informed my purchase.

I barely got through Part 1. It's a cumbersome telling of an ageless tale. Plain language; nothing clever or unique about the prose. Sounded like this - 'She looked up shyly..." "The sword was at his side before he knew what was happening...?" the entire time. Take the lessons of any cautionary nursery/disney story and it's been done with far more interest and appeal. A Dickens novel is Literature. This IMHO, is not.

Perhaps it loses any charm in the translation. Perhaps the topic... 'bad boy narcissist learns lessons by being turned into a frog, I mean, a beast, I mean by descending into varying levels of mood disorders until empathy is obtained', is too close to what I do for a living though it's not been a problem before. Perhaps the slowwww, deep, flat narration just doesn't appeal to me?

Not giving up yet. I turned to the beginning again, put it on 1.5x speed. Better.
Still doesn't change the mundane prose but it does move faster.

Someone End My Misery

Drawn out!!! Boring!!! Story is long and goes nowhere important!!! Don't waste money on this title!!!

One dimensional, slow in the middle.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The Scar seemed a little one dimensional to me. I liked the first part of the book a little past the point that he meets the Wanderer (for the action), and I liked the ending. But, the middle was a bit directionless and agonizing.

I couldn't get into it

Maybe it's my mood, maybe it's because I listened to Tigana first and by comparison did not like this, or maybe it's just boring. I couldn't get past the first few hours. I didn't care about the characters or what was going on and this hasn't happened to me before.

The main character is a duche

What would have made The Scar better?

The story needed a better main character. I just made it so far into the story and lost all interest because of my dislike for the main character.

What was most disappointing about the authors’s story?

I understand you need to introduce the characters and set the events of the story but it took for ever even listen at 2x speed for anything to happen. Even then I just didn't care for the main character. Lost interest and wonder if I could get my credit back.

What didn’t you like about Jonathan Davis’s performance?

The reader was fine my problem was with the story.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No

Any additional comments?

Save you credit/money

slow

Has The Scar turned you off from other books in this genre?

not at all but the whole genre is full of gems surrounded by cabbages

What character would you cut from The Scar?

Carter? or at least reduce his importance. because he really just added fluff.

Any additional comments?

The Scar starts out with a few interesting anecdotes to introduce the main players. But despite my expectation for slow beginnings to new books, I was forced to take a couple days off from listening till I braved The Scar again. It finally moves into the event that sets up the following story. At this point it painfully slowly drawls out the consequences of this event... but very little actually happens! again I was tempted to give up on the book.

Finally the actually story gets started, making everything before it seem like it would have fit into a prologue or tucked into a fable over the course of 10 or so minutes and then in the following chapter stating that the main character of said fable was a real person and the main protagonist of the story. Now the amount of action increases to a full story, though not a very complex one. It builds up some intrigue and mystery though most of the story before the climax is of human nature between the few main characters.

Then the real action gets started and is short lived. There's a section that is good story though frustrating to anyone who gets wrapped up in the story and finally ends in an important choice which the clever will discern before the character and it's suddenly done leaving you thinking: hey, it just got started.