Silence Fallen

By: Patricia Briggs

Narrated by: Lorelei King, George Newbern

Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the New York Times best-selling Mercy Thompson novels, the coyote shapeshifter has found her voice in the werewolf pack. But when Mercy's bond with the pack - and her mate - is broken, she'll learn what it truly means to be alone....

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form Mercy escapes - only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe.

Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise....

©2017 Patricia Briggs (P)2017 Penguin Audio

BAD PENGUIN.

I'm really bummed that, after just re-listening to the first 10 Mercy Thompson books, and LOVING them, I find myself listening to this painful, POS production.

P. Briggs wrote this one with alternating POV chapters -- so, I guess that's why they added George Newbern, (a reader who does mainly nonfiction how-to books).

Yeah, that worked out about as well as you'd expect.

It's pretty obvious that George doesn't understand this series, this genre, or the characters and their relationships -- or even how to read well. The hesitations, pauses and flailing attempts at finding the right emotional tone, make his weirdly dissonant performance jarring, and completely ruins the flow of this book.

And this is especially painful when followed by the chapters read by Lorelei King, the narrator who has depicted these characters for over 86 fabulous hours of audio, to the delight of P. Briggs' fans.

By comparison, any guy would have had a tough act to follow, but George Newburn sounds completely out of his depth.


BAD Penguin.

55 of 56 people found this review helpful

Distracted - Unhappy - Disappointed

I am fully in love with this series, and have been since the first chapter of book one. However this book threw a very unexpected and unwelcome twist when someone other than Lorelei was narrating. Not that he is terrible at it, but he does not speak with the same fluidity that she does, or in the same manner. His pauses are off and it's just wrong. We, the listeners, have developed a relationship with these characters and the narrator, Lorelei, to the point where we associate her vocal inflections to mean certain things. Her pauses are deliberate and her speech for each character has already been accepted and engrained in our minds.

At least for hose of us who have listened to every single book that comes before this one. Lorelei is a wonderful narrator and by adding in this guy, to her already wonderful narration is just plain wrong. The way he reads is infuriating, and he pauses in the wrong spots. He reads like he is in high school, a very distracting speech pattern which in turn distracts from the enjoyment of this book. I am very disappointed in the decision to have a second narrator when the first, Lorelei, is utterly perfect for the entirety of the series. Shame on you.

25 of 25 people found this review helpful

Seriously, why?

Would you listen to Silence Fallen again? Why?

Probably, but it is not the same.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

I am just echoing what others have stated. Why did they add the male narrator? Lorelei's got this. Her male voices were perfect. The male narrator is okay, I think I would enjoy his reading of something I am unfamiliar with, but....I miss my guys. They sound all wrong now.

Any additional comments?

Mercy is as great as always, but the change up was very distracting.

59 of 61 people found this review helpful

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

What didn’t you like about Lorelei King’s performance?

Lorelei's performance was perfect as always. The male narrator was terrible. I had trouble keeping my attention on the book because he was so bad and that has never happened. He obviously didn't listen to the previous books to get a feel for the characters and to keep with their normal tones. Daryl who is always so controlled sounded like a panicked loon. Warren didn't have his slow southern drawl and don't get me started on Adam's voice. Please, please, please don't do that again. Lorelei could gave done both parts and she would have rocked it.

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

I listen to this series over and over. I would pay for it again if the book was redone with JUST Lorelei narrating. I think the story could have been great, but unfortunately I kept getting distracted and had to keep rewinding because of the make narrator.

16 of 16 people found this review helpful

I LIKED it! Didn't Love it.

I enjoyed this book, but only the bits narrated by Lorelei King. Nothing is wrong with George Newbern, but when you listen to Lorelei King narrating 9 books of this series, it is really really annoying when they bring someone else to narrate half of the book in a different way than to what we are used to. I would like to ask Audible and Patricia Briggs to re do this book and just let Lorelei King do what she does best. Bringing Mercy and her pack to life.

Story was good, but different, I didn't hate it , but didn't love it either. It is a good addition to the series but not my favourite one.

31 of 32 people found this review helpful

Where did the goblins come from?

Any additional comments?

I agree with most here that the male narrator was not needed. I looked forward to Lorelei's parts when he was droning on. I think that perhaps it was done to accent the time distortion between the two. My question is where did the goblins come from? Have I missed a short story somewhere?

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Big fan, but did NOT like the male reader

I really, really, really wish Lorelei King had read the entire book. They had a male reader for Adam's parts in the book, but his voice was completely wrong. Lorelei King has already established voices and cadences and nuances for these characters; and this new guy was way off. It felt like he had never heard King read these books or even tried to fit in. It was so distracting.
*Spoilers*
And I'm not sure how I feel about Bran's part in this. I wish Briggs had let us know or given us a little more of a hint on Bran. And I wish he had just a little more role since he was there. It threw me off and not in a "that was a good twist" kind of way.
But I am going to buy the physical book and read on my own without the bad male voice and see how I feel about the story. These are my all time favorite novels and I was really disappointed when I listened to the audio book. (I drive for a living and don't have time to read physical books as often as I'd like, which is why I rely on audio books so much)

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Great story but new narrator doesn't fit

Any additional comments?

The male narrator doesn't even attempt the accents that have been established in this series. His chapters are jarring and don't fit the rest of the book.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Physical book would be better..

Any additional comments?

I love the story and I love Lorelei King's performance. I gave the performance 3 stars because She was not the only narrator for this book. It is one of my biggest pet peeves when I am listening to a series and I can imagine the characters with specific voices and then all of a sudden they change or add a new narrating voice. Lorelei king has spoiled me with her amazing performances time and time again with my love for this series which is why I was a bit disappointed when they added a male narrator to the mix for this book. He does not capture the personalities of the characters like she does and makes it a bit difficult to listen to. I really hope for the rest of the series they only have Lorelei King.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Completely agree with the "Why Ruin a Good Thing"

I cannot tell you how difficult it is for me to wait on the next Mercy Thompson book. I basically listen to other books just to bide time in waiting for the next release. Lorelei King has done a FABULOUS job in the past with these books, and the voices. I agree with all of the prior reviewers. Why would you ruin a good thing. The new narration ruined the book for me. I will admit, I am hooked on the world of Mercy, her life , and the characters. I will anxiously await the next book--I hope the next release will go back to the single reader with Lorelei King.

93 of 105 people found this review helpful