Deep Blue - Waterfire Saga, Book One: Deep Blue

By: Jennifer Donnelly

Narrated by: Bea Miller

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Deep in the ocean, in a world not so different from our own, live the merpeople. Their communities are spread throughout the oceans, seas, and freshwaters all over the globe.

When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be winning the love of handsome Prince Mahdi. And yet Sera finds herself haunted by strange dreams that foretell the return of an ancient evil. Her dark premonitions are confirmed when an assassin's arrow poisons Sera's mother. Now, Serafina must embark on a quest to find the assassin's master and prevent a war between the Mer nations. Led only by her shadowy dreams, Sera searches for five other mermaid heroines who are scattered across the six seas. Together, they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood and uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world's very existence.

©2014 Jennifer Donnelly (P)2014 Listening Library

Love this so much

Don’t like the voice as much but I love this book it’s so amazing so happy.

wow

omg... I couldn't stop listening. it just kept me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens next...

Story is good

I'm listening to this with my daughter but the narration is terrible. The story is quite good for kids aged 10 and up. There's some romance, and fights. We switched to the paper version because the narration is so bad.

Horrible narrator

Story is so hard to listen to, narrator is terrible, they need to redo with the narrator from books 2&3

I got this book for my teenagers, but I am hooked

I got this book to play during longer vehicle rides with my teenage son and preteen daughter. It's the only thing that keeps the arguments over music, or breathing, at bay after a while.
In the past, I have misjudged a book or audiobook as "age appropriate" on occasion, so I had been waiting a while to start it for them. A few days ago between the ending of my own book, and my next credit, I decided to scout out a few chapters before I started playing it for the kids. I was hooked immediately. The story is written well, very visually descriptive, but not in the way that drones on wasting time just to make sure you only "see" things the way the author saw them.
It took me a little time to get accustomed to the narrator's young voice (I have 5 children, so I naturally drown out kid voices as a form of self preservation). After a few chapters the voice grew on me and I was able to appreciate the subtle changes between characters and accents, without it sounding ridiculous or forced.
I've always been a sci-fi fantasy reader in both adult and young adult categories , but I don't think I have ever read anything surrounding mermaids. The world created in this story was a refreshing change and a nice new perspective for me.
I am looking forward to the rest of the series and doubt I'll be waiting on kids to catch up.

My favorite book

I loved listening as much as I did reading. It really is an awesome book.

counldnt handle the accents

I had to switch to the kindle version of this and return my audio book. i couldn't understand hardly any of what the narrator was saying. I understand that the narrator for books 2&3 are much better.

Solid fantasy story

First off the performance was fantastic. The accents were very believable. Overall this was a great book, all of the characters were amazingly likable, and you really understood where they were coming from. The story is quite fast paced as well, so if you’re not really feeling a couple chapters it moves on pretty quick and doesn’t dwell. The writing is very good, not too complex, not too simple. My few complaints are that a lot of things are a little silly and cheesy, which is a bit off tone compared to the violence and war going on…The humans (or terragoggs) being involved in the story confused me a lot. We weren’t really told much about them or what century this took place in. This will be explained more in the other books I’m sure, but it’s off tone for me personally. I think the whole under the sea world works well and is very fantastical, so adding regular humans to it I wasn’t a fan of. Also so many new names and phrases are thrown around it can be a little confusing if you have trouble with attention span like me. But I’m general the way they use underwater slang is very cool and makes sense. So overall great book, going to continue the series.

Wonderful story, full of fantasy and details

Would you consider the audio edition of Deep Blue - Waterfire Saga, Book One: Deep Blue to be better than the print version?

Listening and reading is some times better
So for me the print version is very good
And audio is perfect

What was one of the most memorable moments of Deep Blue - Waterfire Saga, Book One: Deep Blue?

When Serafina lost her father and have to scape leaving her mother

What about Bea Miller’s performance did you like?

Wonderful!!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both

Any additional comments?

My dauther and I can't wait To read the next book

Good story, distracting audio

I like the story. The awkward accents made it difficult to follow and understand at times. I almost gave up on the story bc of it but I'm glad I didn't.