The Gates of Sleep

Elemental Masters

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Kayla Fell

Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the tradition of her acclaimed fairy-tale-inspired novel, The Serpent's Shadow, best-selling author Mercedes Lackey re-imagines Sleeping Beauty-as a dark and enchanting Edwardian fantasy. Marina is the cherished daughter of the wealthy Roeswood family, practioners of Elemental Magic. But evil portents have warned her parents that Marina will be killed before her 18th birthday-by the hand of her own aunt.

©2003 Mercedes Lackey (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Good story, *but*

I love this series, and won't let a slightly dissappointing read of this one keep me from buying the rest, since each seems to have a different person reading them. And I can't say this reader was terrible. Just inexperienced, perhaps? Or not well directed? Her voice is quite lovely. But her pacing and pronunciation need work, both of which can throw you out of the story. (hearing the name 'Dickon' pronounced 'die conn' made me cringe)

Narrator spoils the story

Maybe I'm too picky but when a narrator cannot make up his/her mind which way to pronounce a word or name and does it two or more different ways, it does detract from the story. This narrator does it consistently throughout the whole book. I do realize British pronunciations differ from American but this one is ridiculous. Please do it over with a better narrator and redistribute like you did with Nora Roberts' Whiskey Beach a couple of years ago because I'd like to keep the series.

Fantastic and compelling!

What did you love best about The Gates of Sleep?

The narrator was amazing, really made all the characters come to life. The voice for Madame was perfect! Exactly how I imagined it would be when I read the book. And Marina is a great character, very realistic with her love of the fine clothing and dreams of "society".

What did you like best about this story?

I love a good Fairy Tale parody! Sleeping Beauty didn't let me down.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Absolutely! As it was, I drove slower than usual since I only let myself listen to it in the car .

Enjoyable, light yet with character

As with this entire series, this book plays with a folktale. Part of the fun is to see how the author unfolds the predictable parts in a unique or clever way. Easy to listen to, good for a younger audience if you share your books with family and want to steer away from hot romance and vivid violence.

accent

I really don't understand why Marina has an accent, when the people she grew up with don't. It was irritating to listen to.

love it!

I love the elemental masters series and how they have elements of fairy tales. I love to listen to them as I drive, clean, and they help me relax to sleep when I lay down. they are wonderful stories.

Boring by Comparison

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

The book was very well read but now that i'm listening to it i remember why this was a book i didn't own in paperback

What was most disappointing about Mercedes Lackey’s story?

boring, strings along, not as well done and intriguing as the other books in this series

loved it

excellent!! Mercedes Lackey never disappoints! Her words transform you into a time and place like no other! I having been reading her works for years and not once have i regretted the time spent! Amazed more than a few times but never any regrets!

Enjoyable Read/Listen

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was easy to listen to while driving or doing other things. A break in the listening did not dampen the books story.

Any additional comments?

Enjoyable.

WHAT KIND OF GOWNS DID SHE BRING?

IT WASN'T HER BUSINESS WHY ELIZABETH WOULD NOT MARRY HIM.
Your may be wondering why a He-Man like me would read this. The truth is I read the first book in this series and liked it. I have read some of Lackey's stand alone novels and liked them, such as Take a Thief and Brightly Burning. I also enjoyed Owl Flight. This had a good start in Chapter One, with this mean spirited witch putting a death curse on baby Mirana. In the next chapter Mirana is talking to water sprites and seeing the magical world, others can not see and I am still with it. Then we get into teenage angst and talking about hats, gowns and corsets.

This was obviously written for the female audience and I am sure many women will love this. I on the other hand am not interested in gowns, hats, corsets and teenage angst.

A delightful fantasy

This kept me happily amused, as the arts and crafts background is fun, the Sleeping Beauty parallels don't make the plot too obvious and the narrators voice is plesant and well paced.
There were a lot of 'retakes' left in, so that you heard the sentance read incorrectly, then a pause followed by the corrected version. There were also a lot of words pronounced in a non-standard way- 'sere' as 'sir', 'mulish'as 'mullish', as if no-one had bothered to check the recording before they published it.
This was odd, but didn't really stop me enjoying the suspense or the romance and I'll probably buy the rest of this series.

What was wrong?

I tried very hard with this book, but it fell short of the the previous book for me. I wonder if it was the book or myself? But I would recommend that all the reviews are read and the preview listened to several times. I will keep an open mind with the next in the series, but will take my own advice and listen to the preview a couple of times before I take any action.

Bad narration with no evidence of editing!

Terrible pronunciation, it's not the narrators fault, this book should have been edited. For example the pronunciation of 'gaol' as 'gayowel' (phonetic sound), is just one small example of a teeth gratingly awful listen. Not helped as this is a dull story, laboured, and wandering. So bad, I couldn’t finish it.

Awfully slow

I quite enjoyed the first book but this fantasy based on sleeping beauty was quite dreadful.

Firstly, I didn't like the narrator, emphasis was frequently in the wrong place as though she didn't understand what she was reading and some of the pronunciations and accents were eccentric at best.

Secondly, the pacing was slow. Four hours in nothing has happened until you get to chapter 9, and what I was expecting to be a fantasy devolved into a virtue signalling exposition of social history. YAWN!!

Thirdly, characterisation. Marina was a whining child in a time a girl of her age would be expected to be an adult. I couldn't stand her and had zero sympathy, which is a tremendous fail in a heroine.