The Harbors of the Sun

Books of the Raksura Series, Book 5

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May

Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

A former friend has betrayed the Raksura and their groundling companions, and now the survivors must race across the Three Worlds to rescue their kidnapped family members. 

When Moon and Stone are sent ahead to scout, they quickly encounter an unexpected and potentially deadly ally, and decide to disobey the queens and continue the search alone. Following in a wind-ship, Jade and Malachite make an unlikely alliance of their own, until word reaches them that the Fell are massing for an attack on the Reaches, and that forces of the powerful Empire of Kish are turning against the Raksura and their groundling comrades.

But there may be no time to stage a rescue, as the kidnapped Raksura discover that their captors are heading toward a mysterious destination with a stolen magical artifact that will cause more devastation for the Reaches than anything the lethal Fell can imagine. To stop them, the Raksura will have to take the ultimate risk and follow them into forbidden territory.

The Harbors of the Sun, from celebrated fantasy author Martha Wells, is the thrilling follow-up to The Edge of Worlds, and the conclusion of a new Three Worlds duology of strange lands, uncanny beings, dead cities, and ancient danger.

©2017 Martha Wells (P)2020 Tantor

Praise for Raksuran Goddess Martha Wells, & Complaints for Either Audible or Her Publisher

First- Martha Wells is phenomenal. She is among a (growing) cadre of women whose superior creativity, originality of conceptualizing new worlds & the beings who inhabit them, and sheer talent make them the very best of the fantasy & science fiction writers today.
Which is why I was so incredibly frustrated to find & devour the first four books in the Raksura series, as well as two fantastic books of shorter stories but not have the grand finale, “Harbors of the Sun”, available in audiobook! I contacted Ms Wells a few years ago when I’d finished the fourth book & couldnt find the 5th/finale. Not only did she graciously respond to my inquiry, she seemed surprised it wasnt available in audio!
So after a long wait, I was really thrilled when Harbors... became available on Audible. The book itself was fantastic- pure, wondrous Martha Wells greatness.
My problem- and I’ll never really understand why publishers do this- is that after 6 other wonderfully narrated books under his belt, Cristopher Kipiniak was not tapped for the finale. It boggles the mind.
Even that can be forgivable. People get sick, or die, or have other obligations, or are a pain to work with, though that would seem unlikely here.
Daniel Thomas May might be a perfectly fine narrator. And I was able to get through the book because the story was so good and I really wanted to hear it. But I take exception to the fact that either he, or Audible, or Recorded Books & their production people, didnt do any prep work to prepare him for the job. He totally changed all the voices, which is to be expected...but he also changed a lot of pronunciation of a LOT of the key characters, which is far less acceptable. It’s a pretty basic thing that could’ve easily been avoided, & it was an annoying & constant distraction for the first half of a great book.
I realize we’re in the midst of a pandemic & there are far worse problems facing us as a species. I get that. But as someone who pays for a lot of Audiobooks every year, this is one of those times where I feel like laziness on someone’s part did a disservice to Martha Wells, and
her fans.

wish they could have gotten the original VA

I can't even finish it. either the current reader never listened to Kris' previous readings or he didnt care. I can totally understand not having the same voice acting but when one doesnt even pronounce the names correctly, the way we've been hearing them all this time, then they shouldnt have even turned this into an audible.

the story line is brilliant though! get the ebook or paperback and never listen to this audible. it'll save your soul.

Skip this audio version

I have never been upset with a voice actor before in my entire reading and listening experience. However *this* actor not only mi pronounced all the previous pronunciations from the entire series, he then gave everyone weird, halting accents and voices that he started to mix up towards the end of the book. By the end of the book two characters sounded exactly alike. Then he gave one of the strongest characters a frail, old woman's voice just because she's old... despite the fact that the book says several times that older Raksura get stronger. But he didn't stop the butchering there, he thennn gave that old woman voice to another YOUNGER character. I actually had to pause and rewind several times to figure out who said what because of the mixups. He completely ruins this book and it's the final in the series! As much effort was put into the voice acting as the cover art. I should have known it would be a hot mess then.
Still Martha Wells told a beautiful story and I will just read it instead. You should too.

That’s not how Stone sounds

I can handle the changes in pronunciation. The reader is competent so it’s easy to dismiss them as differences in opinion. Like apricot and tomato.

But Stone sounds like a sinister juvenile. Since he’s such an important and ancient character, I don’t know why he got short-changed on the voice department. And it’s making it difficult for me to listen to the story without wanting to scream.

And the cover art looks like some crappy amateur graphic designer got to it. WTF? I know there’s a beautiful cover available.

Disappointed.

I had been waiting a LONG time for this title to be available. Not only my all time favorite fantasy series but the series that got me good and hooked on fantasy in general. Story and character development are both excellent and you really feel you are entering the world of the raksura. I was appalled by the narrator of the final book however. Not by his voice, which was quite nice, but that he mustn't have spent even 10 minutes trying to learn how to pronounce ANYTHING or ANYONE'S names even remotely the same as the first books. I didn't expect him to try to copy voices but goodness sakes it was a frustrating listen.

Very good story long delayed

The Harbors of the Sun is a fine story with convincing characters. I wish it had been released when the book was I release several years ago. Daniel Thomas May is a good narrator. I have enjoyed many of his audiobooks. But the change in narrators from the previous books was a shock.

Enjoyable

I enjoyed this story; the characters are well written. It flows well from chapter to chapter; the listener is going feel engaged in what is going on in the story. This book is well worth the credit. 👍✔❤😎

Love Raksura

Narration started very sloooowww, but improved. Story also started a little slow, but I ended up loving it.

well worth the long wait

The different voice took a little getting yes to but the narration was well done. In all a fitting conclusion to one of my favorite series.
If you're new to the series start with The Cloud Roads.
enjoy!

Best Reading Ever

The Raksura always make for a reliable excursion into the strangest totally believable world ever built... but I don't normally write reviews. In this case, it's the reader that makes me Do Something at last. Daniel Thomas May is perfect - and the voice earlier in the series... isn't. I wish they'd let him re-record the whole set; I'd buy them all!

No,No,No!!

Why, why, why didn't they have Christopher Kipiniak narrate this book? After six books in this series, the voices of the characters are so ingrained, you can tell who's speaking, without being told. This book has been ruined by the different narrator, plus the fact that Daniel Thomas May just isn't a very good narrator (IMO). Fortunately, I have read the printed book, and know how the series ends. I just wish the Audio version had been read by the previous narrator. Very Disappointed :-{{

Great book, the narrator's continuity is dire.

The book content is fantastic, I was thrilled to see it finally coming out in an audiobook format after years of on and off requesting audible record the last book. What's the point of only having 4 of a series of 5 (6 of 7 books) recorded?
However after so many years wait for the final book to be out into audio format and take me away to save Bramble, merit and the Reaches themselves, I'm let down by them not getting the same narrator in. Or at least one who could read in the title that this is book 5 in a series, all of which have been recorded. Realise there are audio samples available for free and spend a few minutes to learn and adopt the same pronunciation as in all the other books. To create a bit of continuity and quality control to the series. But no where did that happen.
They have failed to do the book justice and it's a let down. Hee became Hai, Dee-lin became Dell-in. Previously high pitched quick voices became low pitched and slow. I've listened to him in other books and in all of them he can vary the sound of his voice, but he comes across flat and toneless. If something was trying to eat me, I doubt somehow I'd sound emotionless, let alone the potential horrible fates available in this book. But he manages it.
I often re listen to these books but I'm going to return this one, not even 5 minutes to it. I own the book and this is worse than not having it in audiobook at all.

Three characters have spoken and I've noped out of here. Which is tragic. All this time waiting, all the effort people made bugging Audible to put into an audiobook for them to ruin it by getting in someone with as little initiative (to do research) and imagination (toneless void) as they have. We have been waiting years for this, if Christopher Kipiniak was busy then why not just wait a little bit longer to get him and do a proper job of the one shot they had at this and made a success of this audiobook. A little longer wouldn't have mattered to get a decent quality product up to the same standard as the previous books. It just comes down to a colossal lack of care, effort and interest in doing a good job.

They got Ghost story from the Dresden files narrated a second time, but I doubt that it'll happen this time given their reluctance to record this title which is a load of salt in the wound. Because if other people don't keep it like I am doing it won't do well. Which translates to any future Martha Wells short stories in this world probably not being recorded.

The content is up to it's usual world spanning standard and takes us to areas and cultures we haven't seen, which is all very interesting, but the narrator just ruins this. Lack of tone, continuity and effort. Buy the book and pretend to be Christopher Kipiniak in your head. Hard, but better than this.