The Queen's Gambit

By: Walter Tevis

Narrated by: Amy Landon

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Engaging and fast-paced, this gripping coming-of-age novel of chess, feminism, and addiction speeds to a conclusion as elegant and satisfying as a mate in four.

Eight-year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control.

By the age of 16, she's competing for the US Open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on the professional circuit, the stakes get higher, her isolation grows more frightening, and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting.

©2018 Walter Tevis (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Easily the worst narrator I've heard

From the opening sentence I knew the reader was gonna be bad. She was. I groaned at times. I gritted my teeth at times. I liked the story but was glad the reading was over.

Just Like the Netflix Series

If you liked the Netflix series and wanted more, then here you go!
The series is almost a line by line recreation of the book but I liked the book more. The narrator is painfully monotonous. If you’ve seen the TV show, then I feel like you may be able to tolerate the narrator more than if not. Overall, great book if you can get past the narration.

Narrator Not as Good as Book

I started with the Netflix show, then listened to this. I loved the book. The performance, not so much. The inflections were weird and hard to get used to. After a while I didn't notice, but at first was worried it would ruin listening to the book for me.

See the Netflix adaptation FIRST

There's much to love about this title, but I wonder if it would've struck me as such if I hadn't seen it on Netflix first.
Having mental access to the series, with its enduring visuals (I watched it twice that's how luscious it is) to refer to back to made the narrator's total inability to perform the male voices somewhat bearable. She pulls off a few of the Russian voices with a degree of aplomb, but that's me being super generous.
This listen deserves a grandmaster narrator on par with the parade of top tier chess players that one meets!
The scant affect that Beth gets to explore both within in herself and with other people would've alienated me were it not for the Netflix adaptation.
Not a book I'd have ever chosen otherwise.
Very unique book and what a delight to find "girl power" in a 70s novel!

Such a fun book!

I loved this book and I don't even know anything about chess. I already miss the main character.

Irritating narration

The narrator ends every sentence with a held stress on the final word. Super calm speech with that odd accented word at the end of all her sentences. Living ROOOOM. soFAAAAA. doLAAAARRR. I found it very distracting and irritating to listen to.

Enthralling and captivating story

The reader isn't amazing but it's really not as bad as the other reviews say! Don't let it stop you from a great audiobook.

the voice was too robotic.

the voice was too robotic. which made jarring to the story. the story itself was wonderful

I Never Leave Reviews

I never leave reviews but thought it was needed on this title. After watching the Netflix series I thought it'd be fun to listen to the book to relive this great series but I was horribly disappointed by this terrible narrator.

I have about 100-110 titles in my collection (I think) and this one has, by far, the worst narration I've ever heard.

Absolutely unbearable. A shame for a work that has so much potential.

Captivating beginnings to end.

I don't normally listen to fiction but decided to give this a try after my wife raved about the TV mini series. I could not put the book down and looked forward to my time on the rowing machine with it every morning! A great listen especially if you love chess!