Thuvia, Maid of Mars

Mars Series #4

By: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Narrated by: Gene Engene

Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

This is the fourth audiobook in the "Mars Series".

Mars is divided, as not one, but two princes and a Jeddak vie for the love of Thuvia of Ptarth. When she is mysteriously kidnapped, treachery threatens to throw Barsoom into a bloody war. Now Cathoris must follow in the footsteps of his famous father, John Carter. He must overcome phantom armies, dangerous spies, and savage beasts in a heroic attempt to rescue not only his true love, but to save and reunite Mars.

©1920 Edgar Rice Burroughs (P)2005 Books in Motion

A DIFFERENT TWIST OF CHARACTERS

What did you like best about this story?

It was a different twist to the John Carter series. This book is the story of Thuvia and Carthoris. They are the two main characters in this book. A break from John Carters adventures. I bit different. More...uhhh..."metal and ethereal"

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I can describe Gene Engene in two words, "Captain Kirk".

Dang...after listening to the first three of the Barsoom books by the awesome Scott Brick, I tried to find others that he narrated. But I could not. So now I had three options to continue with the next two (or three) books in the series:

John Bolen
Gene Engene
Raymond Todd.

Todd Bolen should not be narrating. Period. The book was returned.

Then I tried Gene Engene. This guy takes a breath, says what he can in that breath, and then pauses for 2 or 3 seconds...EVERY SINGLE TIME. (Captain Kirk)!

I just could not get over it. And sadly, you cannot catch these pauses when you listen to the excerpt when testing what the narrators sound like on the book sample.

I am returning it, and going with Raymond Todd next. I am crossing my fingers, as I really like listening to this series. I read them as a teenager (I am 48 years old now), and am reliving the adventures while I do my morning runs.

Any additional comments?

Not sure why, but the chapters that are said, are different from the chapters that show on my Droid.

The author is saying that I am on chapter 6, but the title on the top of my Droid says chapter 3. This gets confusing, and hard to know where I was at if I accidently hit the wrong button while running.

FYI: Six chapters is the most I can bear. I am returning it and starting it from the very beginning with narrator Raymond Todd. I feel I missed-out on so much of this book by being distracted by Captain Kirk's reading.

A Great Series, performed atrociously.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

After listening to the first 3 books I was very anxious to start this book. But within minutes the reader tendency to put the emphasis in the wrong place of every sentence and EXTREMELY annoying tendency to slightly pause between each word as if he needs glasses and was having trouble reading the text of the book. At times this pause between words became so irritating I had to stop the recording and step away from it as it was driving me utterly mad. I even tried speeding up the narrator via the Audible app options but this was still irritating. The half hearted attempts at adding differing voices to the characters was also simply annoying.

Would you be willing to try another one of Gene Engene???s performances?

I would NOT buy another title performed by Gene Engene. In fact I had purchased book #4 and #5 which is also performed by Gene Engene before knowing he was so inept at the performance and to be honest wish I had not purchased either.

not th best reader

What did you like best about Thuvia, Maid of Mars? What did you like least?

I had a hard time with this one because of the reader lacked that magic to transport you.

Would you be willing to try another one of Gene Engene’s performances?

No

Great Story, Horriable Performance, but worth it.

Edgar continues this Awesome story, and Gene did a great job, however after being spoiled by the other stories, Gene just does not capture the characters as well. Still a MUST listen to in order to continue the series.

Narrator ruined book

The narrator is so bad that I am returning the book and getting another version with, hopefully, a better narrator. A previous reviewer referred to the narrator as "Captain Kirk," but at least Kirk has emotions. This narrator uses a stilted monotone.

Had I not heard Scott Brick

Had I not heard Scott Brick's narration of the first three books, I might have given a higher rating to this version.
The story is one I loved from my teen years and still do.
I is simply that I enjoyed Scott Brick's narration so much more.
If I ever discover his version of this series I will buy it again

Very predictable story and droning narration

I loved the stories with John Carter. The first story with his son as the main character was very predictable with basic story lines. The narration was not as exciting as the first few books of the series. The narration was not exciting and very boring. The narrator's voice reminded me of a lecture in college where the subject was very dry.

upset with the narration

I love the John carter book series but the narrator in this one was a little hum drum. almost put me to sleep at points.

The reader is anoying, painful to listen to

What did you like best about Thuvia, Maid of Mars? What did you like least?

the reader is anoying. his speach is broken and contains too much pronunciation

What other book might you compare Thuvia, Maid of Mars to and why?

none

Would you be willing to try another one of Gene Engene’s performances?

no

Do you think Thuvia, Maid of Mars needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

it has one

Fabulous Story with a sophomoric performance

I was so anticipatory after listening to the first two books from this series. The story line is a continuation of the lineage of that great Virginian John Carter who in the last two books stole my heart and imagination. When I down loaded this book I couldn't wait to listen to it. It didn't take long, however, for me to become frustrated with the reading style of Mr. Engene. His style lacks variation in voice cadence as well as he has a tendency to pause and emphasize at the wrong time. I had to actually force myself to finish listening to the book. This is a tragedy of excellent material meeting poor performance. Mr Engene's performance did improve toward the end of the book. By starting with the style he finished with, I believe the overall rating that I gave would have been a 4 star or better.