-
Uprooted
- Narrated by: Julia Emelin
- Length: 17 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Spinning Silver
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father's inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty - until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk - grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh - Miryem's fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered.
-
-
One of my favorite authors. Only 1 small complaint
- By R. W. Olsen on 11-30-18
By: Naomi Novik
-
A Deadly Education
- A Novel (The Scholomance, Book 1)
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Anisha Dadia
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life. Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts; I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, making myself the dark queen of the world.
-
-
Intersting concept, way too much self pity
- By Rune on 10-13-20
By: Naomi Novik
-
His Majesty's Dragon
- Temeraire, Book 1
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo - an unhatched dragon egg - fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.
-
-
Excellent AU period fantasy
- By Melanie on 07-08-10
By: Naomi Novik
-
The Bear and the Nightingale
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Arden
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil. Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring.
-
-
I was swept away
- By Crystal Midkiff on 02-04-17
By: Katherine Arden
-
The Witch's Heart
- By: Genevieve Gornichec
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology. Angrboda’s story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.
-
-
A Masterful Exploration of Norse Myth
- By Catherine A Rector on 02-19-21
-
The Priory of the Orange Tree
- By: Samantha Shannon
- Narrated by: Liyah Summers
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
-
-
In a word, WOW
- By Kevin Potter on 03-09-19
By: Samantha Shannon
-
Spinning Silver
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father's inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty - until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk - grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh - Miryem's fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered.
-
-
One of my favorite authors. Only 1 small complaint
- By R. W. Olsen on 11-30-18
By: Naomi Novik
-
A Deadly Education
- A Novel (The Scholomance, Book 1)
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Anisha Dadia
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life. Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts; I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, making myself the dark queen of the world.
-
-
Intersting concept, way too much self pity
- By Rune on 10-13-20
By: Naomi Novik
-
His Majesty's Dragon
- Temeraire, Book 1
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo - an unhatched dragon egg - fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.
-
-
Excellent AU period fantasy
- By Melanie on 07-08-10
By: Naomi Novik
-
The Bear and the Nightingale
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Arden
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil. Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring.
-
-
I was swept away
- By Crystal Midkiff on 02-04-17
By: Katherine Arden
-
The Witch's Heart
- By: Genevieve Gornichec
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology. Angrboda’s story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.
-
-
A Masterful Exploration of Norse Myth
- By Catherine A Rector on 02-19-21
-
The Priory of the Orange Tree
- By: Samantha Shannon
- Narrated by: Liyah Summers
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
-
-
In a word, WOW
- By Kevin Potter on 03-09-19
By: Samantha Shannon
-
A Deal with the Elf King
- Married to Magic
- By: Elise Kova
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three thousand years ago, humans were hunted by powerful races with wild magic until the treaty was formed. Now, for centuries, the elves have taken a young woman from Luella's village to be their Human Queen. To be chosen is seen as a mark of death by the townsfolk. A mark 19-year-old Luella is grateful to have escaped as a girl. Instead, she's dedicated her life to studying herbology and becoming the town's only healer. That is, until the Elf King unexpectedly arrives...for her.
-
-
A big unanswered question.
- By MIdwest Suburban Family on 09-17-21
By: Elise Kova
-
For the Wolf
- By: Hannah Whitten
- Narrated by: Inés del Castillo
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose - to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods. Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again. But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood - and her world - whole.
-
-
Performance makes the book!
- By Lindsey Hulbert on 10-23-21
By: Hannah Whitten
-
Sorcery of Thorns
- By: Margaret Rogerson
- Narrated by: Emily Ellet
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery - magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power. Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire.
-
-
Boring
- By Lauren B. on 11-19-19
-
Shadow and Bone
- By: Leigh Bardugo
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
-
-
People are dumb; this book was not
- By Tony Anderson on 03-02-21
By: Leigh Bardugo
-
Stardust
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve the star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran on the most unforgettable adventure of his life.
-
-
This is an ADULT fairytale
- By Rebecca on 01-25-08
By: Neil Gaiman
-
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.
-
-
Best Listen In a Long Time
- By Andrew on 12-30-04
By: Susanna Clarke
-
The Eye of the World
- Book One of The Wheel of Time
- By: Robert Jordan
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
- Length: 29 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When their village is attacked by trollocs, monsters thought to be only legends, three young men, Rand, Matt, and Perrin, flee in the company of the Lady Moiraine, a sinister visitor of unsuspected powers. Thus begins an epic adventure set in a world of wonders and horror, where what was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
-
-
Mixed feelings
- By macyok9s on 09-04-19
By: Robert Jordan
-
The Night Circus
- By: Erin Morgenstern
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.
-
-
Some Magical, Some Not So Magical
- By Eugenia on 05-06-13
By: Erin Morgenstern
-
The Name of the Wind
- Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1
- By: Patrick Rothfuss
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 27 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.
-
-
This is why I joined Audible!
- By customer on 02-14-20
By: Patrick Rothfuss
-
The Final Empire
- Mistborn Book 1
- By: Brandon Sanderson
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison.
-
-
Prepare for sleepless nights
- By tercia on 10-21-18
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Book 1
- By: J.K. Rowling
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!
-
-
Narrator is GREAT!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-01-20
By: J.K. Rowling
Publisher's Summary
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel
Naomi Novik, author of the New York Times best-selling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.
Hugo Award Finalist
Named one of the best books of the year by NPR, BuzzFeed, Tordotcom, BookPage, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly
“Uprooted is confidently wrought and sympathetically cast. I might even call it bewitching.” (Gregory Maguire, best-selling author of Wicked and Egg & Spoon)
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: He may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every 10 years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for 10 years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows - everyone knows - that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
Praise for Uprooted
“Uprooted has leapt forward to claim the title of best book I’ve read yet this year...Moving, heartbreaking, and thoroughly satisfying, Uprooted is the fantasy novel I feel I’ve been waiting a lifetime for. Clear your schedule before picking it up, because you won’t want to put it down.” (NPR)
Critic Reviews
- Nebula Award for Best Novel, 2015
"The magic in Uprooted, with its realistic moral dimension, is so vividly believable that it almost seems you could work the spells. But the book will do that for you." (Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning and best-selling author of The Earthsea cycle)
"
Uprooted has everything I love: a great heroine, new takes on old myths and legends, and surprising twists and turns. A delight." (Cassandra Clare, New York Times best-selling author of The Mortal Instruments series)
"Wild, thrilling, and deeply, darkly magical. An instant classic." (Lev Grossman, number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Magicians Trilogy)
Featured Article: The Best Fantasy Audiobooks to Take You Out of This World
Few audiobooks provide as much of an escape as those in the fantasy genre. Each of the best introduces us to an entirely new world (or a new version of this one), a diverse cast of complexly constructed characters, and a story so mesmerizing we’re reluctant to return to real life. But because the genre is so full of talent, it can be difficult to know what to listen to next. Look no further than this list of the best fantasy audiobooks to get you started.
What listeners say about Uprooted
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alex
- 08-08-17
this may be the worst performance by a reader ever
this was a struggle to listen to - I really wanted to like it but the narrator was just so bad. I thought her accent was fake at first because I just didn't believe it could be real. she had no ability to put any nuance into her sentences and every character had more or less the same voice. do yourself a favor and listen to a sample before buying this because I didn't and I strongly regret it.
138 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brian Turnbull
- 09-17-17
narrator sounds
Story was ok but the narrator is terrible. They sound similar to a robot saying what you tell it to. Siri would have been better
79 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. Hawkins
- 07-24-17
The Narrator?!
The setting, pacing, world building and character development are all well and fine. It gets off to a bit of a slow start, but if you can make it through the first couple chapters you get some real tension, encounter a mystery that needs solving, and it draws you in.
But the narrator.
The story is told from the perspective of the main character, who (apparently) speaks with a moderately heavy accent. Something like a cross between Spanish middle class and Russian businesswoman. The enunciation, tone, and the hard stops between sentences, gives the impression of someone reading a shopping list. It's bizarre and extremely distracting from the story itself.
235 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dave
- 09-08-16
A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups (With Terrifying Trees)
"Uprooted" feels like a forgotten fairy tale that somehow slipped out of our common culture, but would be right at home next to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and all the rest. There's magic, wizards, princes, and evil forests. (WOW, the evil trees are AWESOME. But we'll come back to those later.) But despite that sense of familiarity, I can't think of too many other books like it. In some ways it reminds of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust," and in other ways of Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." Maybe a dash of Katherine Addison's "The Goblin Emperor." It's charming like those books, and yet it's also very much its own story.
Agnieszka is a fantasy heroine for the ages. She's messy, kind, stubborn, bumbling yet brilliant when it comes to magic. I loved how devoted she is to her friend Kasia (and how loyal Kasia is to her). Her relationship with the Dragon could've felt like a revamped Beauty & the Beast, or Pygmalion, and maybe there are hints of all that here. But Novik twists all those tropes and stories and comes up with a relationship and storyline that feels fresh. At it's heart, this is a story of love (not only the romantic kind, although there is that too) and friendship.
Can we talk about the forest and the trees? Because Novik has created some of the most horrifying evil trees I think I've ever read, and it's kind of delightful how vile and terrifying they are. The bark, the sap, the branches...the descriptions and details were terrifying (and delicious).
Julia Emelin's narration has come under a lot of criticism, which baffles me. Because of the Russian accent? Honestly, I cannot figure it out. After reading the reviews, I previewed the narration before I purchased the book, and remained puzzled -- Emelin's voice and accent helped ground tone for the story. I was captivated by every minute of her performance. Novik spun an incredible tale, and Emelin's narration complimented it to perfection.
"Uprooted" is one of my favorite listens in the last year. It feels like a story we've known our whole lives, even if we're just hearing it for the first time. And it's one I'll want to hear again and again and again.
185 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Flynn Fedorczak
- 08-24-17
Don't put yourself through this listen
This is the worst narrator I've listened to, bar none. Buy this book in paperback and save your ears.
The narrator's voice is so heavily accented that I was frequently unsure of what word it was that she was attempting to pronounce (was that "clothing," "clawing," or "clearing"? "feeling" or "filing"? "onion," "oven," or "open"?) and at some points literally couldn't understand her at all. If this had been a personal memoir narrated by the author or something, this sort of narration style could serve an interesting purpose, but this is fantasy; there's no "real" way of pronouncing the non-English words.
The worst bit, though, was that she had the cadence and emotion of a robot. Words that are italicized or followed with exclamation points in the book sound no different coming from the narrator's mouth as words without emphasis. Her timing was bizarrely off as well; it was impossible to tell when half the sentences ended and new ones began.
I could also understand why you'd want the narrator to pronounce the few words in the book's invented language with a realistic sounding accent, but the entirety of the rest of the book was sacrificed to this aim.
119 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- G.
- 11-03-16
Narration is a Serious Issue
Trying to engage with the story and overlook the difficulties with the narration but audiobooks by their nature, make this an obstacle.
It isn't the accent that's at issue but the expression. Like other reviewers before me, I'm experiencing a challenge with the intonation and sentence cadence. It is similar to using an enabled audio feature on a webpage where an automated voice reads the words but doesn't impart any meaning. Comprehension is harder because one has to reconcile the odd cadence (pauses and emphasis are unexpected), discern the sentence structure, and figure out the story.
I want to finish the book but not sure if I can endure the automaton narration. :(
165 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 08-12-18
Wonderful story TERRIBLE narrator
It is a testament to how great the story is that I enjoyed it even though the narrator is absolutely the worst. I loved the story. I love it so much I’m buying it on kindle to read smoothly. I’m astounded that someone let her read this book aloud for money. I get that an accent can make this type of story interesting, and the other audible book from this author is WONDERFUL. But this one? The narrator’s words are so choppy and her pronunciation is just awful. The narrator doesn’t bother to try to change her voice to differentiate characters- or maybe she tried but was unsuccessful. She. Enunciates. Or. Pauses. After. Every. Word. Or sometimes she. Pauses after. A. Couple of. Words. But she just does not read well or tell the story. She. Just. Reads. With. Lots. Of breaks. If this were re-done with someone who speaks smoothly, even with a heavy accent, I would re-purchase because the story is just that delightful.
81 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carmen
- 06-23-15
Charming, creepy and unique
Uprooted is an incredible story, completely absorbing and not at all what I expected. It feels like the real story that a thousand grim fairytales were based on. Surprisingly real, unpredictable and without the simplistic morality.
The narration is brilliant. The accent and the narrator's performance really brings the story alive. It made me feel as though Agnieszka herself was telling her story to me. It must have felt like a bit of a gamble, to use someone with an authentic accent, but it was very effective.
I cannot think of another novel to compare this to, but it did put me a bit in mind of the movie Pan's Labrynth - at times beautiful, charming and genuinely creepy.
This is hands down the best fantasy novel I have experienced in a long time, it's reawakened my love of the genre.
49 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rej
- 05-21-15
Great story, hard to listen to.
It isn't the accent so much as the woodenness of the narration that makes this a little frustrating to listen to. The story is great, but the reading really detracts from it.
259 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- pakkmom
- 08-10-15
A Wonderful Tale Well Told!
This is one of those stories that causes one to heave a contented sigh when it ends.
Naomi Novik has written a tale that reminded me of some of Peter Falk's lines from The Princess Bride, "revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes..." Yet none of this story is in the usual way. It is not a humorous story, but it is a tale of wonder.
Agnieszka, (a mouthful of a name), simple village girl, infuriatingly clumsy, untidy, seemingly slow; handed over to serve the wizard of the tower. He is called Dragon, impatient, cold, unkind, proud and arrogant.
There is an evil wood which is slowly expanding, overwhelming the land spreading grim darkness, evil and monsters. The Dragon is trying to keep the wood from growing but is not succeeding.
The tale unfolds with many other characters adding to a story more complex and nuanced with each chapter. It's quite a long tale and Agnieszka herself tells the story.
Some readers complained about the performance by Julia Emelin. I rather liked her Eastern European accent (though I have no idea how accurate it may be). It made the story more authentic in a way, even if it was at times a little difficult to understand.
Listen to the sample and judge for yourself. If you don't care for her performance, then read the book, it is a satisfying experience and worth the time.
60 people found this helpful