Lindsay C.

Very fun!

Reviewed: 02-23-24

My ten year old loved it. The different voices were great (read by the author and she’s wonderful 💗), and he was listening avidly—very exciting and full of adventure! Just waiting now to see if she writes a third in the series:)

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Decent Audio Recording of a Great Sci-fi Book

Reviewed: 07-15-22

I have fond memories of reading this series years ago, and I as happy to find it unabridged here. I will say, I don’t love the narrators voice and you can tell the recording is not super recent (there’s a little crackliness, audible in the sample, but not so much I couldn’t listen to it) BUT I do think she does a good job with reading men and women and multiple accents, so I gave it 4/5 stars. I love this series by Anne McCaffrey, and I’m glad there’s a workable audiobook version to listen to.

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Fantastic!

Reviewed: 02-06-21

Andy Serkis does a fantastic job with this performance—Gollum is perfect, of course, but the rest is wonderful, too. He has a lovely, mellifluous voice and does a great job with the language/text/meaning. I would be ecstatic if he did the Lord of the Rings as well!

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Lovely set of novellas, description needs updated

Reviewed: 09-25-20

Sharon Shinn is one of the authors I preorder everything from, and I think I’ve read almost all that she’s published.

This is a nice set of novellas that take place in four different worlds from her books—the first one is from the Archangel universe, the second from the ‘Heart of Gold’ universe, the third from the ‘Summers at Castle Auburn’ universe, and the last from the ‘Mystic and Rider’ universe. They’re a little darker than her usual, the archangel one particularly in that it deals with a former angel seeker from that world and gives the evil Archangel Raphael a somewhat primary role, but overall it was very enjoyable to have a small foray back into those specific settings.

The narrator is fine (I don’t think the sample is indicative of the rest of the book—that’s her doing a particularly annoying characters voice) but not spectacular, and she pronounces Monteverde oddly (Montever-DAY), though that’s not a deal breaker for me. I do kinda wish they had gotten either the Archangel series narrator or the mystic and rider narrator to do these novellas just for consistency’s sake.

I think the description above just needs updated—it’s not ‘Mystic and Rider 0.5’ any more than it’s ‘Summers at Castle Auburn 1.5’ or ‘Archangel 0.5’ (or perhaps it should be grouped with all of them!). I’m afraid people looking for further mystic and rider books might not listen all the way to the end (it’s novella 4/4) and get frustrated.

Overall, definitely worth getting if you’re interested in a little more from her various worlds, just be aware of what you’re getting!

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12 people found this helpful

Could Have Been Much Better

Reviewed: 09-15-20

I’m kinda torn on how to review—this description sounded like exactly a book I would like—time slip/parallel storyline, historical fiction, Salem witch trials, etc and yet I did not really enjoy much of it. The main character seems kind of slow on the uptake on multiple fronts (to a frustration point, for me) and the insertion of characters familiar to anyone familiar with ‘the Crucible,’ multiple times, seemed unnecessary (like she mentions Abigail Williams by name several times, but without it going anywhere🤷‍♀️) and there was just a lot of repetition/unnecessarily loooooong description (in one instance, if she had denoted that they were ‘shield back chairs’ rather than just saying chair one more time I was going to quit the whole book...). The bones of the story were okay, but it felt like she wanted to mesh AS Byatts ‘Possession’ (with the whole academic intrigue storyline) with ‘The Crucible’ but without coming anywhere close the artistry of either. I finished it, but wouldn’t listen again.

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1 person found this helpful

Great book

Reviewed: 09-10-20

One of the only books I listen to over and over again, I’ve probably listened to it a dozen times because of how captivating it is. It’s a great story of a man surviving on a foreign planet without only the big brains of himself and NASA to help him. Amazing would buy again

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Mostly good...

Reviewed: 07-11-20

This was a repurchase of a book I’ve read multiple times, though years ago. 2nd of one of Anne McCaffrey’s strongest trilogies/series. (Probably listen to Dragonflight first for clarity of story purposes, for sure) Everything is good (I really think the narrator has Brad Pitts inflection/tone quite a bit, if you like his voice) BUT some of the pronunciations are unusual/not what I would think are normal phonetically—brekke (which I always pronounced mentally like Brooke but rhyming with tech, he pronounces (alternately) brek-y or brek-eh and Meron (which I always mentally pronounced to rhyme with Aaron), becomes merOn like maroon but with a soft e.
Not a dealbreaker for me—I generally liked the narration, would listen again, but just some unusual pronunciations if that’s going to drive you crazy.

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Gripping!

Reviewed: 04-20-19

I am a huge Sharon Shinn fan, so I preordered this trilogy, and I’m loving it so far! Definitely she is tackling some darker themes, and the whole idea of the echoes is very interesting and novel (and timely with regard to ideas of robots and consciousness). This series seems like maybe she was given freer rein when writing—there are some steamier scenes (nothing objectionable, just more than she has done before) and some darker plot points (murder/execution in the first of this trilogy, multiple murders and a mafia-type setting for this one). Above all of that, though, this book just grabbed me. The narrator has done a phenomenal job (nothing is distracting to the reader, her voices are all enjoyable and distinguishable from one another) and the whole setting and plot kept me guessing and wondering all the way through. I listened to this almost straight through on a 15 hour drive and it was wonderful. I will definitely listen again to catch everything I might have missed the first time, and I’m sure I will buy this in print when it comes out, but this audible exclusive release was a good fit for the content, I think, and a great addition to her body of work!

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3 people found this helpful

Lovely!

Reviewed: 12-23-18

This is very British lit kind of in the vein of Bridget Jones diary (there is some cursing, though not a ton, and lots of drinking), but it’s a cute serendipity or when harry met sally-type story and Eleanor Tomlinson was a PERFECT narrator for it—the male narrator does a fine job as the male protagonist, but her voice is really rich and mellifluous and just lovely. I’ve been listening as I wrap Christmas presents and it’s all just delightful.

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Lovely Winter Story

Reviewed: 11-27-18

I had read this years ago and thought what a wonderful story, drawing all these different characters and their respective storylines together, so when I saw an unabridged recording I was excited. Another review said they didn’t click with the narrator, so I was a little leery, but I think it was fine. (I do wish the Vanessa Redgrave abridged recording would have just gone ahead with the whole book, I’m sure she did a superb job but I can’t stand abridged works:/). The narrator does do an older/creakier woman’s voice for the main character but she is supposed to be 63 or so 🤷‍♀️. She does a better job with men’s deeper voices than many female narrator, too, and her child (well, teenage girl) voice was MUCH easier on the ear than many narrators. This was an awesome listen for my commute in chilly weather, very British, very cozy. Rosamunde pilcher is wonderful, and I would listen to audiobooks by this narrator again.

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23 people found this helpful