Bradley A Gard

Interesting Story, Atrocious Narrating

Reviewed: 09-12-18

The story itself is fascinating if a bit esoteric and even pedantic at times. If you like highly detailed accounts of rather obscure methods and fields of study, you’ll get a lot out of this book. If you’re looking for heart-pounding adventure, you should probably look elsewhere. There is excitement in the book but not of the somewhat swashbuckling variety as found in a book such as, say, “The Lost City of Z”, for instance. Still, it’s a rich and interesting read for the curious mind.

The narrator, on the other hand...not my favorite. First of all, his whispering, public radio commentator drone is downright sleep-inducing. Second: his pronunciation is generally awful and downright bizarre at times. He doesn’t just struggle with the Spanish bits either (though that’s bad enough, trust me, but somewhat forgivable as it’s obviously not his first language); even his English at times is so strange as to drive one to distraction. At times it’s almost as if he’s an American impersonating an Englishman impersonating an American...or something. Like I said: bizarre. Ultimately, it comes off rather amateurish. Is there really no one on a professional production to coach the narrator on something as crucial as pronunciation? Maybe I’m just more pretentious than I realize and it wouldn’t bother most people but I literally will avoid books in the future which use the same narrator.

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