Iron Thunder Audiobook By Avi cover art

Iron Thunder

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Iron Thunder

By: Avi
Narrated by: Tyler Greenlaw
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Afterhis father is killed fighting for the Union, 13-year-old Tom Carroll takes a job at a Brooklyn ironworks to support his family. He quickly learns that they are building an iron-clad, "unsinkable" ship to be called the Monitor to finally sink the Confederates' "unsinkable" ship, the Merrimac.

This is a brilliantly told description of a major sea battle through the eyes of a teenaged boy who both helped build the Monitor and fought on it.

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It's hard to tell if it's the way it was written or if it's the inflection of the reader. One way or the other it sounds like I'm listening to a middle school book report.

Listens like it's read for a 12 year old

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Avis books were the ones that got me into historical fiction as a kid and even now in my 30s i love his books. So when this came across my recommended listens, I went for it

i was a bit worried about the narrator after reading the reviews, but honestly i think he was a great pick. the book is written in past tense and his jovial but young teen sounding voice to me was a perfect fit. He sounds like a young man excitedly telling his war story to a group of friends during a time when story telling was about the only form of entertainment their was. I was a bit bummed to see this was his only narration so far.

As for the story itself? i love it. Avi has a great way of putting tons of detail into the story with plenty of adventure while still not making the book too long to the kids he writes for. If you like war stories, this is a great one.

A Great Childrens Historical Fic Story

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This book is both entertaining and gives you a lot of information on historical events. The characters are great and the story is great 👍

Fantastic!

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This story is very gripping. When I noticed the length I was worried it would be just a short, detail-heavy description of the battle and the construction of the ships prior to it. But the buildup is intense and the subplot of Tom being harassed by a southern Copperhead spy adds intrigue and kept my interest piqued. The short length also makes this feel more like a fun adventure romp through a rousing naval battle rather than just a dusty history story.

The length is also helpful in another way: Tyler Greenlaw's narration is not the best. I like his voice fine and actually found myself enjoying listening to him at the end. Still, this feels more like a somewhat decent read-aloud rather than a professional narration. The pacing is stunted and can be jarring at times and Greenlaw's skill at accents is incredibly disappointing. All of the adults sound exactly the same and there is no attempt at cultural accents or tones, he just slips into a deeper voice that sounds like a little kid impersonating an adult. The length was all that kept me going at the beginning. If this had been more than 3 hours, I would have given up.

That said, I recommend this audiobook. It's fun, it's short, and it spikes interest in history. You'll get used to the narration and be thankful for a chance to hear a great story by a great author.

Great Story! Poor narration

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I liked the story. but the narrator is what killed it for me. They are good narrator, but this book was not a good match for them.

I struggled to finish this book because of that. When I sat down and just pushed through it, the story became so intriguing, and I started to like it a lot.

Story, yes. Narrator, not so much.

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Entire book was written in sentence fragments. It was annoying and clunky. I have the physical copy of the book as well and tried to read it, but listened to it as well. Neither method worked for me. I feel for the narrator because it's hard to know what emotion the author is trying to portray when its all sentence fragments and one word dialogues.

Clunky

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I believe the story is good but the narration is inadequate and very lacking in deliverance.

inadequate narrator

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