
The Jewel and Her Lapidary
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Narrated by:
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Mahvesh Murad
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By:
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Fran Wilde
The kingdom in the Valley has long sheltered under the protection of its Jewels and Lapidaries, the people bound to singing gemstones with the power to reshape hills, move rivers, and warp minds. That power has kept the peace and tranquility, and the kingdom has flourished.
Jewel Lin and her Lapidary, Sima, may be the last to enjoy that peace.
The Jeweled Court has been betrayed. As screaming raiders sweep down from the mountains and Lapidary servants shatter under the pressure, the last princess of the Valley will have to summon up a strength she's never known. If she can assume her royal dignity, and if Sima can master the most dangerous gemstone in the land, they may be able to survive.
©2016 Fran Wilde (P)2016 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
Serious technical issues with the audio
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Audio issues
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Story Good - Editing Bad
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The problem was the poor audio editing. As in, none at all. The narrator was the perfect voice for the book, but none of her second takes were edited out. She would read a line, then a pause, then the same line with different intonation. This was happening with increasing frequency so much so that there were several instances with two flubbed lines in a row. THIS IS NOT THE NARRATOR'S FAULT. Apparently the publisher didn't want to spend money on getting it edited by a halfway competent audio engineer. Do better.
Great story, bad audio editing
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Serious technical issues with the audio
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On the "too little" front, the characters are flat entities that basically go around willing themselves to be emotionless and do what they randomly (i.e. without thought, deliberation, decision between options) decide to be their duty. Line in, line out, this is probably the most painful aspect of the story. The suicide at the beginning seems to be entirely imposed by plot considerations without any hint of character motivation, and the lapidary's decision to cut off all her "vows" so as not to make noise while running away strains my suspension of disbelief way past the breaking point; it is likewise a heavy-handed necessity for where the character arc, such as it is, is intended to go. Kind of. I guess. Really, this story doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so it's hard to say anything in particular is "necessary" to the plot. Then there's the "teenage girls with absolutely no competence at anything related to the plot linearly move forward without making anything that turns out to be a mistake" aspect.
The narrator has a beautiful voice. Her pitch and accent of sentences often don't seem consistent with the content of the sentence (disclaimer: I think this about many audiobook narrators, although I would estimate that this was more true of this performance than my average sample). I must admit to being quite annoyed by the way she delivers the word "strength" without any "g" sound.
Too much and too little for the format
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Bad Production
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