Performance?

This is unbearable. I’ve been reading audiobooks since I remember (1990s) - my grandfather was blind. So... this is the first time ever I just cannot bear the narrator. Every phrase has the same hyped tonation and modulation - almost as if the narrator thought it is more about him than the book. Cannot stand it. Will do my best to skip Ralph Lister narrated books (will probably actually try another to verify my opinion tbh). It feels like his narration was more about theatre scene acting than actually serving as a book story proxy.

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2 people found this helpful

Fantastic Listen

After having found this outside Kindle unlimited im so happy to have downloaded the Audible version. well worth every credit. author, narrator and production are fantastic.

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A bad case of Nobby Stiles Vs Starsky and Hutch

This could well be the best book ever written, but I’ll never know as I couldn’t take anymore. The narrator is absolutely awful. I have no idea how he got the job, but whoever hired him needs to be fired. He’s fine when he reads with his own voice, but when he gives the characters a voice of their own he really falls. He literally sounds like a man straining on the toilet. I fully expect him to have had a dose of piles by the time he finished this book. His accents are woeful. My playground turn as Hutch from Starsky and Hutch as a seven year old in 1980 are like a performance from the Royal Shakespeare Company compared to this guy.

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Excellent series, & a change of direction

Though the wait between book one and two was a little long (11 years), it was well worth it. A new task and story awaits the victors of the Shongairi war, so a different pace from the first book. I see lots of ppl whining about the narrator, maybe they should try it and see how easy it is. I found nothing wrong with the narration, and did not believe it detracted from the story.
Looking forward to book three (sooner than a decade would be nice)

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Good story terrible accents

loved the story but let down by the narrators terrible American accents. otherwise an enjoyable listen. He's not a bad narrator, the euro and alien voices were OK.

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Great SciFi novel

Excellent story. Cannot wait till the next novel is released. It’s a David Weber innovation and technology development novel. Feel good story arc with interesting characters and sort of vampires.

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Destroyed by awful narration

Good story, although tended to get bogged down at times, but ruined by the worst accents ever heard on audible... Truly abominable. Really struggled to get through it and finish..

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Great Story

I like a story were it starts as humans being the underdogs, whom recover and get even with the attackers!

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Disappointing Story

After the first book I was looking forward to the quirky story line vampires vs aliens. As we left the first book Dracula was on his way to the stars to give a pointed retribution to the aliens who had attacked Earth. I expected this to be the start point. However you get about two short chapters with Dracula there could have been more but I was skipping chapters so much I may have missed them. The final chapter (epilogue) in the book is where they finally arrive in the alien home system and the book finishes before they arrive at the planet.

So what you actually get is the story of people being people on the rebuilding of Earth, then contacting a new alien civilisation who seem to have inherited humanities "interesting" politics read nasty and underhanded.

What I hoped for was something more akin to Bram Stoker's Dracula's arrival in Whitby, England. The spaceship arriving at the alien home planet apparently deserted and then the aliens taking it down to the planet for investigation and then the payback begins.

Alas this was not to be...

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What a waste of time

I should start by saying I was looking forward to this and pre-ordered it, but what a waste of time and money.

It is so packed with mouthy hyperbole that I stopped listening several times. I know Weber books are usually full of hyperbole but this is not full, it's packed full.

The end really did it for me though, what a waste of time cliff hanger and did nothing for the story. unless you want to wait years for book 3. He also left Vlad etc almost totally out of the story, but hey, this seems to be a theme in these books.

Complete tosh.

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