Miserable

Narrator has no variance in voice at all, all characters sound the same: male, old, miserable. No matter the age or gender of the speaker it was the same gravelly old man voice. Impossible to distinguish characters in conversation so difficult to understand. Story lost in the monotony.

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2 people found this helpful

post apocalyptic enquiry

I have rather mixed feelings about this book. I didn't immediately take to it though it did draw me in more as I went on.
it's set in a post apocalyptic, globally overheated world. the scene is set by a rather clunky and confusing series of passages set at varying points in time, leaping around. gradually it makes sense a the main story takes shape.
this story is varied. some is straight narrative, some is scene setting, but the most interesting parts are the musings on the human condition, and our polices as individuals, families and societies. these latter parts are what give the book some substance and depth and give it value. however there are some clunky and indeed rather clichéd passages holding things together
as a whole the performance is good and easy to listen to. however cache and cachet aren't the same thing and are pronounced differently. the former appears repeatedly and is always pronounced as the latter, often enough to get a bit annoying. there are a couple of sporadic oddities too

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2 people found this helpful

A solemn angry letter from the future we ruined

A bleak near hopeless account of what will happen if we continue blindfolded into environmental wreckage. Mad max style visual landscapes set to a story of revenge on those who profited from the fuel that set this fire burning. On the surface, at least. In the minds of survivors, a stubborn will to make do, eke a life, some kind of existence. It feels like an inevitable slow slide back into creatures of little consequence. Life on Earth ending how it began but by our own hands.

This is not a story of hope and silver linings. It’s not supposed to be. This is a different way of giving us a look back at the present, showing us what is happening to us right now. Or rather what we’re allowing to happen to ourselves because we are too caught up in the here-and-now to truly realise the scale of what’s going on despite all the signs. Our children’s children are not thinking kindly of us.

A compelling story. Sometimes the pace feels glacial but that’s what you buy into with Tim Winton. Like Dirt Music, the only other book of his I have read admittedly, I was happy to finish it, to be ‘done with it’. Yet the mood of that story continues to live in my mind many years later. I suspect Juice will do the same. It will live on angrily. I hope I will do more to ensure that this story remains just that.

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Brutal and honest

This is a gripping account of our potential future of climate catastrophe. The end of things for humankind. The gradual decay of society and a single man’s holdout for hope in the bleak sun blanched hellscape of future Australia. Fantastic narration bringing it to life and a blistering prose make this a must read.

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loved it

loved the story, absolutely loved the narrator (who, in my head, looked like ange postecoglou, yes, he the manager of tottenham hotspur :)) and love tim winton. was sad it was over.

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exceptional

fantastic story, great characters very gripping. overall well recommended book. love the accent of the narrator as well it's a bit different

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Strangely compulsive listening but too long

I preferred The Road, to which this is similar (especially the ending).
The narration suffers by having several mispronunciations, (especially cache, pronounced throughout as caché.) Why don’t publishers monitor narration?
I enjoyed lots of the imagery and story but, to me, much of it seemed repetitive without moving the story on.

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Totally captivating

I normally listen to non fiction but heard this reviewed on R4 and they all loved it so gave it a go. A bleak but compelling story of a future earth gone through climate disaster that is totally believable and indeed predicted if we carry on. But it’s not preaching to the past, it’s a tale of survival in the inferno of an earth where climate heating has run away. It’s a story of suffering and attempt at dignity told in a grim situation. I could not stop listening but didn’t want it to end. The narrators voice is perfect, the story powerful, one of the best audio books I have had the pleasure and pain to experience.

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An Aussie envisioning of The Road

This Aussie version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road is an impressively imagined epic which is every bit as doom laden as McCarthy's tale.
The narrator is well suited to the story with an unwavering portentiously gloomy style. The great drawback to his reading is that there is not the slightest variation of enunciation during dialogue passages, leaving the listener unable to discern who is speaking.

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A gripping adventure

Loved everything and I’m going to miss it now I’ve finished it! Brilliantly read and a really compulsive listen.

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