More suitable for children?

I found the narrator’s voice irritating, slow and ill-timed with his emphases. I nearly returned, but read other reviews and tried to listen with the view that it is written for children. It felt slow and repetitive and I kept switching off. I think I am not the right audience for it - and it couldn’t compare with the book I listened to before it in terms of depth of characters (the pariah by Anthony Ryan).

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1 person found this helpful

Is this for children?

It doesn't say so but this is possibly a children's book.
The narration even on 3X on my iPhone is slow.
I'm trying to finish it as it's not a bad story but I'm not sure I'll manage as still 3 hours to go at 3X another hour. If you like children's stories or just stories where even the baddies are nice then you might like this but you'll probably need to speed it up a bit.

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1 person found this helpful

Good book narrator a bit slow

large gaps between sentences and slow reading was frustrating during the tense parts. good story though

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Needs a better narrator

This is the first time that I've enjoyed a book less when it was read aloud. The narration is really poor and robotic. I don't think I'll get the other 2 books now as it's quite off putting.

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Awesome story - bad narrating

Would you consider the audio edition of The Magician's Guild to be better than the print version?

I would definitely not, the books are very well written, and whilst some people think that the beginning of this first book is slow, I don't think that it is so slow that it puts anyone off. It sets the scene and has some very good character development. I have the paper version of these books, and downloaded the audio as I have started listening to stories to send me to sleep... though it is almost hard to sleep listening to these as the stories are sooo good!! Personally, I prefer reading as I can then give the characters my own voices and personality parts, I was not a fan of how they were portrayed in this audio book.

What did you like best about this story?

In the written version, Sonea. In the narrated by Richard Aspel version - I will say the whole story, despite how much i disliked the narrator. I found it very difficult to appreciate the weird voices that Richard put on, especially his version of Sonea which I found very annoying. She is supposed to be a proud, brave young girl and Richard voiced her as a pathetic weakling which i found awful!

Any additional comments?

As annoying as I found Richard Aspel, I have downloaded the second book in the series 'The Novice' and will also get the third. This series is one of my favourite sets of books and I refuse to let the narrator put me off! I hope there is a different narrator for the 'Age of The Five' books as by then it may have become too much, and I don't want to risk Richard Aspel ruining Auraya for me too!

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14 people found this helpful

still my favourite book

I first read this book a couple of years ago when it was published in Germany. Since then I have read it over and over again in German and English. The narrator of the audiobooks is brilliant. Besides, I think the story is great and I love the character development.

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2 people found this helpful

entertaining!

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. The narrator has a nice voice and he is easy to listen to.

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1 person found this helpful

Too....much.... hesitation.

I read this book and adored it. I struggle with reading these days. and trying to listen to this is awful. It feels like the narrator is taking a few sips of water between every sentence, and the difference between voices is very limited.

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1 person found this helpful

Magic, mystery, slums and thieves

It took me a wile to get into the book as I didn't take to well to the narrator. Once I got my head around the narrator's strange voices I found my self quite hooked. Followimg the Story of a young girl named Sonea I entered into the underworld of thieves, slums, magic, mystery and the desire to know what will happen next....I suppose I'll have to buy the next book.

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QUITE GOOD

I enjoyed it but feel it dragged a bit in places. Some good characters. Will have to read the books for the rest of it because I see the audio books for two and three are abridged!

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