Narration could be better - but also could be worse

Typical Weber book - well constructed story in the Safehold universe.
Keating‘s Narration could be better though.
While it is clear and understandable - it is also a bit too monotonous.
I do NOT like overacted, overly-dramatic narration styles - but Keating is at the other end of the spectrum. If I’m a bit tired, chances are good that it will put me to sleep.

Audible keeps changing the narrators on this series - very annoying.

2 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Just awful ( speaker)

Ist Audibles fault that the Change Speakers in this Series all the Time. And then so absolute unfitting ones. The next Book geht's even worse. And this Ruins this whole experience.

1 Person fand das hilfreich

Great but

It's a great story, i have listened to it now several times. it keeps getting better! But the speaker is a desaster

1 Person fand das hilfreich

Excellent story, horrible speaker

The good things first, the story is excellent as always. It's a great continuation of the previous books. Especially that not everything goes the good guys way is great, it rises the stakes and makes for good tension. And it is not done in a casual way in a "I have to show the good guys get hurt too" but in ways that happen in war, are well written and while terrible for my love for the characters affected, still a statisfying read.

Now the bad things: The speaker is just plain awful. If I didn't love the series so much, I would have dropped it. If this speaker had been in the earlier books, I would likely have done it. He fails across the board in what I expect from a professional audio book. Here are the most annoying points:
1. Changing the speaker yet again. Not the speakers fault but three speakers in the first 5 books in a series? Not cool
2. The man is not a good match for the book. His voice sounds old and a lot of the main characters are young, which for me ruins the immersion. Again not technically the speakers fault but still a negative point
3. Delivery: Extremly monotone and boring. I managed to power through, but it was hard
4. Voice acting: For me one of the most important aspects of a professional audio book. There is hardly any voice acting at all, the main characters don't have their own "voice" (Different accent, tone, pitch, etc.), making it very hard to follow along with some of the dialogue. Also, the women sound like men. While it is of course difficult for a male speaker to produce female sounding voices, a lot of them manage it to the point that with a bit of suspecion of disbelief and a bit of getting used to it, it sounds like a woman
5. Pronounciation: Several names are consistently mispronouced or rather pronouced differently than the previous readers, which is a huge no go for me. Also, this was not limited to book specific names but the guy manages to make the name Benjamin sound like Bensamen, which drove me nearly mad.

So to sum up: If you can stand the narrator, I can completely recommend this book.

Narrator doesn't suit

the 4 books before have been awesome with the narrators but this narrator doesn't suit this story. it's one of the worst things to change the narrators in a book series. and far worse if the ones before suit the series much more.