RA

The AI Voice Narration is Awful

Revisado: 02-11-25

I bought this bc I’d listened to James Bell’s Great Courses course on fiction writing, and wanted to see what else he had to say. He has a very personable voice when he performs that course and does it well. I don’t know why he didn’t perform this one as well. The AI voice narration is *really* bad.

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Great, fun listen!

Revisado: 03-06-16

For some reason, I had a hard time getting into the print version of this story, but Michael Page's performance of it is fantastic, and Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard stories are incredibly fun. The characters (and the prose!) are witty, colorful, and just incredibly fun. Lynch has also organized the stories in an interesting structure, telling two timelines throughout. I can hardly wait for the 4th book in the series!

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Really enjoyed this!

Revisado: 01-02-16

It took me a few moments to get used to the style of this audio book. At first, I thought it seemed a little silly, as I am still fairly new to audio books, and the full cast and background music were a bit much for me in the first chapter, but I really grew to enjoy both the story and this performance of it :) The main narrator is fantastic, and the character voices are done really well, too.

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Love this story

Revisado: 01-02-16

This is one of my favorite books, and I've read it many times. I love this story. I did not love this reading of it, though. Partly, I'm sure, this unfair of me because I've read it to myself many times, and the prose and cadences have come to sound a certain way in my mind, which contrast greatly with Podehl's reading. For example, in my opinion, Podehl does not speak in a rich baritone, while the main (first-person pov) character, Kvothe is supposed to.

However, I could look past this kind of stuff if Podehl didn't also pronounce words incorrectly and inconsistently (e.g., he mispronounces "infallible"; he pronounces "Atur" several different ways), and he is inconsistent with the way he does character voices, (for example Willem's voice when Willem is introduced). It makes it seem like he didn't read the story prior to performing it. All in all, though, I love the story, and am happy that it's available in an audio format.

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Nothing happens...

Revisado: 10-24-15

I really wanted to like this story. The idea of it really appealed to me. Despite the persistent references to pop culture, (Harry Potter, etc.), and references to the already dated "modern" world, ("high resolution" and "blackberry" cell phones), which I found really annoying, and which constantly brought me out of the story, I tried to enjoy it.

I listened all the way through, and I kept waiting for the pay off. I kept waiting for something to happen. The story is called "The Magicians," after all. I kept waiting to see what magic would be like in a modern context. About three quarters of the way through there is one scene in which something does happen, but it is shortlived, and that's all that happens.

As far as the narration goes, I felt like I was being talked down to half the time, due, I think mostly, to the superior, arrogant, judgmental tendencies of the main character, whom I did not find likeable most of the time, and not necessarily due to Mark Bramhall's voice talent. I think Grossman really tried to develop some interesting, different characters, especially for the genre. I just don't think he quite arrived there. I was also surprised, not exactly pleasantly, with the direction he took with the Narnia thing.

I think some people will really enjoy the conventions that Grossman tries to break, and while I admire his efforts at trying to create something new, it didn't quite get there, for me at least.

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