Song of the Beast

By: Carol Berg

Narrated by: Claire Christie, Jeremy Arthur

Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The winner of the Colorado Book Award is "a fantasy I didn't want to put down" (SF Revu). Brutal imprisonment has broken Aidan McAllister. His music is destroyed, and with it the visions he once gave a kingdom ravaged by dragon war. Now, he risks his hard-bought freedom to uncover the truth behind his incarceration - and to meet his enemy face-to-face....

©2003 Carol Berg (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Great story!

Any additional comments?

Great characters, addicting story and a good performance. I hope the author will continue with book 2! :)

Great Standalone Fantasy

Wonderful beginning, amazing characters with flaws that make them human and relatable. Great detailed descriptions, made me feel like I was there with the characters.

Didn't understand the different races at all, more descriptions would've helped (Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, etc. are easy to imagine because those are "trope" fantasy races and you can get away without having to describe them). But Carol Berg just did NOT give enough details about the different races aside from the Ridemark clans for me to get a visual difference with the various races.

Dragons were amazing.

Very much disliked the ending. But, can't win em all I guess.

Good book,

What made the experience of listening to Song of the Beast the most enjoyable?

The narrator, he managed to make each voice different and clear.

What did you like best about this story?

It went in different but good directions instead of treading the stereotypical path of most heroic journey stories.

Have you listened to any of Claire Christie and Jeremy Arthur ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Suffer in Silence.

Love this book

This has been one of my favorite Carol Berg books since it was first published in 2003.

Good enough Fantasy

Honestly, I think this book made me realize I don't care for the fantasy genre. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters in this book. The story wasn't really gripping in any way to me, and I think it has more to do with me and the genre than the book itself. That is why I still give it 3 stars because I think objectively the author does accomplish what she sets out to, and i think for those who are a fan of the genre they would like it.

It just wasn't for me despite some killer vocal performances. However, the most annoying thing with the vocal performances to me was that the two readers pronounced the same words differently. I understand it could be a character choice, but they carried it past their first person characters. For example the male reader would say "Elehim" and the female would say "Elheem." Which would be fine if that is how their characters pronounced it, but they would both make the same character Narhum say it the way the reader did. Maybe this is nit-picky and it probably is, but it is the only reason the vocals didn't get 5 stars, because they were dynamite.

Overall, the story was a swing and a miss for me. Not really landing as a romance, not landing as an epic, and very weak as a mystery. Maybe if I was overall into fantasy more I would have liked it better, because maybe taking all of these weaker elements combined with a joy of a fantasy world it would have come together, but it just didn't. The world however, was extremely well built. Pure masterclass in building class, myth, and society. It was extremely well built, but at the end of the day I just didn't care about what was happening in the cool world. Bottom line I wanted to like this book far more than I actually did.

A story of a broken man just trying to go forward.

Plot
This is not some tale about an epic hero on a quest to save the world; this is the story of a a man who has been broken. It is a bard's quest, not to save the world, but to right a wrong. The pacing is outstanding, action moves forward quickly, but it moments that need a little special attention get it. When the story seems as if it's about to sputter and stall, Carol Berg switches things up and everything is refreshed and renews your interest in the story.

Characters
Aiden McAllister is a broken man. My first thought upon meeting him is he's a bard from a tabletop game going on on a quest, he just dumped his DEX and STR to reach godly levels of performance and given a backstory that makes things interesting. The other characters are a wonderful collection of supporting cast, villains, and allies. Aiden McAllister is a broken man whose music has died, and you feel his apathy, and struggle to move forward despite the fact that a dead man isn't supposed to move. Carol Berg didn't create characters in this story, she created people.

Narration
Jeremy Arthur's narration is nothing short of spectacular. My biggest, and in fact only, complaint is that I had a hard time picturing him as a musician singing for the gods. His inflection and tone are however, both perfectly on point. Jeremy Arthur becomes the broken hero.

Claire Christie was a perfect accompaniment and counterpoint to Jeremy Arthur. The transition to her narration was a sudden and refreshing change. She did a wonderful job pushing emotion and turmoil into her own narrating. Even though she had significantly less to narrate, her portion was no less important for it.

great story

The narrators were almost monotone. Love the story, wasn't impressed with the performance-- it was disappointing.

Living, human characters, realistic story lines.

Berg takes traditional sword and dragon sorcery but creates living, human characters, depths and heights of treachery and comraderie, and love stories that are realistic (complicated and painful but also hopeful).

I've really enjoyed her series, but I'm a huge fan of standalone books. When there is just one shot, the author usually has focused stories, is not concerned about stretching her scenarios into infinity, and thus, has a definable, engaging narrative arc. That is certainly the case here. (view spoiler)

I have yet to be disappointed with Berg, and her record with me still holds strong!

Good readers, though sometimes the female reader confused her voices.

Great novel and great narration!!!

Finally a fantastic Dragon with fantastic Narrators for Adults It's been months since I've been able to find one and I always listen to a couple books a month. It's about the slavery of dragons and their last hope of freedom. I wasn't sure about buying this book, because the Publisher's Summary was so short it doesn't really give enough of an idea of what the book is really about. However, I finally bought the book, because Brandon Sanderson says that Carol Berg was one of the writers that influenced his writing, and I'm trying to read the books that influenced him until his next Stormlight is available. The narration was fantastic too and I think the narration was spot on in this complicated audiobook that has several internal dialogues going on St once at times. I wish there were more books to follow. I'll definately liston to this book again and I'm going to purchase more of Carol Berg's books. I highly recommend this book for any fan of Fantasy.

Decent book

A fun read. Not the best writing, but good characters and a fun story. The story is a bit weak at points, but not enough to ruin the book. Overall, a good read.