The Harbors of the Sun

Books of the Raksura Series, Book 5

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May

A former friend has betrayed the Raksura and their groundling companions, and now the survivors must race across the Three Worlds to rescue their kidnapped family members.

When Moon and Stone are sent ahead to scout, they quickly encounter an unexpected and potentially deadly ally, and decide to disobey the queens and continue the search alone. Following in a wind-ship, Jade and Malachite make an unlikely alliance of their own, until word reaches them that the Fell are massing for an attack on the Reaches, and that forces of the powerful Empire of Kish are turning against the Raksura and their groundling comrades.

But there may be no time to stage a rescue, as the kidnapped Raksura discover that their captors are heading toward a mysterious destination with a stolen magical artifact that will cause more devastation for the Reaches than anything the lethal Fell can imagine. To stop them, the Raksura will have to take the ultimate risk and follow them into forbidden territory.

The Harbors of the Sun, from celebrated fantasy author Martha Wells, is the thrilling follow-up to The Edge of Worlds, and the conclusion of a new Three Worlds duology of strange lands, uncanny beings, dead cities, and ancient danger.

©2017 Martha Wells (P)2020 Tantor

well worth the long wait

The different voice took a little getting yes to but the narration was well done. In all a fitting conclusion to one of my favorite series.
If you're new to the series start with The Cloud Roads.
enjoy!

Very poor performance

I’ve listened to all of the books in the series and they were all narrated by the same person… until this book. It’s fine that they changed the narrator but this person clearly didn’t listen to any of the previous audiobooks. He changed the pronunciation of the word Racksura and other character names. How do you make such a drastic change?! Terrible. And like… he could have at least TRIED to keep the character voices the same as the previous books. All of his character voices were completely different from the previous books and it really stunk. The narrator really took me out of the story on several occasions throughout this book. Terrible performance. Do your research buddy.

Wonderful conclusion to a great story with caveat.

So disappointed. Like many of the other reviewers I am a great admirer of the author and actually when I bought this audiobook I never thought to check the narrator, because it never occurred to me that they would not have used the former reader who established great voices and pronunciations throughout all the series. Perhaps the fact that before listening to it I binged the series once again to prepare is the reason it was such a disappointment to come across a new reader. One who apparently doesn’t respect the fact that his listeners would not be expecting the whole tone and sound of the character’s voices to change. Couldn’t get into it, a first for me with a Martha Wells’ work. I’ll read it instead with the voices in my head. Lol.

great series, new reader makes it harder to track

I really like the series. Although both readers are very good, it is harder to follow the characters with the change. I prefer the same reader for all books in a series.

An Excellent Story

Martha Wells has developed an excellent tale over the course of these five books. The Raksura are clearly nonhuman but are displayed convincingly with traits that reader can relate to thereby making interesting and engaging. As for performance I would have to agree with some of the reviews, the change in the reader seemed to upset the flow of the story for me, at least in the early stages of this book. However, I found that focusing on the story as it went lessened this distraction. I will definitely read more tales of the Raksura and keep Martha Wells in my list of top authors. Thank you Ms. Wells for these stories.

Different narrator who didn't do their homework!

Names were pronounced differently from all other books and there was no attempt to mimic the same voices that the narrator of all of the prior books. Sloppy narrator!

Story was fantastic! I love Martha Wells! Would give 10 stars if possible.

changes narrator

The story is good, but they changed voice actors. the new guy is ok, but mispronounces several names and several of his voices don't match the characters.

Still worth listening to but very frustrating!

takes a moment to adjust but you'll get there!

since i came after bingeing the other books first, the switch to a new reader was jarring. that being said, i was able to adjust and eventually fall into the well crafted story. truth be told, when i first started the other Raskura books, it also took me a bit to adjust to that narrator, as some voices sounded different than i imagined. but eventually you get there--probably easier if you haven't just spent thirty or so hours listening to the other books right before starting this one. the story made it worth it to me to adjust. this also likely depends on your individual sound sensory profile as far as how annoying or disruptive the switch is for you. it's not that the reader is bad--just very different and not as consistent as the other one, so it's jarring.

Different narrator disappointed

Like others, i found change in narrator to be distracting and frustrating. I had a hard time following the story at first as a result.

Love Raksura

Narration started very sloooowww, but improved. Story also started a little slow, but I ended up loving it.