The Other Lands

Book Two of the Acacia Trilogy

By: David Anthony Durham

Narrated by: Dick Hill

A few years have passed since the conquering of the Mein, and Queen Corinn is firmly in control of the Known World---perhaps too firmly. With plans to expand her empire, she sends her brother, Daniel, on an exploratory mission to the Other Lands. There Daniel discovers a lush, exotic mainland ruled by an alliance of tribes that poses a grave danger to the stability of the Known World. Is Queen Corinn strong enough to face this new challenge? Fans of this bold, imaginative series will not be disappointed in the answer.©2009 David Anthony Durham (P)2009 Tantor

The Best in the In Fantasy, A++++, Grity realism!!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Other Lands to be better than the print version?

Yes, I would amazing story tellers, loved his voice, Dick Hill was made for this business

What did you like best about this story?

The Great Characters, amazing writing by David Anthony Durham, Cliff hanger after Cliff hanger. Story is original. Political, intrigue, Sorcery, betrayal, and Romance! It is right up there withe A Song of Ice and Fire, Book of Malazan,a nd the kingKiller Chronnicles; better than the latter two and on equal part with George RR Martins book. In fact this book is a George RR Recommendation on his must reads! I'm glad He was write, I am now buy everything David Anthony Durham Writes.

Have you listened to any of Dick Hill’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Dick hill is now one of my favorite Audio readers, he did just a great job on this as he did in pride of Carthage

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The betrayal of the Numerech

Any additional comments?

Please get this book, read it or borrow it, if you claim to be a true fan of this Genre

Good series, poorly directed reading

I'm a fan of the Acacia trilogy but these audio books with Dick Hill reading them drives me nuts. While a great performer, Hill's reading style is inappropriate for the Durham's audience, his intonation, style, and sense of drama aimed more towards a child's ear than an adult. Much of the story is voiced with unnecessary exaggeration and he really overdoes it to a frustrating degree. Great story, poorly chosen reading approach.

Good book ruined by unlistenable narrator

I wish I had read this series on paper instead of trying to listen to it on audio. The series is a solid high fantasy epic. The narrator, however, ruins the audio version completely. He alternates between hushed mumbling whispers and shouting bellows, so that you have to choose between missing half of what he says or blowing your ears out. The man sounds like he is trying to tell a story to seven-year-olds around a campfire. It's basically "AND THEN, HE...mumblemumblemumble...YOU...WILL...NOT...mumblemumble". I slogged through one book of that, just because the story was so interesting. But I couldn't make it through two.

The Origins

I enjoyed this as much as the first volume. The preface was excellent is summarizing the story to the point where part two begins. This book explained the origins for the conflicts to come in part three. These books are a great mixture of fantasy, fiction and morality.

Hooked on Acacia

I absolutely loved the first book in the Trilogy, Acacia, and the characters and the bizarre circumstances and events and the courage and the complexity and the bizarre scentiened species -- it is a tale to fill your mind with new imaginations and wonders! The plot brews and characters live and die,... can't wait for the next one!

i liked the first book, but....

this one seems to drag on and on... the characters lost their flavor right away in this book. the narration was fair but the book just didnt meet expectations. this book was a waste of a audible credit my opinion.

jmncoda

Too Many Plot Holes

Similar to first book in moving point of view across dozens of characters - almost always at some kind of critical point for that character (very irritating). The interesting part of this 2nd book is that it lays down more of the total picture/history of the world. The disappointing part was that there were issues with the plot - the Other Lands are populated by race that is sustained on souls and is supported by a slave quota of children that's said to be in the thousands sent by the "known world." Problem is these slaves can't reproduce and yet you get the impression there are millions of them in the Other Lands... can't get from a few thousand kids a year to millions with people who can't reproduce in a normal lifespan.

I found it frustrating that as the books have continued, the creatures are getting out of proportion to the rest of the environment. I can only guess to emphasize the point that the upcoming war will be hopeless for the people outside the Other Lands. It's now to the point that creatures of dinosaur size apparently exist alongside everything else - why?. Human-type races range from normal size to 8 foot - why? Would be more enjoyable if the created world had had a little editing applied.

I just can't get over the narrator!

I read the first book the old fashioned way. So as I've gotten more intrigued by audiobooks and found that most of the series I've been reading transfer over quite well, I was excited at another chance to convert my commute into tackling another long fantasy novel.


However... Dick Hill's narration makes it VERY hard for me to keep listening. I've taken month long stops twice now, but I think I'll be able to make it through this time. His affectations and accents, while intending to add spice and intrigue to the story I'm sure, often have me rewinding time and again to fight through the slobbering tones and ear piercing screeches to figure out what he's saying. It's not even that he's from the commonwealth somewhere, 85% of the time when he's just reading I have no problems, but when he "speaks" in a character's voice... He's accents for children and blue collar workers are the hardest for me to get through.


Anyway, the story is intriguing enough, I've been enjoying the actual substance of it, but when the next book in the series comes out, I'm switching back to paper.