Reviews by Thomas

I really enjoyed this audio book - it's got a great story and really great characters.

It's told from a kids point of view which I really enjoyed.

The narration was also excellent. I wasn't used to having several different readers, but I got used to it and liked it eventually.

On the book...
The fall of Hyperion is well named, with each new calamity coming after the last. I've just finished all four audiobooks, so I can't remember the exact details of this one - but I really liked them all!

On narration...
I didn't really think much of the narrator - it sounded like English wasn't his first language maybe. He pronounced every single word - like 'to' and 'a' - fully, which - when you actually hear it done - is quite strange. He occasionally made little errors in pronunciation - saying the 'chasm' with a soft 'ch' sound - which is a bit weird - or maybe he just did the whole thing in one take without bothering to fix the error. He also pronounced 'Aargh' exactly as it is written, with a clear 'r' and then a hard 'g' sound on the end. No-one really says that when they scream - that's just obvious - again - weird. The thing I disliked the most though was his inability to portray anything other than a small range of emotions. Whenever he took on a woman's voice - there was one set tone - and any emotion - such as anger - was not portrayed at all - it was always just 'the soft woman tone'. The range of accents for the different characters was good - just a bit more attention to tone and emotion was needed.

On the book...
I really liked this book - and have recently finished listening to all of the series. Iain M Banks is still my favourite sci-fi author, but I'd listened to all of his audio books and wanted some more epic contemporary sci-fi and people seemed to recommend this - and rightly so. As a whole the story is definitely epic, has great characters and a really great story. In this one, the sex scenes were a bit perverse and unnecessary. I could see the idea he was going for with it - but it didn't play out well really and was pretty cheesy at times. Other than that, the story is really good and well worth reading.

On narration...
I didn't really think much of the narrator - it sounded like English wasn't his first language maybe. He pronounced every single word - like 'to' and 'a' - fully, which - when you actually hear it done - is quite strange. He occasionally made little errors in pronunciation - saying the 'chasm' with a soft 'ch' sound - which is a bit weird - or maybe he just did the whole thing in one take without bothering to fix the error. He also pronounced 'Aargh' exactly as it is written, with a clear 'r' and then a hard 'g' sound on the end. No-one really says that when they scream - that's just obvious - again - weird. The thing I disliked the most though was his inability to portray anything other than a small range of emotions. Whenever he took on a woman's voice - there was one set tone - and any emotion - such as anger - was not portrayed at all - it was always just 'the soft woman tone'. The range of accents for the different characters was good - just a bit more attention to tone and emotion was needed.

The book...
I thought this book ended the saga really well, with some great twists and quite a few really good revelations. It went into detail a bit too much for me on little stuff, but it didn't really take much away from it. The necessity for the tree of thorns wasn't really dealt with, unless I missed it. I liked how old characters came back throughout. Not quite Iain M Banks in style, but the content and story is top notch.

On narration...
I didn't really think much of the narrator - it sounded like English wasn't his first language maybe. He pronounced every single word - like 'to' and 'a' - fully, which - when you actually hear it done - is quite strange. He occasionally made little errors in pronunciation - saying the 'chasm' with a soft 'ch' sound - which is a bit weird - or maybe he just did the whole thing in one take without bothering to fix the error. He also pronounced 'Aargh' exactly as it is written, with a clear 'r' and then a hard 'g' sound on the end. No-one really says that when they scream - that's just obvious - again - weird. The thing I disliked the most though was his inability to portray anything other than a small range of emotions. Whenever he took on a woman's voice - there was one set tone - and any emotion - such as anger - was not portrayed at all - it was always just 'the soft woman tone'. The range of accents for the different characters was good - just a bit more attention to tone and emotion was needed.

On the book...
This continued well from the first story - recapping when necessary, but progressing well too. The new baddee is really good - and that whole idea of having the old baddee turn good (the shrike) and a new upgraded baddee appear - reminded me of the terminator 2 - which i loved (was this written first?). Catholicism as the bad guy - popularised by The Da Vince Code - is always a winner with me. The right wing, secretive and hierarchical nature of Catholicism lends its self well to being inherently evil! Saying that, the author took care to portray the notion that the evil doers in this case were not true Catholics - anyway - don't want to put any spoilers in... It's a good sequel, and it's well worth reading the last one!

On narration...
I didn't really think much of the narrator - it sounded like English wasn't his first language maybe. He pronounced every single word - like 'to' and 'a' - fully, which - when you actually hear it done - is quite strange. He occasionally made little errors in pronunciation - saying the 'chasm' with a soft 'ch' sound - which is a bit weird - or maybe he just did the whole thing in one take without bothering to fix the error. He also pronounced 'Aargh' exactly as it is written, with a clear 'r' and then a hard 'g' sound on the end. No-one really says that when they scream - that's just obvious - again - weird. The thing I disliked the most though was his inability to portray anything other than a small range of emotions. Whenever he took on a woman's voice - there was one set tone - and any emotion - such as anger - was not portrayed at all - it was always just 'the soft woman tone'. The range of accents for the different characters was good - just a bit more attention to tone and emotion was needed.

Wow, what an audiobook. It was long, but I can't see how this particular book could have been shortened.

It's all based on diaries, letters, minutes, logs of phone calls, direct quotes and other direct sources than just other historians material. This makes it all more compelling.

Some parts are a little heavy - but that's to be expected, and they don't last that long.

The whole period is truly staggering and to here details of it in such detail is truly amazing.

I found this book a bit too technical and I couldn't follow it very well.

I'd like to try it again sometime though.

This is a good sci-fi book told by a female narrator, which makes a nice change.

The futuristic details were cool and the nature of her work added lots of interest too.

I wanted to give it four and a half stars as at time my attention wandered a bit.

I liked this book. The gruesome bits are written in a dark and slightly humorous way and the characters are - well - full of character! It's not that scary - but I don't think it's really trying to be.

There's a real attention to detail and a you just know you're listening to someone who's been writing for years. He uses content that a lot of other writers avoid and it adds realism to everything.

I wasn't blown away but I did really enjoy it.

This narrator was the best I've heard from an audio book. He mastered the dark comedy of these books and each character was totally different and full of colour. As for the story - this was also top notch. The sheer imagination at play here is staggering. The time scales, the different worlds, the Culture and the rules and politics within the Culture all add up to make something that stays with you a long time after you've finished reading.