Awful narration

So the story is strong. But the performance was all over the place. Cadence and idiosyncratic use of pause and inflection that wrecked the flow. The narrator enjoys creating an aural landscape but it became impossible to follow. Character actors and ages were mixed up and accents were just a continuous insensible mess. Clipped Queens English interspersed randomly with something like a mix of West Country and Eastern European inflections and even some West Indies pacing and stops.... Dispersed continuously across inner voice and authors descriptors and spoken narrative... Was so incredibly hard to follow the story, and detracted from the entire thing. Sorry but this was really hard on the English ear.

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Another great story but the narration was terrible

I really don't know what possessed whoever signed Robin Miles up for this story. Maybe an evil sprite? An American who clearly bases their English accents on Dick Van Dyke and Polly from Peaky Blinders, with a smattering of Michael J Fox's Irish accent is not going to be an ideal choice. I'm glad to see a return of the previous narrator for the next one. Robin's story telling was fine though, so I'm sure she's great when she's reading an American story.

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political liberal crap

I have enjoyed the story's so far.
But due to the anti British and brexit and trump I will not buy any more books by this author or the woman that read it.
she made the characters all sound old unlike the earlier books.
very disappointed.
keep liberal crap out of stories.

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1 person found this helpful

nice short story let down by a poor performance

accents and voices made it a hard listen. worth fighting through it. Judith's dementia is handled well.

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Terrible Narration

The narrator is all over place, the accents are inconsistent and awful makes the story difficult to listen to. Makes story confusing.

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4 people found this helpful

Oh what a shame

I'm not sure if it was a deliberate attempt at cleverness by the producer, having a book with anti-brexit sentiments narrated by somebody who sounds as if they are European (German?) who has English as a second language but it's AWFUL and unfortunately ruins the whole thing. I shall have to buy the physical book now as I just can't listen any more. I thought we might be in trouble early on when they pronounced the word "plough" as "pluff" but it just gets worse with accents wandering all over the British Isles in a single sentence for a single character. Nononononono. It's not an easy job, narrating a book on a way which doesn't get between the story and the reader's imagination, and unfortunately this is just a series of wincing clunks. Such a shame as the previous narrators were great. On this occasion I would advise fans to buy the print version of this book.

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4 people found this helpful

Fun Series Gone Something Astray

I’ve enjoyed the first couple of books in this tongue in cheek fantasy series, but this latest instalment was a bit of a mess. Rather than a collection of humorous events, we get one single problem with a rather heavy dollop of current politics to digest. We also get some odd accents which change as the story moves along, when it does move along.

I hope the remaining couple of books will dust themselves down and get back to the light hearted narratives we enjoyed in the first half of the series.

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Different narrator

A different narrator for this book and is to be honest awful. Her accent is all over the place and it really made me struggle with the story because it just made it hard to listen too. Please go back to the usual narrator or get someone who can do a better job.

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Short story

I feel this whole series could be one book instead of using 3 Amazon book credits. Also the plot and writing is not as detailed as other books. (This may of been the writers choice) however the story struggled to hold my interest in great depth. The characters are good and are described well.

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Story Great - Narrator sorry not

I found this one of the hardest book I have ever listened to and I own over 800 audible titles.

I am sorry but although the story was great, well I think it is as it was so hard to process I know I didn't take it all in.

The narrator spoke as if she was trying to make it into some kind of song - her voice goes up and down, up and down but not to any even beat. She gave accents to everyone that were all the exact same for the most part but then she suddenly forgets she is giving them accents and for a blessed few moments she speaks normally. If a vicar spoke as she made Liz speak the church would have no parishioners , she sounds more like a grumpy old man than a young woman. Sitting through sermons from a vicar with that voice would be unbearable.

If the narrator wants to continue like this please go on the stage, your voice with this accent would be perfect for this but not continuously reading a story.

I will be asking for my credit back as no way will I ever want to listen to this book again. I feel edgy and really unsettled after listening to this - I wanted to know the story so did force myself to listen to it all but oh boy it was not a pleasant experience and if this narrator ever reads another in the series then I will not be purchasing it no matter how much I enjoy this series.

I don't like writing a negative review and am sure if the narrator had spoken in her ordinary voice, such as she does for odd moments I would have found listening a lovely experience.

Maybe I am odd but I prefer a narrator just telling the story in a neutral voice and leaving me to put whatever accent I want onto it in my head along with everything else as I picture it all as the story unfolds.

Sorry Robin Mills but if you are going to always narrate this way I will be avoiding every book you narrate. Your normal voice when you spoke in it is lovely, please use it.

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4 people found this helpful