Another great book in the series.

Another great book in the series. its a shame the have a new narrator as the one that did the forst 3 was far superior. This is one of the most epic fantasy series out there.

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Epic

This adventure has continued to evolve sublimely, pity about the poor narration, needs Ralph Lister

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Different voice actor, jarring change

While I really liked Ralph Lister's narration, Michael Page is almost as good, but different. Ralph Lister has a better narration voice, and pronounced Malazan's names and words better. Michael Page has a narrator voice that sounds like he's reading Shakespeare, but does amazing voices for the characters. He gives them accents (not all good though, Malazans are slightly Indian for some reason), which gives the books a more realistic feel.

Still, the change of narrator is jarring. Page pronounces names differently, and gives characters completely different voices and accents from Lister (why are Fiddler and Crokus Indian??). Why Page didn't listen to Lister's narration for the sake of continuity is beyond me.
Why they chose to change voice actor 4 books in is also beyond me.

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A Shakespearian Tragedy Writ Large

Erikson seems to effortlessly weave together multiple themes into a huge tapestry, that somehow makes a perfect picture picture despite all of its disparate elements. This story starts with a character that is unlikeable, foolish and arrogant and his arc is truly satisfying. The larger story of the Malazan empire, through the lens of the Paran sisters is excruciating. There are moments of great humour, sadness and, as this is Erikson, pathos. It builds to a crescendo that ties everything together with beautiful understatement. The emotions that Erikson is able to evoke in me makes him my favourite writer, and this book, although not my favourite in the series is incredible... especially on a reread.
I just wish the pronunciation of certain words was in accord with what he has stated. Still can't quite get over Quick Ben sounding irish! Good effort by the narrator though.

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Brilliant

A fantastic continuing of the Malazan story, although I admit I was nervous about the change of narrator. Not due to the quality of narrator, as I've listened to Michael Page before in Lies of Locke Lamora, but just the fact that I was used to the Ralph Lister (who was excellent). Obviously some characters now have didn't voices, and some names/words are pronounced differently.
But to be honest, I adjusted relatively quickly, probably due to the actual story being very good. Can't wait to start the next!

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Much Better Narration IMO

Contrary to a lot of reviews here, I much prefer Michael Page's narration! Ralph Lister's actual narration was good, but his character voices I really struggled with. I felt he consistently got the tone of the characters' voices wrong, often overly dramatic and pantomime-y. Page's character voices I much prefer. But everyone has different taste I guess.

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Review of narrator

Michael Page isn’t nearly as good as Ralph Lister. He pronounces words differently (diver, soletaken, Imass for example). The voices you know and love from the first three books have changed and many of the participants have the same voice, tone, cadence etc which get confusing). I skipped through the first 30 minutes of this as the Teblor sounded all the same. It did get better as it went along and you got more used to it but partly because you just know nothings going to change so you adapt your listening

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Great book, and I prefer Michael Page!

If you've gotten this far you'll know the Malazan books are fantastic, so I'll leave that as it is.

I'm mainly writing this review to offer a counter opinion on Michael Page since there are quite a few negative reviews about him. I'm now a few books further down the line from this one and while I did find the change very jarring initially, particularly the changes in pronunciation of some words I actually think Page is my preferred narrator. Page generally has a much more serious tone with gravitas imbued in everything he says, very fitting for a series as dark and grand in scale as this. Lister is fantastic, but a few of his accents particularly his nasal Seven Cities accent were too cartoony sounding in my opinion.

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Change is strange

They changed the reader for this book, it is strange at the start, after you get used to it tho, the old characters have deferent accents and it is off putting. But the story (written) holds the change. Enjoy the story and get used to the change! It is worth the money and time.

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Why change narrator?! :(

Having read the books before I really enjoyed the previous audiobooks, and this enstallment of the story is good. However, changing narrator midway through such a complex series was a terrible decision. Michael Page reads well and his reading voice is very good, but his voice acting is a major disappointment here. Partly this is because the previous reader was so good at bringing the various characters to life and obviously the voices will change between readers. Worse though is the way many of the characters sound the same, a variant on a south Asian / Indian accent. It makes it hard to recall who is who and moreover the Malazan books are renowned for involving characters from many different continents! seven cities native- sounds Indian. ok fine. Fiddler from Malaz, sounds Indian. Crocus, from Darijistan, sounde Indian, and about 20 years older than he should be. The worst though- the Jaghut, sound Indian too. They're not even human. Weirdly, his female voices were a bit better in this regard. Karsa sounds good and as mentioned his reading voice is very solid, but overall a disappointment. I get the feeling he didn't listen to the previous readings at all. Most of this criticism is more fairly directed at whoever arranged the change of reader. Will try and soldier through the next book.

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