Domes of Fire

Unsatisfactory attempt!

Domes of Fire is the forth book in a continuing series which started with "The Diamond Throne" in David Eddings' saga called "The Elenium." Although it is possible to follow the 6 book series by starting with "Domes of Fire," you will lose quite a bit of the back story and character development which most people find essential. I have read the entire six book series quite a few times and managed to find something new each time through.

There is, however, a problem with this audio rendition of the second half of the series. Kevin Pariseau made almost no attempt to learn the "correct pronunciation" of either the proper names of the people or the places in the series - even though they were well established in the first three books. Nor does he make much of an attempt to give the characters distinctive voices. Accordingly, his narration voice sounds about the same as the voices he gives to most of the leading and supporting cast members, and the women and children all sound like men. The result is a most unsatisfactory listening experience.

I give the six book series by David Eddings 5 stars, The producers and Directors at Audible Frontiers 1 star, and narration of Kevin Pariseau, in the last 3 books, 0 stars.

Others are free to disagree as they see fit.

41 of 45 people found this review helpful

Disliked Narrator

What made the experience of listening to Domes of Fire the most enjoyable?

I already own the book, so enjoy the story

What did you like best about this story?

I love the interaction between the characters

How could the performance have been better?

Narrator could have listened to previous narration - so pronucation of names would be similar and could have made the characters sound more mature ..Sparhawk and his fellow knights sounded like young men instead of seasoned warriors...

Any additional comments?

I wish publishing companies would try to keep the same narrator for a series or at least make sure each narrator pronouces names the same way

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Danger lurks in a distant land

Sparhawk and his friends are needed again but in a far away land to help with a dangerous threat that seems to be spreading into their part of the world

when asked to go help the Tamul Empire with the crisis Queen Ehlana comes up with a way to help.

This novel is a great addition to the Eddings first trilogy my only issues is that with a change of narrator some of the names are pronounced different. the main difference i noticed is Talen, the first trilogy is pronounced as a birds claw, this new guy pronounces it with a strong A.

City names and other characters have the same difference as well. but if you can get over that then you will enjoy this book

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Narrator needs to keep the stories consistant

I have read the books prior to listening to them. The previous series,"Elenium", had a different narrator (no names will be used). The narrator for this series, "Tamuli", should have listened to the "Elenium" to hear the pronunciations of character names and other proper nouns to, at the least, try to maintain some continuity. It really takes away from the enjoyment when characters are addressed differently.

This narrator also gives most of the characters a Boston high society accent and many characters sound "foppish" at best. These are knights in armor not flowery courtiers.

I realize that Audible has no say in the choice of narrators but maybe they could pass along our comments

Thanx

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Great story, terrible narration

It's funny... I logged in here JUST to leave this review, and the first other review I see notes the terrible pronunciation just as I am about to. This guy mispronounced even basic words, let alone names and titles from the story! There were a number of times where a name was said several times and I had to stop and take a minute to determine who he was talking about! Pla-TEEM for Platime... Hi-ree-o-cray-see for Hierocracy... Sti-RYE-cum for Stiricum. It's so horrible distracting that even as I write this I'm tempted to stop even listening to it. I doubt I can make it through 3 books despite how much I like the story. I've read the books several times through and loved them, but I don't think I can make it through this narration.... Ugh...

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

The Narrator was very dissapointing!!!!!

Which character – as performed by Kevin Pariseau – was your favorite?

Kevin Pariseau was dissapointing as a narrator. I don't know what he was trying to achieve, but the way he read the book was very dissapointing. HE DID NOT DO HIS HOMEWORK!!! The first three books were absolutley wonderful to listen to and I fould myself in Sparhawk and Elena world. I even could picture who Talon, and everybody looked like. This second series was horrible. The places and names were not pronounced right. It was like listening to a foreinger butcher your native toungue!! Instead of listening to the story, the reader spends the whole time listening to him mess up the whole book. Very dissapointing indeed!!

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

The story was fabulous, I have read all the books time and time again. But the audio was dissapointing.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Changed pronunciation...no voices...

I just started listening to Domes of Fire after finishing the Sapphire Rose and am really disappointed. I realize it is a different reader but one would think that it wouldn't be TOO much to ask for the new reader to at least take a quick listen to the previous books so a) pronunciation of names and places would be...oh, I don't know...similar, if not the same and b) voices might be close (or in this case, exist at all).

Sigh...I paid for all three books in this series so I will listen to them...if they improve, I will come back and update my review.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

What Did He Say?

I have read the two series, The Elenium and The Tamuli, by David Eddings a couple of times. When I saw them here, I was so excited. The first series, The Elenium, was narrated very nicely and I found myself completely drawn into Sparhawk's world. The second series is another issue altogether. It is horrid! The narrator should have listened to the first book of The Elenium to get the names correct. It is so hard trying to listen to the story when you shudder at every name and place that the narrator is butchering. I cannot follow the story at times because I cannot figure out who he is talking about!

I was so disappointed. I do not know if I will be able to finish listening to the series because the narration is awful. I have read the other reviews and I am not the first disappointed with this reading of The Tamuli series. I do not recommend this series to any David Eddings fans. You will be sorely disappointed. Audio books are all about the voice reading them and this narrator was not a good choice for this series. Doesn't Audible.com have editors who fix these things before they get published? How can someone read for over 50 hours and no one catch the pronunciation errors? Normally, I would give Audible two thumbs up for their audio books but this time it is two thumbs down. If you liked The Elenium series go buy The Tamuli books and read it. You will be much happier with the money having been well spent. I wish I had not purchased the three books before reading the reviews and noting the different narrators.

12 of 14 people found this review helpful

niles crane reads david eddings

As many of the other reviewers noted- the new narrator suddenly changes every pronunciation after 50 hours of the story (arguably certain names could have two readings but the word rouge is fairly standard) but couple that annoyance with the horrible voice and inflection of the narrator and what could be the start of a nice trilogy is ruined- I cannot finish this and surely would not buy any others in this series- the director and narrator could have maybe spent 5 minutes of research instead of this garbage.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

A wonderful story, ruined by the narrator

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I realize readers sometimes change, between or in a series. However, this reader pronounces everything very different than than in the initial trilogy "The Elenium". This really distracts from the story. Frankly the reader ruined this series for me.

What other book might you compare Domes of Fire to and why?

The Sapphire Rose

What didn’t you like about Kevin Pariseau’s performance?

Very much disliked his pronunciation on most names and locations. It appeared he purposely tried to pronounce everything differently that the reader in the Elenium. It just did not work

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Domes of Fire?

I enjoyed the story and the scenes. Not sure I would change anything.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful