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  • Midst Toil and Tribulation

  • Safehold, Book 6
  • By: David Weber
  • Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
  • Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (124 ratings)
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Midst Toil and Tribulation cover art

Midst Toil and Tribulation

By: David Weber
Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
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Summary

David Weber's New York Times bestselling Safehold series of military Science Fiction adventure, which began with Off Armageddon Reef, continues with Midst Toil and Tribulation

WAR AND FAMINE

Once the Church of God Awaiting dominated all the kingdoms of Safehold. Then, after centuries of stasis, the island kingdom of Charis began to defy the edicts of Mother Church—egged on, some say, by the mysterious warrior-monk Merlin Athrawes, who enjoys the Charisian royal family's absolute trust.

What vanishingly few people know is that Merlin is the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which aliens destroyed Earth...and that since awakening, his task has been to restart the history of the long-hidden human race.

Now, reeling from the wars and intrigues that have cascaded from Charis's declaration of independence, the Republic of Siddermark slides into chaos. The Church has engineered a rebellion, and Siddermark's all-important harvest is at risk. King Cayleb and Queen Sharleyan struggle to stabilize their ally, which will mean sending troops—but, even more importantly, preventing famine. For mass starvation in Safehold's breadbasket is a threat even more ominous than civil war...

©2012 David Weber (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

What listeners say about Midst Toil and Tribulation

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    83
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    51
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    8
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    11
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    81
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    0

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Great Book, awful narration

As the previous reviewer states, if you've got this far with the series, you'll know what to expect, but sadly, the narration is dreadful. Overly dramatic, at least in the beginning, though he does settle down a bit eventually. Characterisation is poor, it is sometimes very difficult to differentiate between which character is speaking. And as for his pronounciation! Words such as desmesne or adjutant or even Charis are pronounced very oddly and it grates on the ear, causing this listener at least, to lose track of the story line while I mentally correct him. Such a pity.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

bad naration

The narration is dreadful, mispronounced words like PICA i can accept, Michael i can't, combined with the narrator's natural sibilant hiss, makes a great story a terrible experience!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration

Would you try another book written by David Weber or narrated by Kevin T. Collins?

By David Weber yes, but never again by Kevin T Collins, sibilant, overly dramatic, and seems to get lost regularly

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Change the narrator please for gods sake change the narrator!

What didn’t you like about Kevin T. Collins’s performance?

Did he even listen to the other books? Why just choose how to pronounce the characters names one way that's totally different to the other books? They are all there and surely 5 minutes could have been spared to listen to how the names and individual accents sound?!?

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Midst Toil and Tribulation?

I don't know, as after 20 minutes I gave up and erased the book

Any additional comments?

Yes, I bet this is one of the most returned books you have, and the rating system is incorrect, as it adds up to around 2 stars by my working out, not 4!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

How is the performance averaging 4 stars?

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The book I would recommend. The audio book can not be recommended based on the narration.

What other book might you compare Midst Toil and Tribulation to, and why?

Every other David Weber or Eric Flint book. Pretty much anything Baen publishes.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kevin T. Collins’s performances?

No. Never. I also display a level of natural sibilance in my speech. It is annoying to listen to, and no one that sounds like Kevin should be a narrator. Additionally, his pronunciation is terrible. The performance was so bad I quit listening and got a paper copy of the book. First time ever.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Yes - it is an exciting mix of scifi and swashbuckling.

Any additional comments?

I really seriously think audible needs to check its algorithm that is tallying the overall performance rating. It is currently displaying 4 stars when the average according to my count of reviews is below 2 on average.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

O Dear

As ever a great story by an excellent author, my only criticism of the book itself is that it has a tendency to drift off into philosophical musings that can be a tad boring at times. However that really is not a major issue and doesn't detract from an excellent book with lots of excitement and twists and turns. My major issue with the book is the narrator. Unless, like me, you have listened to all the books so far one after another without a break in between you many not notice some of the very poor continuity. Cayleb for instance has spoken with a sort of Australian accent, then an strange mixture of Irish/Scottish accent, a sort of English accent then generic American. But the biggest issue is with the narrator Kevin T Collins. There are two major issues. The first issue was the frenetic pace and overly dramatic tone which almost made me stop listening. It constantly sounded like he was building to an adventurous climax even with dry narrative. The other very irritating thing was the sudden change of the pronunciation of names. Michael became Mikael, Chisholm became Cheesehome amongst others. Please please please do not let this guy narrate the up and coming book 7 and who does, do us all a favour and listen to at least some of the other volumes so we have some continuity of pronunciation and accent.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

4 for the story, 2 for the narrator

If you've made it this far into the Safehold series then you'll already be familiar with the author's strengths and weaknesses. My comment is reserved for the narrator who I found to be overly dramatic. The narrator would have been fine for a dramatisation but I found his over dramatic style to constantly drag me out of the story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Poor editing, lack of consistency of pronunciation between readers.

Found the latest translation of reader particularly grating due to his high degree of variation in pronunciation of characters and places. Suggest that in future someone spends an hour or two ensuring such things are better managed. Facepalm.

This is not a reflection on the story, it’s great.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Worst narration ever

This is the sixth book in this series that I have read/listened to and this is by far the worst narration! The narrator’s style is really annoying, too “dramatic”. Particularly annoying as it was considerably more expensive than the previous five books. The series is good, but the descent into minutiae in the fifth and now sixth books is tedious. Feels like the author is stringing out the story to get more books in!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazballz!!!

Just a fantastic addition to the series! Well worth a read and can't wait for the next one!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic!

a wonderfully evocative story. much more personal than the Harrington series, but still as interesting. looking forwards to the next one.

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