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The Affinity Bridge

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The Affinity Bridge

By: George Mann
Narrated by: Simon Taylor
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About this listen

Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by new inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, whilst ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers, policemen, and journalists. But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side.

For this is also a world where lycanthropy is a rampant disease that plagues the dirty whorehouses of Whitechapel, where poltergeist infestations create havoc in old country seats, where cadavers can rise from the dead and where nobody ever goes near the Natural History Museum.

©2010 Snowbooks (P)2012 Audible Ltd Fantasy Fiction Paranormal City England Transportation

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Critic reviews

"Mann's imagination has clearly run wild in this quirky and well realised version of the world, and this is no bad thing. It's fun, it's exciting, and Mann has a very agreeable hand that's easy to appreciate. He has a sharp talent for writing and a surplus of enthusiasm for the genre...." (SCIFI Now)
"The author does a superb job of recreating 19-century London...a thoroughly engaging story. Excellent world building; captures the Sherlock Holmes feel; never a boring passage. Bottom line: A hugely entertaining book. 4.5 out of 5." (SF Signal)
"Fans of Alan Moore's work will likely enjoy Mann's depiction of Victorian asylums, slums, aristocratic soirees, and things that go bump in the night." (Strange Horizons)
Most relevant  
Atmospheric and we'll written. unusual story line which I enjoyed. Also U think the narrators voice was perfect for the era the book was set in.

New to steam punk!

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An imaginative steam punk romp let down by a parody-posh vowel mangler. The pronunciation of "chapter one" is a fine example.of an actor trying way too hard and getting in the way of a competent story with a charcutier's worth of ham.

fun yarn, lousy reader

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The story was very engaging and I loved every second of it. I also found it funny how when the narrator got a bit tongue tied world make a popping sound with him mouth and start again, I wasn't bothered by it and thought it added a certain charm to the reading.

loved it

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Would you listen to The Affinity Bridge again? Why?

Yes as it's the first book in the series.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Lacklustre narration which spoiled the story for me. The narrator just read the story instead of giving the characters different voices.

Fabulous story hindered by a mediocre performance

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I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this. Pure, silly escapism. I will certainly be reading more of the series.

The only problem with it was the editing of the performance. There were at least 3 or 4 occasions where Simon Taylor stumbled slightly, paused and repeated a few words, obviously expecting the mistake to be edited out but this did not happen. It did not particularly spoil my enjoyment but was a little annoying, as overall the performance was good.

Enjoyable and fun listen.

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Fabulous story but the reader didn’t pause at the end of the chapter before continuing. In some areas it would have been nice to hear the pause for effect.

Storyteller

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I don't think the professional reviewers could have read this book. It is poor.



This recording is very poor. Badly directed and edited (the narrator actually has a second go at reading some of the sentences), the characterisations are poor, the accent is contrived. They should have signed up Sean Barratt.



I am willing to give all genres a listen/read and the premise behind this book appealed to me, but the thing is so badly put together it is (with this appalling reading) dull as ditch water.



I wonder that the author didn't decide to write it after watching box sets of Doctor Who, The Sherlock Holmes Casebook and the Philip Pullman Sally Lockhart adaptations. I can see it now, he has a list, "Pipe smoking drug taking detective, check; strong female, check; zombie flesh eaters, check; cybermen, check; Scotland Yard Inspector, check; evil business man with mad scientist, check". Scramble together and add some linking words. Job done. In fact, some of this is very like the Doctor Who episodes Rise of the Cybermen and the Age of Steel.

Don't waste your time, money or eardrums

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I'm sorry but what a waste of my Audible credit this month! Simon Taylor's narration is simply dreadful (and I do not entirely blame him for this*) and George Mann's credibility as a writer - even in the sometimes rather poor 'fantasy' section of the library - is pitiful. The story might have been interesting - certainly there are some imaginative concepts - but it is basically very lazily done. The characterisation is shallow and there are far too many easy cliches, too many rusty descriptions with no attempt at novelty.



Action Audio are the publisher and they are the laziest of the bunch it seems. *Poor Simon Taylor was obviously given no 'stage direction' and no help with the accents (none were convincing and many really cringeworthy). On three occassions he makes a second attempt at a phrase - and both are still there! Unbelievable! No direction; no editing.



Useless, useless, flabby, crappy. Bother, bother, bother. And I had nothing else to listen to so I persevered to (almost) the end.



Audible, I want my money back!

Action Audio should be ashamed of themselves

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What would have made The Affinity Bridge better?

Anything. Everything.

Has The Affinity Bridge put you off other books in this genre?

Chah.

What didn’t you like about Simon Taylor’s performance?

He did his best - maybe a bit whispery and over-refined, but you can't make a bad book good in the reading of it, so he was always going to lose.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Affinity Bridge?

All of it.

Utter bilge. Returning it.

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