Not a patch on Banks and Kenny

Finished all of Iain M Banks' culture series books on audio with amazing narration by Peter Kenny... needed to find the next epic listen for my hours on the north circular.
Hamilton spins a mean yarn, plenty going on and lots of concentration needed, but I enjoyed the books despite, rather than because of John Lee's narration... He seems to read as if performing a Shakespearean soliloquy, and just doesn't have the same depth of characterisation that Kenny has reading Banks.
But the most annoying thing is in the edit, where absolutely no pause is left between the chapter subsections. I'll persevere with the second book but it's a shame that the narration and editing take away from the complex story

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2 people found this helpful

Good but overly long.

Read this many years ago and just coming back to it fire the first time.

While it is very interesting and a novel concept it is weak is comparison to his later work. In my opinion or could loss 25% and be better for it.

Some great charecters especially the habitats and ships. Joshua makes me think of Han Solo which is no bad thing.

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1 person found this helpful

Great story ruined by poor reader/editor

You pause and change tone at a new paragraph, yes I spent 9 years L.A.M.D.A. trained but I'm talking about lessons learned sight reading at primary school aged seven. Power, pace, pitch and PAUSE. You can have as many clear vowel sounds and crisp constants as you like but the whole thing is a disaster if you inflected away with out a new thought behind a new thread of the story. So, that is John Lee done with now how on Earth did that performance get passed for publication! I have heard far better amateur readings on Libravox. This is truly awful and needs to be withdrawn and re-read.

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1 person found this helpful

Addictive Sci Fi

Great sci fi story drawing you into the lives of the various characters. Highly recommend.

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Excellent Trilogy

Been almost 20 years since I read the 1st book. Audio book just as good and narration was excellent.

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A little slow to start

The story starts slowly but builds excitement towards the middle and leaves you wanting to start the 2nd in the series.

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Great for Halloween 🎃

Listening for the second time and it's just as good, even better for the Halloween season

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Be prepared to get stuck in

It feels like a lot of work in places but it's worth it. After 30 hours I can't wait to start the next book.

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1 person found this helpful

Good with some small buts

I've rated the performance as average. The reading is very good but the chapters are 90 minutes long, containing multiple viewpoints, and it is virtually 90 minutes of non stop talking, which makes it very difficult to follow.
The story is good, though even with the lack of pauses between viewpoint transitions feels around 10 hours too long to me, considering the fact that it really is just the first third of a story, unlike some other trilogies that are all stories of their own that tie together.
Hamilton does offer the time to build a very interesting world though filled with flawed heroes and some likable villains (as well as some truly detestable ones)

Overall, worth the listen though. I'm looking forward to seeing if my theory about what links the "visitors" is correct, and the book has woven a lot of loose ends to continue on in the remaining books.

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1 person found this helpful

Stick with it!

I first purchased this book, tried it, but couldn’t get past the narrator over narrating the first few chapters. It was like he was over emphasising EVERY word needlessly! I couldn’t face 50 hours of that! I returned the book and got a refund.

One day I noticed it was still in my library, despite the credit being refunded. I was between books so I gave it another go, after all if not paid for it!

This time I got past the beginning and into the book. The story is good, I’d call it rich with background detail, and the narrator turned out to be very good as time passed. However the story dawdles and hangs overly long at dull points that don’t really end up having much to do with the main plot. Too many characters come, go, and are (so far to best of my knowledge) meaningless in the over arching plot. It can wear you out trying to keep track.

Add to this the editing is terrible with no discernible gap between chapters the story feels like it’s jumping all over at times.

That all said. I did enjoy the story, and it’s a true grandiose space opera for sure! I love the authors imagination of life in space and the tech and people’s.

Give it a try, it can be hard going at times, but I enjoyed it ultimately. I now learn its part of a whole series! But I might need a rest before I start the next one!

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