Customer Reviews

The Curse of Chalion

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me start by saying that Lois McMaster Bujold is one of my favorite authors. Her Vorkosigan series is head and shoulders above most SF being written today.

Curse of Chalion is the first book of a loosely connected fantasy series. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, so read the reviews of the book.

For the audiobook, Blackstone has done the usual fine production j0b. The reader, Lloyd James, does a superb job of deferentiating between the characters, and gives each their own voice and personality. I never had to think about who was speaking.

I love listening to a book I'm familiar with. I'd like to read reviews from someone who has not read the book.

If you like intelligent, thought provoking, beautifully written prose, well developed characters, and a cracking good fantasy story, BUY THIS BOOK ;-)

The book, of course, is phenomenal, which is why I chose it to listen to on my long commute. Throughout listening to the audiobook, I had a love-hate relationship with the narrator. As far as the plain narrating he did just fine. For the characters' voices, he seemed to be either great or terrible. Cazaril's voice was just gruff enough to be very attractive, he gave Umegat the most appealing accent, and he also did very well with the the Provincara, Teidez, and Dondo (whose voice made my skin crawl). But I couldn't stand Chancellor dy Jironal's voice-- he made it very nasally and annoying, very inappropriate for the character, who, for all his many many flaws, was never the weasel he sounded like on these tapes. He made Ista sound more like Professor Trelawney than anything else, and as for Iselle and Betriz... the narrator is just not a man who was designed to talk like a 16-year-old girl.

Obviously this is all just my opinion. Other people may not be bothered at all by the things that drove me crazy. And except for the few voices I mentioned, this narrator was very competent, and I honestly appreciate the effort he put into developing a clearly separate voice for each character. But I thought it was worth noting that there were times I wanted to throttle him. :)

The Curse of Chalion (print version) is a favorite read but hearing it read aloud let me pick up nuances in the story I had missed. Well worth the price.