Customer Reviews

Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber (Bloody Jack Adventures)

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I listen to audiobooks in ridiculous numbers, and I have come to regard one series as standing head and shoulders above other series and other books, and it is the Bloody Jack series narrated by Katherine Kellgren.

The series is amazing, historical, and deeply engaging - read the hundreds of reviews for each book on the Amazon listings for the hardcopy books to get more information - but please be aware that there is quite a bit of mature content that may make it unsuitable for children (what I can think of, as a non-parent: lots of almost-sexuality, cursing, many attempted rapes, homosexuality, cruelty, warfare carnage, murder, scalping, lots of prostitutes, what I would consider infidelity). Too bad because kids would love the series, and really benefit from the informal history lessons. Maybe teens are a good audience? Maybe? That said, still an excellently written series with an absolutely engaging heroine and cast of characters.

On top of the writing, the thing that makes these audiobooks so amazing is the narration by Katherine Kellgren. She just blows me away with her talent. I looked her name up to mention her in a review for a hardcopy book, and then thought I should come and give her full props here in the proper listing for the audiobook. Ms. Kellgren keeps up hundreds of distinct voices - recognizable and distinguishable from each other without any trouble - which is made even more incredible because there are so many different accents from different countries. The really impressive one she did was the French accent done with an American accent (as in Jacky was pretending to be an American speaking French). Well done Ms. Kellgren!

The sound quality is really great too. There is *nothing* in the background, it's like she recorded it in her own little cone of silence (um... probably called a sound studio, lol). I only mention this b/c it shows professionalism where sometimes other recordings do not -- I just listened to an audiobook series (Anne of Green Gables) that should have been done professionally, but there were all kinds of odd background noises, and re-takes of select sections were spliced in so badly, with totally different tones and backgrounds. It was very distracting. That is not even remotely an issue with this audiobook series, whoever made it was obviously very professional. (maybe you guys can remake Anne of Green Gables??)

I highly recommend this series to adults, and tentatively recommend it to teens and kids. Happy listening!

p.s. I am in no way affiliated with Ms Kellgren or the producing company, despite my gushing. I just think that a job well done should be recognized.

I love the whole Bloody Jack Series. I have read the books on my Kindle and listened to them on my iPod. I just finished listening to this book for the 3rd time. Because of my enjoyment of the book series I am sending the compact disks to my nieces and nephews for their pleasure.