What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished, moving on to the second in the series, By Schism Rent Asunder. Unfortunately, this is easily the weakest in the series, at least of the ones I've read. But I'm going to plow through it, since my memory is that things improve after this book.

Finished it, and finished #3, By Heresies Distressed. This was read by a different reader, Jason Culp. Many of the reviews on Audible bemoan the change in readers from Oliver Wyman, but I actually prefer Mr. Culp's reading. It's different, but I found myself better able to follow the changes in who is speaking, and the pace was just right for me. Overall, the book is slightly better than #2, but we're still not up to the promise of the first book in the series. IAC, I'm going to take a break from Safehold and listen to something different. Either Moon Over Soho, #2 in the Peter Grant urban fantasy police procedural series from Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. A new reader for me, since I didn't buy the Audible version of the first in the series, but I'm really quite hopeful since the underlying book should be fun. If not that, then I've always got a Georgette Heyer waiting. Friday's Child, in this case.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished it, and finished #3, By Heresies Distressed. This was read by a different reader, Jason Culp. Many of the reviews on Audible bemoan the change in readers from Oliver Wyman, but I actually prefer Mr. Culp's reading. It's different, but I found myself better able to follow the changes in who is speaking, and the pace was just right for me. Overall, the book is slightly better than #2, but we're still not up to the promise of the first book in the series. IAC, I'm going to take a break from Safehold and listen to something different. Either Moon Over Soho, #2 in the Peter Grant urban fantasy police procedural series from Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. A new reader for me, since I didn't buy the Audible version of the first in the series, but I'm really quite hopeful since the underlying book should be fun. If not that, then I've always got a Georgette Heyer waiting. Friday's Child, in this case.

IMPO, the middle books of the Safehold series were a bit of a slog, but it's started to pick up the pace again in the last two. I thought the most recent one was on par with the first one. They use three different readers in the middle books before returning to Wyman in the most recent book. I didn't think any of them were awful, but I like Wyman the best.

[twicefivemiles]

I split my commute time between audiobooks and podcasts so I'm very, very slowly making progress through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It's giving me flashbacks to my time as a student of restoration lit and I'm enjoying the footnotes much more than I would in text but the sheer length of the book overwhelms me sometimes.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by twicefivemiles

I split my commute time between audiobooks and podcasts so I'm very, very slowly making progress through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It's giving me flashbacks to my time as a student of restoration lit and I'm enjoying the footnotes much more than I would in text but the sheer length of the book overwhelms me sometimes.

I started that book, but just couldn't get into it. Some people think it's great though.

[WT Sharpe]

Just finished a re-read of The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton (the first time was as an e-book). The book was a download from Librivox, and the reader was quite good, although it seems to have been recorded with an emphasis on the bass settings that made the audio a tad muddy.

The author's style is unusual, in that each story begins in a manner that seems to me to produce a fairy-tale atmosphere that could only have been stronger had they began with "Once upon a time." Once beyond the point where the mysterious characters being described are Father Brown and his friend, the thief-turned-detective Flambeau, the stories take on more of an air of a traditional but clever whodunnit.

This book of short stories is enjoyable, yet there is an irritating element present in many of them, and that is the not-so-hidden sermons contained within. Many of the villains in these tales are atheists. I don't mind the idea of a main character who is faithful to his own religious ideals, but in a work of fiction I prefer not being hit over the head with an author's religious or political viewpoints.

Nevertheless, Father Brown is a very likable character whose powers of observation are keen, and while his method of crime-solving seem to rely more on intuition than deduction, overall these are very enjoyable stories. I highly recommend them to all who enjoy good mysteries.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by twicefivemiles

but the sheer length of the book overwhelms me sometimes.

I've been listening to the first volume of Shelby Foote's Civl War during my drive and while I'm enjoying it, it also feels like a feat of endurance. I bumped the speed up to 1.5X on the SmarterPlayer app just so I could get through the 37+ hours in about a month. It'll be a while before I queue up volume II.

Caro's The Power Broker isn't available as an ebook and I don't want to heft it, so when I saw it at Audible, I spent a credit on it. But 66 hours! I quail at the prospect. That's a lot of listening for one credit, though!

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

This book of short stories is enjoyable, yet there is an irritating element present in many of them, and that is the not-so-hidden sermons contained within. Many of the villains in these tales are atheists. I don't mind the idea of a main character who is faithful to his own religious ideals, but in a work of fiction I prefer not being hit over the head with an author's religious or political viewpoints.

I suppose it goes with the territory of the proselytizing convert. It recalls to me how in Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh used a quote from one of the stories, The Queer Feet to describe the effect of grace on the lapsed and susceptible.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by issybird

...I suppose it goes with the territory of the proselytizing convert. It recalls to me how in Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh used a quote from one of the stories, The Queer Feet to describe the effect of grace on the lapsed and susceptible.

You're probably right. Oh well, it's a G.K. Chesterton book, and authors are free to write in any way they please. The heavy-handed proselytizing is not exactly the book's most endearing quality in my opinion, but there's no law saying I have to read it. That being said, the book's virtues far outweigh that bit of irritation, so I will be continuing with the series, but for now I'm taking a break to listen to Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter). Surely there's no danger of encountering overt religiosity in a book with a title like that! Just kidding. Her Brother Cadfael series of books are also by necessity filled with religious elements and sentiments, but at least you don't come away from them feeling like you've just been handed an unsolicited religious tract by an uninvited guest on your front porch.

[taosaur]

I finished up Peacemaker (Foreigner) today, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The narration impressed me much more favorably than in previous volumes with this narrator, too. Perhaps it was his overly gruff Lord Geigi that I found most off-putting before, or maybe it's just because I switched narrators in mid-series and balked at the change, but his character voicing seemed appropriate and well nuanced in this book.

[pwalker8]

I finally finished Skin Games this week. Marsters does his usual great job reading. Right now, at work, I'm listening to Giant's Star, by James Hogan. It's the last, and perhaps weakest of the Giants trilogy. Kind of interesting to see how social attitudes towards smoking and drinking have changed since the late 70's, early 80's.

[taosaur]

I've started into the second Lost Regiment book, though I'm feeling disaffected with my TBR at moment. I want some more genuinely moving titles on there, though they probably wouldn't lend themselves to audio.

[pwalker8]

TBR means To Be Read?

I have read the series and liked it, though it's a bit grim. I started listening to the first book but got side tracked for some reason. I'm very much mood driven when it comes to both reading and listening to books. There is many a book that I put aside simply because I wasn't in the right mood for it and then picked up later and enjoyed.

Speaking of To Be Read list (at least I assume that is what you are talking about), I'm a bit frustrated with the current situation with managing audible books. I tend to be a list oriented person. For example, I listen to audiobooks a lot in my car and like to keep them in a playlist on my iTouch. Of course, since audible audiobooks don't come from Apple, you can't see them in a playlist if you use iCloud. I solve that by simply not using iCloud on my iTouch. That works well enough for that specific purpose, but I do use iCloud on all the other devices that I might use to listen to audio books. I really, really wish that the audible app supported the concept of playlists and was better able to handle syncing between devices. Well, maybe we will see something when the new iOS comes out.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished it, and finished #3, By Heresies Distressed. This was read by a different reader, Jason Culp. Many of the reviews on Audible bemoan the change in readers from Oliver Wyman, but I actually prefer Mr. Culp's reading. It's different, but I found myself better able to follow the changes in who is speaking, and the pace was just right for me. Overall, the book is slightly better than #2, but we're still not up to the promise of the first book in the series. IAC, I'm going to take a break from Safehold and listen to something different. Either Moon Over Soho, #2 in the Peter Grant urban fantasy police procedural series from Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. A new reader for me, since I didn't buy the Audible version of the first in the series, but I'm really quite hopeful since the underlying book should be fun. If not that, then I've always got a Georgette Heyer waiting. Friday's Child, in this case.

Oooh, I'm a bit behind here. I've finished #4 in the Safehold series, and #3 in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series, and I have the next one in the both series loaded onto my iPhone and my Kindles. I'll be reading and listening alternately.

Also loaded The Magic of Recluse, #1 in L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Saga of Recluse series onto my iPod for listening while I swim. But I've got a Georgette Heyer and a Lord Peter Wimsey loaded on there as well, so not sure what I'll start there. We'll see when the pool is ready (tomorrow, hopefully?)

[WT Sharpe]

Well, I just finished listening to Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters, the third Brother Cadfael novel, and it was every bit as enjoyable as the first two. The bad news is that I just discover that Blackstone has only released those three as iPad apps for $9.99 each, and if I want to continue on with the audio series, they have the rest of the Brother Cadfael novels on CD for $56 upwards of at least $76 per book. That pretty well prices me out of the market, unless I can find some of them at my local library. I may have to resort to reading them in paper, as I've already mentioned how they aren't available as e-books. Pity.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Oooh, I'm a bit behind here. I've finished #4 in the Safehold series, and #3 in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series, and I have the next one in the both series loaded onto my iPhone and my Kindles. I'll be reading and listening alternately.

Also loaded The Magic of Recluse, #1 in L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Saga of Recluse series onto my iPod for listening while I swim. But I've got a Georgette Heyer and a Lord Peter Wimsey loaded on there as well, so not sure what I'll start there. We'll see when the pool is ready (tomorrow, hopefully?)

Finished How Firm a Foundation, Safehold #5. Better. But the reports for #6 are less promising, and it's yet another reader, Kevin T. Collins. Mr. Collins can be quite a good reader, but he's uneven. Hopefully this is one of his good books.

Also listening to Broken Homes, #4 of the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series. I'm really enjoying this series a lot, and the reader for it is a new one for me, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. And he's absolutely perfect for the books. Highly recommended.

[melmac]

Halfway through The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith(Jk Rowling) now its getting more interesting took a while to warm up. I like the fact that she's set this one in the author/publishing world.