with a review of Sophie Kinsella’s I’ve Got Your Number, narrated by the brilliant Jayne Entwistle. This was made of win for me. See why here.
Category: audiobooks (Page 90 of 94)
Why I listened to it: Having enjoyed Shards of Honor and Barrayar so much, I decided, whether or not any of the other books had a strong romantic thread (or any) I was going to listen to the rest of the series. I decided to start at the beginning – Falling Free was written after Shards of Honor but is chronologically the first book in the series. There are no Vorkosigans in the book, but apparently the author recommends starting here.What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Leo Graf was an effective engineer…Safety Regs weren’t just the rule book he swore by; he’d helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporate exploitation of his bright new studentstill that exploitation turned to something much worse. He hadn’t anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither save, nor in the rules…
Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies now all he had to do was teach them to be free.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): I hadn’t even read the blurb for this one. So, the “quaddies” and the whole set up was a bit of a shock. Essentially, the quaddies are a genetically engineered human species, designed to be perfectly adapted to life in freefall (zero gravity). They have no need of legs. They have four arms instead. They can cope with a lot more radiation than a “normal” human and for a variety of reasons, represent a huge potential saving to the company “Galactech” – they don’t need to send the quaddies to 1G atmosphere for 1 month every 3 months – no transport costs, no wages, no employee benefits. Because the quaddies aren’t regarded as human.
Leo, from whose (3rd person) POV most of the story is told doesn’t think of them that way (thank God or I would have hated him). But the story does raise interesting questions about what is humanity, about genocide, slavery and corporate disinterest and greed – both of which can only mean disaster for the quaddies.
I reviewed Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs in print here. At AudioGals I review the audiobook version – Lorelei King brings it.
with an audiobook review of Everyone Loves a Hero… And That’s the Problem by Marie Force, narrated by Tanya Eby. Actually, the review’s been up for nearly a week – I forgot. *ducks*. Bad Kaetrin.
Anyway, narrator success, story not so much.
Also, definitely not my favourite cover. I think there’s something wrong with his nose…
with an audiobook review of The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James. Part romance, part ghost/horror story set in the early 1920’s. Come and see what I thought and why.
Why I listened to it: I loved The Curse of Chalion (scroll down for review) and other Bujold titles I have listened to. This book is universally recommended by people who have liked those same books – I was also told it was more romantic than Chalion so it was a no brainer really. I picked it up at Audible recently, initially disappointed that Lloyd James wasn’t reprising his narration. However, Kate Reading has become my new favourite narrator.What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family’s castle of Valenda. Her newfound freedom is costly, bittersweet with memories, regrets, and guilty secrets – for she knows the truth of what brought her land to the brink of destruction. And now the road – escape – beckons…. A simple pilgrimage, perhaps. Quite fitting for the Dowager Royina of all Chalion.
Yet something else is free, too – something beyond deadly. To the north lies the vital border fortress of Porifors. Memories linger there as well, of wars and invasions and the mighty Golden General of Jokona. And someone, something, watches from across that border – humans, demons, gods.
Ista thinks her little party of pilgrims wanders at will. But whose? When Ista’s retinue is unexpectedly set upon not long into its travels, a mysterious ally appears – a warrior nobleman who fights like a berserker. The temporary safety of her enigmatic champion’s castle cannot ease Ista’s mounting dread, however, when she finds his dark secrets are entangled with hers in a net of the gods’ own weaving.
In her dreams the threads are already drawing her to unforeseen chances, fateful meetings, fearsome choices. What the inscrutable gods commanded of her in the past brought her land to the brink of devastation. Now, once again, they have chosen Ista as their instrument. And again, for good or for ill, she must comply.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): This book blew me away. The combination of an exceptional narrator and most excellently plotted story and clever, engaging characters was a total win for me. There is very little I can say on the negative side, other than that when it ended I felt sad because I wanted it to keep going. But I can’t really criticise that – the story was told after all. It’s just that I wasn’t ready to let go.
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