Loved the story, hated the readers

Sorry to both of the narrators of this version but they really did their best to ruin the book for me.

The narrator of the first book was pure class- the kind of actor who could make a poor book good and a brilliant book outstanding. His character voices were spot on (I’m English from London, and his grey London accents - essentially based on our world - were excellent). Unfortunately he has been replaced by two rather poor N American narrators who don’t distinguish the character voices clearly, aren’t able to inject the right passion and overall almost ruined the book for me. They are both rather poor. It is also entirely unclear to me why we needed female narrator for Lyla’s story and male for Kel - and this went horribly wrong when they met again- the bit where they went back to Kel’s room was such a bad juxtaposition in narrator that I assumed some kind of evil
protagonist had taken over Lyra in a plot twist, that didn’t then pan out.

In terms of the story, I was gripped (although the tournament part was a bit obviously as a way to bring the protagonists together, I still enjoyed it) and have bought the next book. But please, PLEASE keep a good narrator when you have one and don’t try to stuff it up by changing to someone (two people actually) far inferior.

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Hmmm...

If I could split this book into three. I'd keep the first and the last part and discard the middle. Too much filler and not enough action in the middle.

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Great story, poor choice of narrator

I love this series, and this narrator combo are great in other things like The Stormlight Archive, but they just don't work well in this. I really wish they'd kept the guy from book 1.

The setting is London, in several incarnations, and the main characters should have English accents. These American narrators are good, but they can't sustain the accent needed to make this convincing.

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A better sequel but not great

There’s a lot that could have been done with this plot that was wasted but I did enjoy Alucard and the dynamics he caused between characters. The narrators are fine but I really wish they would get actual British narrators for this series set in london.

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Great story, not too happy about the performance

Loved this second book, but I struggled a lot with the parts narrated by Kate Reading: I found her rhythmic cadence unpleasant as nearly every sentence is read in the same. It became quickly monotonous and redundant. Luckily it's less problematic towards the end of the book, as there are more dialogues in the parts she narrates, and the dialogues are not affected by this issue and sound more "alive" and not repetitive.

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3 people found this helpful

Would be a filler episode if this was an anime

I enjoyed the first book as it had quite a fast-paced storyline. I cannot say the same for this one. The book ends with a decent cliffhanger but I hope the next book won't be disappointing.

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change of narrators

Not as strong as the first book. personally I did not like the change of narrator and find the new narrators slightly distracting even if the idea is good, but was not executed in a good way.

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Don’t blame the narration

I’ve listened to many books narrated by the same people and loved them so was very surprised when I saw some bad reviews mainly regarding the narration. I found the narration very good. Kate maybe needs to work on her British accent but otherwise it was great. They don’t rush the book, allowing you to savour each part.
The story however I wanted to enjoy more. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it but it is a bridge novel. Not a great deal happened and what did happen so far I don’t see how it fits in. Other than to explain the magic etc but not why the main protagonists are drawn to each other as there seems to be limited ‘chemistry’ prior to a certain scene ;)
I feel this novel is a bridge between more exciting activity and not the most interesting one. Fingers crossed for part three.

Just one more thing in the narration of book 1 I personally was pleased not to have to listen to that awful fake cockney accent in this one!

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love these books

u love these books, however, the narrators really bug me. The story is based in London and the characters are from London yet the narrators are American?? spoils the overall performance for me

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Held my attention

Good story. Now want to get the next one - ended on a real cliff hanger!

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