Great Listen

Have read the book many times. Was wonderful to listen to it and the narrator was really good. But for the love of all that is holy please dont try to do an English accent ever again.

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Why do they kill accents?!

Story is quite an entertaining alternative history ride.. But good god, the narrator *murders* English accents. Why? I'd far rather hear a story in an American accent all the way through than the weird mixture of Indian/Scottish/whoknows that the narrator comes up with when reading English parts.

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1 person found this helpful

Amazing book on what might have happened

Loved it, good narration if you can withstand the horrible imitated british accent!
A "must hear" if you enjoy counterfactual history.

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good book, horrible narration

Originally came across this book in hard copy and enjoyed the "what if" story line. but I have to say that the narrator in this audio book is frankly attrocious. I never thought I would consider Dick Van Dykes's accent in Mary Poppins as a polished performance; but you get the impression that the narrator of this audio book has never actually heard an English accent. it was almost so bad that several times I nearly gave up on the book.

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Excellent story, but ......

Clever "what if" story line, nicely thought out ... only let down is the narrators irritating attempt at an English accent .... Dirk van Dyke's was better, in the original Mary Poppins and thats long been looked at as being appaling and a joke ..... Watch out for his inability to pronounce things properly, like Manhatten pronounced as Munhuton

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Really bad story and terrible narration

Story was a slog to get through. I found I was mostly listening out for how awful the accent ts were.

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Third rate political thriller - awful narration

The concept of this book interested me, I still think that a decent book could be written with a similar story line but nothing about this ever reaches a decent level. The story is full of cliches, repetition, and many an unbelievable moments. Everything has to be spelled out for the listener as if they couldn't grasp the simplest idea.
The lead character is clearly a moron, reaching conclusions half an hour after the listener has, yet he manages to outwit everyone else in the book. Time and again 'twists' are telegraphed ages before they are revealed so that there is a complete lack of suspense. The lead (Carl) has a habit of (attempting) to deliver pithy one-liners whenever he gains the upper hand but these are the dreadful. In general much of the dialogue in unbelievable.
The support and romantic interest (Sandy) is not only a journalist, but also a spy. Yet she is too stupid to be believable in either role. Also, even though this book is set in the 70s the way she is written as a pathetic character relying on Carl makes you think that the author was stuck in decades before. Yet the book was written decades later. Her dialogue (and that of every British character) is made up of dated and lazy cliches (tea and biscuits constantly, you can guess what will be said next 'by Jove'). The author tries to shoehorn everything that he knows about British people in these characters, but the details are about as in depth as a Tourist Board advert. Harrods, the Savoy, Scotch and tea. Pathetic. Little research or character development at all.
The narration is equally trite. If you can't do accents, don't attempt them. Reading them all in your native accent is perfect acceptable. No idea where the British accents are meant to be from. The intonation in the American accents is awful. Spoils any tonne that might have been generated. The narrator attempts a Russian accent (poorly) for all of two lines before giving up and reverting to his own.

Great concept, awful, awful book. Bad adaption. Really not worth publishing.

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Good world building, bad writing terrible narrator

The overall story is really good. the world building is believable and interesting.
The writing and characterisation is bad. Better than I could do, but still really bad. pacing is slow, endless exposition, unbelievable and 2D characters. Far too slow.
The narration is beyond awful. The second main character is British. The narrator cannot do a Britosh accent. Sounds like the policeman in Allo Allo. Distracting.
With a good narrator and tightened up by 25% it would be quite a good book.

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