Colonization: Second Contact

A great title poorly presented

Having already read this the entire worldwar and colonization series some years back, I have really enjoyed listening to them again in audiobook form up to this point. The narrator of the worldwar tetralogy, Todd McLaren, was an excellent narrator who really brought the books to life. I was therefore bitterly disappointed when I was met with the lackluster narrating of Patrick Lawlor.
On the one hand I had gotten used to Todd McLaren, but sometimes narrators change and if they are good you can get used to them. This was certainly not the case here. Not only was the pronunciation different in many cases, but the narrator simply does not have the skill Todd McLaren possesses in speaking different dialects and making characters feel individual. More annoying still however is the way it feels as if he is forcing the words out, too slowly and too weighted. There is little dynamic and this is at times quite off-putting. It's as if he is trying to make everything sound important and dramatic when it rarely needs to be. I can with ease say I will avoid any books narrated by Patrick Lawlor in the future.

The story is still as interesting as I remember it, but with the narrator ruining much of the experience it technically doesn't even deserve 3 stars. Only my personal love of the book saves it from the left half of the scale.

My advice; read it instead.

20 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

I was so excited

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I think I would recommend this only because you'll want to continue thru the story. I was so looking forward to a greater amount of new content. I have to say that I was disappointed by the lack of any "moving along". I felt just about like we left off about where we wound up at the end of the first series of books. I didn't hate it. I just felt a little cheated. I also didn't like the narration nearly as well as Todd McLaren's. When you pick up where another narrator leaves off you really ought to work on the pronunciations of the names of major characters. For instance if you were familiar with a lizard named Strayhaw you may need a couple of chapters to figure out that Strawhaw is the same lizard. Also the hissing speak the narrator added was less than necessary. I'll be continuing on with the series because 1. I'm dying of curiosity and 2. I've already purchased the rest of the books. Ha. I sure hope Harry doesn't let me down. He had all my confidence going in.

If you’ve listened to books by Harry Turtledove before, how does this one compare?

Usually the story get's told a little more completely than in this particular novel.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Patrick Lawlor?

Todd McLaren

17 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Decent overall story, but the narrator makes it unbearable.

I’ve read the print version of the book before and am a big Turtledove fan, but sadly the reader does such a bad job that I couldn’t finish the book.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great Book. Bad Narration

I loved the World War series, I was eager to finish every book. And when it came time for the Colonization series I was even more excited to hop right into it. I really wish Todd McLaren narrated this series as well because Patrick Lawlor was so bad. I'm sorry but its hard to enjoy a great book when the narrator makes me cringe every time I hear him. Butchered names, words, accents, hell even voice cracks from time to time. It makes me feel like I'm listening to a teenager's bad fanfiction. Like I said; Great Book, Bad Narration

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

good story. bad narrator.

The story was great, but they should have been more consistent with the narrating. I didn't like his voices.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

narrator ruined it

i listened to all the other worldwar series here on audible and starting to listen to the new narrator immediatly made me turn it off. terrible

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Narrator Makes a Difference

Great sequel to Worldwar but why did they have to change the narrator. Todd McLaren has a great range to his voice and brought to life the the characters from the various cultures, and the Race, quite well. Patrick Lawlor, on the other hand, makes it sound like Casey Kasem is narrating on American Top 40. Not able to engage the characters as well.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

was good but actor needed to listen to world war.

i loved the book and the series before but i wished they had kept the actor from world war series or had this actor listin to how names were pronounced in world war by the old actor it kept takeing me out of the universe when i had to mentality reprounounce a few names like a few lizards and two of the humans the polish one and the old calvary officer.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

The narrator ruins it

The story isn’t perfect and even doesn’t make sense in a few instances but the writing is still good. The narrator however is bad. He also pronounces everything different from the previous books narrator and its very distracting and frustrating.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Decent Performance, Still a Great Story

While no one can deny Patrick Lawlor does not live up to the bar Todd McLaren set, he does a really solid job and is far better than some performers I’ve listened to. The issue I think many people have is that we’ve been spoiled by Todd’s ridiculous acting skills that when faced with a still solid performance we feel we might have been cheated.

As far as story goes, it’s classic Turtledove and any self-respecting sci fi fan will enjoy. Though I do recommend you begin with the Worldwar saga first

1 personne a trouvé cela utile