What's with the Fool's weird accent?

If you could sum up Fool's Quest in three words, what would they be?

Great story, bad perfomance

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Fool is my favorite and Elliot Hill is ruining him! He sounds like a Nazi in a bad movie. There's nothing in the books to suggest he speaks Fitz's language with any accent at all.

Would you be willing to try another one of Elliot Hill’s performances?

Not if I can help it. I'm seriously considering turning this off and just reading the book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, until the performance started driving me nuts. He doesn't do Bee well, either, and his Fitz is kind of lackadaisical, but the Fool is really the last straw!

51 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

First time I've quit an audiobook because of the reader

I am a huge fan of Robin Hobb and have listened to all her other series on audible (and read all the Fitz books on paper as well). This is the first time I've ever quit an audiobook because I found the reader unbearable. His character voices and accents are way over the top and the voices he does just don't match the characters. Queen Kettricken's voice is just horrifyingly pompous in this recording - utterly out of character. And the Fool's accent is so intense that it's distracting. I feel like I'm reading about characters I've never encountered before. It's ruining the story for me, and I'm stopping. I made it about 2 hours into the recording.

50 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

SERIOUSLY???!! Please fire the narrator!

What would have made Fool's Quest better?

A different narrator - almost ANY other narrator - but preferably James Langton or Paul Boehmer. Didn't this guy listen to the previous Fitz/Fool Trilogies to get a feel for the personalities, voices, and accents of the characters that also appear in this new trilogy? I've listened to all Robin Hobb's books and she's one of my very favorite authors but this narrator grates on my nerves almost like nails on a chalkboard. The story is very good but Elliot Hill is so terrible it makes it almost unbearable for me to listen to it. It has nearly put me off this series and author and still may have - I'm just not quite sure if I can go on listening to this dude murder this series and author! He actually changes the meaning of what the characters are saying with his awful accents and inflections. So sad...

What other book might you compare Fool's Quest to and why?

Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders, Rain Wilds Chronicles, Tawny Man, Wheel of Time, The Inheritance Cycle, The Licanus Trilogy, Hangman's Daughter...

What didn’t you like about Elliot Hill’s performance?

EVERYTHING! There's nothing I DIDN'T like about Elliot Hill's performance! Sheesh!

Any additional comments?

Please get rid of Elliot Hill for the 3rd book in the trilogy and replace him with James Langton or Paul Boehmer - or practically anyone else!

39 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great book, great series, misses the old reader

loved the story but it should be a requirement that the reader listed to the prior books for pronunciation and accents. the fool should not sound like an elderly Asian man.

30 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Excellent Story, Execrable Narration

I loved this story, as I've loved all stories in this world setting... A great story line, punctuated w/ intrigue and adventure... Characters like old friends... I particularly liked the new character Motley, which was imaginatively and humorously done... All that being said... The narration was just plain awful... The poorly done accents were distracting at best... Nearly unlistenable at worst... Being blind didn't have the option to switch to print, which I would have done... Listening to an Ebook version spoken aloud in a robotic voice was a tempting option... Sincerely hope narrator is replaced for 3rd book!!! The setup and cliffhangers have me excited for said book, but the idea of the same narrator has me considering other reading options...

26 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Terrible voice acting

There's no connection between this and the other books in the series when it comes to the way things are pronounced or how people sound. So be it; it's a different actor.

But this guy can't even keep the voices of characters straight in, literally, the same sentence. Toward the beginning of the book there was a conversation, and one character had three different voices. Beyond that, about a quarter of the characters have voices that sound like parodies of real people.

**Somewhat Spoilers ahead** Lant and Rain both are just completely ridiculous, with Lant constantly talking through clenched teeth regardless of the situation, and Rain sounding like a slimy effeminate villain, when there is absolutely no indication that he should sound like that. Dutiful and Kettricken both sound unbearably posh, which makes no sense, since their defining character trait is their down-to-earth-iness. It's like the voice actor took no effort to think through these characters, and just picked a voice at random when he came upon a new name.

What makes all of this even more frustrating is that the primary characters, Fitz and Bee, are both great! So you know that he can act, and apparently just chooses not to put in the effort for the majority of characters.

Very frustrated, and I'm really mad that he'll be back for the final book in the trilogy.

16 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Frustrating

Any additional comments?

This book has been very frustrating. I've immensely enjoyed Hobb's Fitz/Fool and Live Ship Traders trilogies. I wanted to love this book. I've tried to love it. But there are two issues that I can't seem to ignore. First, the characters lack insight into their situations. The most glaring example is Fitz's inability to recognize the nature of his daughter, Bee. Second, the plot is often driven in a certain direction because the characters don't communicate basic information or they keep secrets unnecessarily.

15 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Slower and slower

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator, I was so confuse by the narration.

What could Robin Hobb have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Once again Robbin Hobb has made fritz a whiny character. I have been waiting for this book to come out over a year and sad to say i was so disappointed. Where were all the action it promised, I thought we were suppose to see Frits kicking butts and take names. All that this was is a bunch of whining.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Get another narrator.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No because I would fall asleep.

Any additional comments?

I'm don't with this, going to get out and save to good memories of the passed books.

14 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Can't wait for the next book!!!

What did you like best about this story?

I loved how Robin is connecting all her books together with this new series. Such a great story. I enjoyed the story a lot (just not the narration) and I can not wait for the next book! Especially since she left us with a couple cliffhangers!

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Elliot Hill?

In my previous review of the first book in this new trilogy, I rated Mr. Hill higher and thought he was ok but just not the narrator for this series. Well, he is even worse for this book. Please consider a different narrator. Perhaps Paul Boehmer...? And re-narrate book 1 and 2. The first book was mostly just Fitz and Bee's voices and I was okay with putting up with it...even though the Fool's voice was appalling...he gave him a crazy accent. But in this book....pretty much every character (except the women) sound like whiny, sniveling, weak, spoiled annoying men! From Chade, King Dutiful, Lord Vigilant, Riddle and more. But the final straw was...***spoiler alert if you don't want to know about the appearance of certain characters***...his voices for Reyn and Tats, and other Bing Town/Rain Wild characters! Oh my gosh...so bad! I mean really bad. Ok if he was going for whiny but so not them! I felt like the narrartor was clenching his teeth the entire time he did their voices. He is not the narrator for this series and I really feel like they are doing Robin Hobb and her great books a huge disservice by keeping him as narrator...and I think that I will just buy the print version (or Kindle version) for the next book.

10 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Good tale, poor narration

I have listened with pleasure to the rest of the Farseer books by Robin Hobb. This latest series has a different narrator, which would be okay if the voices he chooses were not so jarring and wrong. The Fool has always had a light, crisp voice with both prior narrators. Suddenly, he voice is low, gruff, and has a fake germanish accent. Terrible. Kettricken, a woman who is simple, direct and sincere, is suddenly given a snooty, falsely upper class British accent. Readings from the chapter epigraphs are stilted, with breaks at highly unnatural places in the middle of sentences. I have over 450 Audible titles, and I am pretty easy to please, but this reading is awful.

7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile