Ship of Magic: The Liveship Traders, Book 1

Annoying Voice

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

Great book, Great Story, Great Writer, Pity about the narrator. It would be nice if they stuck to one Narrator for an author, I would have been very pleased to continue with Paul Bohemer, and I am disappointed with the change, I will make sure I listen to samples before I buy any more books from audible.

Would you be willing to try another one of Anne Flosnik’s performances?

No.
Anne Flosnik has an incredibly annoying voice, she seems to lisp, slur, speaks her words around the sides of her tongue and is almost sounds like she is trying to cast a spell with every sentence. I had intended to work my way through the Liveship traders series before I started the Tawny man series, but I have decided that since I read the series about 10 years ago, I will pass on buying the other two books and skip forward.

Any additional comments?

It has just occurred to me that there are other sites that do audiobooks, I have been happy having Audible as my sole provider, but I really don't want to listen to Anne Flosnik butchering any more of these books so I will have to look to see if this book is availiable from anyone else with a better Narrator.

7 sur 7 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Excellent book let down by an abysmal narrator

Would you be willing to try another one of Anne Flosnik’s performances?

Hell no. Not if you paid me.
She is slow, monotone and entirely boring as a narrator

Any additional comments?

Speeding the audio up to 1.1x speed improves things significantly but this would be best fixed with a better narrator.

5 sur 5 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

The playback skips words

Would you try another book from Robin Hobb and/or Anne Flosnik?

The story is engaging, however the recording skips words continually...
It looses meaning in some sentences

3 sur 3 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Do not buy! Horrible reading!!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Another reader would make all the difference. Anne Flosnik tries to do I do not what. I have read and re-read the books. The stories are wonderful.

What did you like best about this story?

The narrative is very good.

Would you be willing to try another one of Anne Flosnik’s performances?

No way.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment. I love the books, but Anne Flosnik's reading just kills them.

Any additional comments?

Horrible.

2 sur 2 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Tip for those who don't enjoy this narrator

Try increasing the playback speed. I listened to this book at 1.10x and it made a world of difference. That is a tip to remember for any audiobook that you are not enjoying, try increasing the playback speed before giving up on the book.

As for the trilogy, I'm now well into the second book in this series, and it's ok. It's not as gripping as the farseer trilogy, but it is good enough to listen too. I look forward to returning to Fitz & the Fool, but this is proving to be entertaining enough, and the magical ships are wonderful.

It is frustrating how even when someone has been proven to be wrong in this book, they still stubbornly refuse to change their mind/opinion about something. (Very true to life though, just look at politics.) Like the whole Vestrit family, none of them ever seem to change their mind. It does make it a struggle for me to like any of the characters very much.

Anyway, give the series a go, the ships are wonderful, and if you find the narrator difficult to listen too, try increasing the speed. I honestly wonder if someone messed up the recording, and it's playing slower than it should.

2 sur 2 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Worst Narrator Ever!!!! Slow, Monotone, Bland

I am sure the book is quite good but I will be asking for a refund for this one. The Narration is just terrible. I am really sorry Anne Flosnik but this is not your calling.

There is no depth to the characters, she is incredibly slow even at 1.25 times the speed. its very mono tone so the book doesn't develop any real feeling as to what is going on. The spacing between sections in chapters is almost non existent and its really hard to follow from one part to the next. And all the characters sound the same boy or girl, old or young.

Looking at other reviews of this narrator this is a common feeling so its really disappointing that the entire series is read by this one lady. She just doesn't give the book justice.

Will be reading this one myself thanks!

2 sur 2 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Truly awful narrator

Would you try another book from Robin Hobb and/or Anne Flosnik?

I'd certainly read a book from the same author, but not the narrator unless for a very specific reason.

Was Ship of Magic: The Liveship Traders, Book 1 worth the listening time?

The story is good, the narrator almost made me give up.

2 sur 2 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Interesting concept

After reading the Farseer trilogy, I really wanted to skip The Liveship Traders and go on to the Tawny Man Series but all the reviews I read indicated these books should be read in the order they were written because some of the characters from here are brought into the Tawny Man. While not directly connected to the Farseer story, it is set just outside the boarders of the Six Dutchies.

I liked the characters and the idea of the liveships but dont understand what is going on with the sea serpents. It has taken quite a long time to start enjoying the story as I don't care for the narrator's voice/accent. We have Trader families in debt to RainWild families for their liveships, children used as bargaining chips, pirates, slaves and politics and an interesting mix up of characters.

1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Worst narrator ever

This is an awesome book, that I've already read. As I am now reading the sequel I wanted to listen to the first one again to pass the time as I work , by revisiting this fantastic story, and reacquaint myself with everything that happened.

However after 10 minutes of listening, I had to stop.
This is so bad, it's not even a question of narration, but just....does this person even know how to speak ? The pronunciation is so weird, it all sounds like very bad acting.

Honestly, this is a very big shame, as it was the same with the narrator for Robin Hobb's other serie Royal Assassin : Audible should really look into re-recording those two series , as the other ones are well narrated, but since Royal Assassin is the first one you have to read/listen, I think it's filtering out a LOT of possible listeners/customers.

Those Books are SO good, they deserve much better narration, this was just cringe-worthy.

Preference

Loved the book and i am currently downloading the next in the series. The actor did a fine job, but not my favorite. Purely preference. The performance would never dissuade me from listening to more of her work in the future.