Narrated by Mark Hammer AND Will Patton?

Just finished listening to this--and loved it. However, I am totally confused that both of these actors are listed as narrators. It is Mark Hammer only. What gives? When I read the reviews of this series, I see that very few folks are either/or about these two--some really do NOT like Hammer's accents or pronunciations, so much so that it ruins the book for them. If they purchase this thinking that at some point Will Patton is going to be reading, they will be sorely misled. I hope this will get corrected.

I also hope that audible.com will release more of this series in unabridged form. I never fail to enjoy the stories or characters and Mr. Burke's inestimable prose--with only one misstep in narrators (Nick Sullivan)--which is a pretty good record, over all.

9 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Toby Belch and Filler? Not Burke's best.

Yep, I have liked Streak Robicheaux enough to read ten of his stories to date. Mark Hammer's an important reason. He's among the greatest voices to have worked in this audio media. And yeah, Dave Robicheaux's life and mind are still fascinating as he tries to focus the American South through his very liberal lens where all people of color are noble yet bruised by all white people of affluence who have both inherited and continue to stain their own souls. While there's complexity of plot and character there's no nuance in Burke's judgement of this deep- Louisiana culture. To Burke, there is no New South, except as an irony. Little surprise that Alec Baldwin's been casts as Robicheaux in movies.

But in 'Sunset Limited' I began to find what was an engaging eccentricity in Robicheaux's internal monologues to have grown into an oddness bordering upon a distracting contradiction. Dave is presented to us as a simple cop: man-of-the-people, back-country moralist with a deep bayou accent and deeper back-countrty mind-set.

So how does one account for the intellectualism of his analogies? For example I was startled to here one made in this novel between the characters around him and Sir Toby Belch from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night! I know that Robicheaux attended a blue collar college, and yet he brings the critical analysis of a professor of literature to bear upon his reactions to story points. Toby Belch?? And his inner vocabulary as he analyzes his dreams, presents his imaginings, and details histories is rich as a tenured faculty member's and simultaneously littered, even driven, with Jungian archetypes.

So many of these, well, homilies, are now plunked into the stories that I'm feeling like a guy asked to buy a mine that some seller's shot-up with a shotgun loaded with tiny gold shavings. They call that "salting" and sellers who do that get into trouble with the law.

I'll read the next in this series… and I can recommend that you buy this one… but I can't recommend it with the enthusiasm that I had for say, "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead". But still, as a tribute to the late Mark Hammer, it's worth hearing.

6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

YAWN or just Aok

I love JLB, he is one of my favorite authors. But this one became tiresome for some reason. The characters lacked the typical depth given by the author, the plot seemed too familiar; just nothing new seemed to happen in this story. OH I wish it had been better.

6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

I made it less than 10 minutes

I bought this book in a hurry assuming that Will Patton was the reader. I gave up after about 9 minutes, the quickest I've ever given up on a recorded book.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Dave Robicheau

Would you try another book from James Lee Burke and/or Mark Hammer and Will Patton ?

Here in lies the problem. I love the James Lee Burke novels and especially the Dave Robicheau series but............. Mark Hammer is not the person that should be reading this book. He's terrible and brings boredom and a lack of voices to the characters. I was very disappointed in his abilities. Will Patton on the other hand makes the books come alive. He is Dave Robicheau and Clete Purcell and a difference voice for each character. When Will Patton reads the books I will be happy to buy them..... Mark Hammer is a different story.

What other book might you compare Sunset Limited to and why?

None

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Mark Hammer is a terrible narrater

Was Sunset Limited worth the listening time?

No

Any additional comments?

No

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

The narrater voice is enough to put you to sleep

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

Yes, in book form, only

What other book might you compare Sunset Limited to and why?

Books 15 - 19 have a great narrater, and we really enjoy all of James Lee Burke's . Just sorry to have this group of narrter's reading this story.

What didn’t you like about Mark Hammer and Will Patton ’s performance?

Everything, the tone of the voice, no sound difference between characters. Just very bad choice of narrters. Their voice are so bad that you don't want to even listen to story and you have a very hard time following the story because of that.

Was Sunset Limited worth the listening time?

No - would like my money back. HA HA

Any additional comments?

Love James Lee Burks books, but this was the worst book that I have ever hear on a cd, cassette, or from audible books in the past 10 years. We listened to on average 20 to 30 books every six months. This one almost put us to sleep listening to it and we still have 6 more hours to go before it finished.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Burke is Always Good

Any additional comments?

James Lee Burke is far and away my favorite writer. His books are always entertaining and thought-provoking and his characters and settings are more real than those of any other author. This not my favorite of his books, but still excellent and better than a book by anyone else.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

As good as it gets.

Loved it as usual, with a James Lee Burke novel. This series is my very favorite.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Confusing & tedious--recommend listening at 1.25x

Would you try another book from James Lee Burke and/or Mark Hammer?

I generally love Burke's books, and the Dave Robicheaux character in particular. He's flawed, interesting, good cop, and completely likeable. I don't know if I can put my finger on it, but I thought this book was particularly confusing, hard to follow the various threads, and implausible in some areas. Difficult to keep the relationships between the characters straight. I was so disappointed in the narrator--there wasn't quite enough distinction (or any) in the voices of the characters. So I couldn't quite tell who was talking in various dialogues. It was just a struggle--I'm not sure I'll get another Robicheaux novel if it's narrated by Mark Hammer.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Reasonable. Eventually tied up all the loose strings.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Mark Hammer?

Absolutely. Hated the narration. I had to put the speed up to 1.25x Couldn't bear it. Every other Robicheaux novel I've listened to was narrated by Will Patton, and I thought it was great. So before I hired a cast, I'd probably go back to Patton. But a cast would most definitely be better than Hammer.

Did Sunset Limited inspire you to do anything?

No.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Good story, terrible narration

Could only listen to an hour of this book, the narration was the worst I ever heard. Slow speech, hard to understand and no differentiation between characters making it hard to follow.