Lord of the Darkwood

The Tale of Shikanoko

De: Lian Hearn

Narrado por: Neil Shah

Against a background of wild forest, elegant castles, hidden temples and savage battlefields, the adventure that began with Emperor of the Eight Islands draws to its thrilling conclusion.

The rightful emperor is lost. Shikanoko is condemned to live, half man and half deer, an outlaw in the Darkwood. Yet the mighty lords who now rule the Eight Islands are prey to suspicion and illness, and drought and famine choke the realm. Only Shikanoko can bring healing by restoring the preordained ruler to the Lotus Throne. And only one person can bring him back from the Darkwood....

©2016 Lian Hearn (P)2016 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

The reader is pretty much insufferable

Only a very good story being very well told could have made me listen through hour after hour of a reader unable to use proper intonation and punctuation.

It is painful to listen to sentences that seem to end in weird places, only for the next breath of the reader to reveal that the sentence had three more words. When the reader then goes straight on to the next phrase, I miss out on the content because I am still deciphering the real meaning of that strangely read sentence.

This would have been perfectly evident to the reader if he had bothered to read the book to himself first, and make some notes to himself! Listeners should be able to hear which word in a sentence is the important one. Most decent narrators automatically dramatize at least speech, but also use techniques such as a variety of tones, loudness and speed to make the story an adventure to listen to.

The reason why I do not call the reader a narrator is that he does not add anything to the original writing, he merely conveys the words as if they were found in an accounting ledger.

For a REAL narration, try listening to David Tennant make "How to Train Your Dragon" not just a great story, but a nuanced, sensitive, sweet, funny, scary and wildly exciting tale. If you can manage to listen to this book again afterwards without cringing, you're a better person than me!