The Lark and the Wren

Bardic Voices, Book 1

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Christa Lewis

Young, brash, and impulsive, Rune backs up a brag by ascending Skull Hill to play fiddle for the malevolent spirit that resides there, striking a bargain with the ghost to surrender her soul if he tires of her playing before sunrise.

©1992 Mercedes Lackey (P)2022 Tantor

Loved it!

A great story that I read years ago. And Christa Lewis is a fabulous narrator. I look forward to listening to the rest of the books in the series.

Great book

Loved reading these books and super excited that audible finally got them on here. Great story and great performance

The writing holds all the magic it did from first printing

Lackey has long entertained me and kept me company in times both difficult and fair. I read them when they first wee published, but had not revisited the Lark and the Wren in years. To my delight, the audio was as good as I’d hoped it could be.

Finally here!!!!!

My favorite series by Lackey, cant wait for the rest of them to come out.

A fiddler's dream story

I love this story!! the only critique is the length of the stutter. I have a similar stutter and the timing is varied and not always long like that. it was hard too listen to after a while. otherwise, I LOVED IT!!!! The story! The narrative!!! Everything!!!

Great audio book

I have loved this book since I was young, and Christa Lewis is a wonderful narrator. I think the one thing that keeps taking me out of the story is sometimes Christa's accents for Rune slips. I'd have preferred if she'd just left the accent out rather than hear the agonizing lapse between semi-irish to out and out southern US.

Came across as YA

I get it, book protagonists are super human. But as someone who studied music theory and performance for years, taking multiple lessons per week with practice every day on two different instruments, and still never achieved what I considered to be a professional skill level, I find it *a stretch* that Rune learns to read music, play a new instrument, and become an incredible performer in a matter of months. She also seems to already know every song ever composed by heart. But okay, all that aside. This seems like the kind of book I might have liked in high school. It’s full of really sweet people and really evil people, and you always know which is which — no gray area here. As the book progresses, it seems to move away from Rune’s story and focus on building up interest in the characters for the next book, who I wasn’t interested in—I would have rather learned more about Rune. I’m not sure if I want to read the second book and go through the same bait-and-switch for the third.
Christa Lewis did a good job performing this.

Good story

Story was good. Rambles a bit. Narrator switches accents so many times that character voices get blended. The stuttering character is overdone. We get it, the character stutters, but its a lot and it grates. It would be worse if the story didn’t keep our attention.

Pick an accent and stick with it…

I love Mercedes Lackey and I love this series but seriously if you’re going to narrate an audiobook, and you have the desire to add an accent to a character….at least make it consistent. Rune goes from being a British peasant to Irish to sounding like Scarlett O’Hara in gone with the wind…. Distracting and disappointing…. In the worst of all the sample that audible provides doesn’t have any of this shifting accent in it so you have to purchase the book to find out how truly horrible it is.

This story is a little meandering but good

The concept in this reminded me a little bit of the name of the wind, which I really like. however, The characters and overall story really had nothing in common. The characters are very relatable and well done around half and 3/4 of the way through the story makes some pretty big jumps that just didn't really seem to belong with the earlier part of the story. This doesn't mean that it isn't still a good story but I wouldn't consider it outstanding or concise.