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Alan. Hardman

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The Quality Control of these Audiobooks is abymsal

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-02-24

I've had 2 other reviews of the Wheel of Time series where I've stated that Mike and Kate are terrible at their jobs and given reasons for it, but more than anything else in this one there is a horrific level of quality control in the reading and work done by ate Reading.

I've listened to this on audiotape, CD and Audible more times than I can count but on the most recent one (right now) on a CD version of this copy, I am currently on Chapter 24 Questions and I've noticed 2 mistakes made by Kate in this book when reading out chapters. It brought me up short as I heard her read out

"But Mat and Perrin are ta'veren, too, and she had also dreamed of them. Odd dreams, even more difficult to understand than the dreams of Rand. MAT with a falcon on his shoulder, and Perrin with a hawk."

I stopped there as it just doesn't make sense, the Falcon and Hawk are references to Faile and Berelain's attraction to and relationship with Perrin in the coming books, why a Falcon would be on Mat of all people doesn't make sense to me.

So I checked my paperback book AND my hardback book of the series and the screw up is of her saying "MAT" instead of Perrin. It goes "Perrin with a falcon on his shoulder, and Perrin with a hawk."

Clearly describing two separate scenes one of a Hawk and one of a Falcon for the idea of Perrin's attentions.

So I came here and checked and yep, this has been the standard of the Wheel of Time Audiobooks since 1992.
32 years!! Slipshod and abysmal.

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another absolute stunning performance

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-02-24

I don't have a single negative thing to say about this series, Cliff Kurt does an absolutely fantastic performance across the board for every last character. I love this series for it's story and it's amazing how well it'd presented.

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Stellar performance oh all levels

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 17-12-23

With already having a great story to work with, the voice of Cliff Kurt brings the characters of Mushoku Tensei to life in spectacular fashion, clear defined character voices for all the main cast and a wonderfully deep narrator voice for internal monologues.

This is a treat to listen to and such a calming one too, this is a definite win and brilliant piece for Seven Seas, I am definitely keeping up with this series as I was already a fan but the wonderful voice makes it a million times better.

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A slight stuttering start

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-11-23

I am a big fan of Jim Butcher and his writing whether it be FPN or TPN forms, he has a cool and interesting set of worlds that are richly developed and full of stories to tell, yet in this starting novel of a series, there's been a slight - albeit fixed by the end - shakiness to it.

The world of the Cinder Spires seems to be a form of post-apocalypse in space style storyline, with a world that was colonised by Humans years ago and built up to grandeur only to have fallen into ruin, that alone is an instant win for me as I love that sort of thing. But initially there's little build up for the characters and setting, part of the grandeur is lost as we're thrust into a war too quickly for my liking.

It gets over that and the development begins to solidify around the half-way point and after this, it gets steadily better as time is given to build things up for the climax at the end.

I support all of Jim's work and will eventually get around to buying the whole Codex Alera series on here as books are great, so I am sticking through with this - I want to get the novella too soon so I can learn more about Warriorborn.

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One problem

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 20-06-23

There's an issue when having a story that has multiple characters with distinct personalities in them, unless you're doing a full on audio drama with many voices comprising characters, you need people who can do clearly different voices for their characters. Those who are fans of Konosuba will know the basic plotline shown here and won't have that big an issue but those who come into this without a clue are going to be flummoxed when Aqua sounds like Megumin who sounds like Chris who sounds like Darkness or Kazuma who sounds like any of the males in the series.

I'm not decrying the reading, it's as all American Voice Acting is 'clear and well read' with no mouth sounds or noises, it's well done and decent. It's just neither Mr Pantoja or Ms Mendez have a vocal range that can sustain a cast of dozens.

Then theres some of the changes to terms used. Why you'd included Hikki-NEET in this but remove Loli is baffling to me when you use jailbait. It seems a formless aesthetic change that makes no sense.

And the biggest problem, 'The Crimson Magic Clan'
I'm sorry but NO, they're the Crimson Demons' (紅魔族 or Kurenai Mazoku) and the reason for that is that they are ALL Chuuninbyou and think the name 'Crimson Demon' sounds cool as all hell. They don't care that others look at them funny when they call themselves demons to fight the Devil King, they're awesome at magic and love being their own way. Why you'd choose this when you include something as insanely difficult to understand as Hikkikimori and NEET with the portmanteau Hikki-NEET.

Weebs understand that, we know the jokes, but newcomers are going to have a massive hill to climb for that, but you remove references to Megumins Chuunin lifestyle or her over the top laughing?

I have worries about this but will see it through with a second volume.

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let's be honest here

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-05-23

One of the never-ending problems of these versions of the audiobooks is their frank shoddy production value.

The Wheel of Time is an Epic that is the modern Fantasy Fiction version of Tolkien, with a world so jam packed with history and characterisation that it isn't matched by anyone doing something similar, it will be a while before something comes along that equals it.

For that, getting the amount of pronunciations wrong in the audio is unforgivable, especially when you've got a litany of names, terms, meanings and items that are introduced in this book that make such a massive impact on the series overall. Again, I wouldn't hold it against Mike and Kate if there weren't the glossaries in every book that give description to terms and names, but the unfortunate reality of it is that they didn't care about quality when doing this.

They get praised for it but the quality isn't there, oh sure Mike's voices are stellar and I don't need to hear the name of a character to know who is speaking, but it's the endless use of terms by both that take you out of it when listening.

It gets worse the longer the series goes and there's a total of 2 books where there's not a single mistake made in using the correct pronunciation, and they're slap bang in the middle of the series, everywhere else it's terrible.

I won' ever buy the series Amazon are doing with Pike, but something different needs to happen because these are just bad.

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I don't know how they got the work they did

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 21-04-23

Mike and Kate are a couple who are very well known for their audiobooks and their voices are seen as the epitome of skill when making audiobooks but I have to point out that the quality control on this series any literally everything else they do is so poor it is unimaginably bad to suggest they're even passable.

There are a lot of words terms names and places in this book alone and every single other book in the series of the Wheel of Time that are spelled strangely. Aes Sedai. Moghedian. Terangreal. On and on it goes with insane sounding names that when said in modern English - depending on your location - would sound nothing alike. For instance the three words I used are

Eyes-Sed-Eye.
Mog-Head-Ee-Ahn
Ter-Ang-Ree-Ahl.

and if it weren't for something I'd be a real heel saying that they are bad at their jobs. BUT unfortunately for Michael Kramer and Kate Redding, a Canadian couple who are lauded as the best audiobook voices in the business.

The Wheel of Time has appendices that give descriptions for what words mean, what terms are used and how to say said words, given exact English pronunciations (albeit with American spelling as a Yank wrote the books) and for out of 14 books and a prequel, for both narrators to constantly get certain words wrong is not only abysmal but negligent of the people who publish this.

Part of the Story of the Wheel of Time is that the people we're meeting are the people that we base legends on. The Aes Sedai are the origin point of the Irish mythical Aos Si a race of Fairies or Elves in said mythology. Robert Jordan was very precise with name creation and usage, and for them to get nearly a dozen mistakes of names repeated over and over in every book and flitting between them, saying them right one minute to wrong in another is not just shoddy workmanship but laziness to the extreme.

I love the Wheel of Time books, they're my favourite fantasy fiction for the reasons that there's stunning character development and workmanship put into the whole series, but having the reality show itself that these two make repeated mistakes irks me to no end.

And it doesn't help that one of the two can't do different voices to save their life, they all sound identical to each other.

It comes to a point that makes it impossible for me to recommend as the quality control isn't worth it, yet the story is definitely worth it as it's brilliantly done.

If ever the series is remade and actual talent is put into it (not the version Amazon has done themselves as any connection to that isn't helpful or wanted by fans of the series) then I'd re-buy the whole collection. It's that good a series.

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2020's cover redeisgn

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-03-23

I don't have issue with the series, it's a good one but...

Why's Hermione the central figure on the cover? She's not the central focus of the book and it makes no sense in the point of the story that this is from?
Seems sort of stupid if you ask me...

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there hasn't been a bad one for these yet

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-02-23

For a series that devotes itself to the travels of a salesman and his immortal wolf waifu partner, you'd think that getting a story that is a furthering of the romance between the two would be something boring - but it's 100% totally not that.

The story is just building more and more with both of them, from Lawrence and Holo's teasing of each other to the unsure nature both have as they're getting closer and closer to Yoitsu and the supposed fulfillment of the bargain the two made together and I love that in every way possible there's development.

Heck there's a competing cute romance in this one that is just as heartwarming and you don't even really know that much about them, add to that the further complexities of the world around this story and its transtionary period between Paganism and Christianity teachings in the wilds of Europe,. its sort of amazing how well this is done.

I'm just upset I have to wait for the next volume now...oh well

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Another Amazing performance

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-01-23

I was honestly hesitant when I saw that Holo had her Eng VA doing the lines for her in this volume, J Michael Tatum performed well enough that I was sure it would set me off when things were jumping back and forth - luckily I was very wrong about this, Brina performed amazingly well in all the parts and it made my heart ache at some of the emotion she put into Holos pain.

This is one of the best audiobooks I've gotten yet, can't wait for volume 4 next month.

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