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A. Gander

Scotland
  • 3
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  • 0
  • helpful votes
  • 3
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  • Station Eleven

  • By: Emily St John Mandel
  • Narrated by: Jack Hawkins
  • Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars 158
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars 147
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars 149

Day one: The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the Earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%. Week Two: Civilization has crumbled. Year Twenty: A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and it threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.

  • 4 out of 5 stars

  • Good book if you dont think about it too much

  • By Denison on 02-06-2015

This story draws you in.

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

Reviewed: 04-05-2018

I read this book first and then downloaded the audio book a few months later. The narrator’s Canadian accent changed my perception of characters and events for the better and I was able to appreciate the story in a different way. I love the understated nature of the writer’s post apocalyptic world. The threats and dangers are there, but there’s a sense of hope that if civilisation ended, we might just find enough common humanity to form communities and reasons to live. I also loved the time jumps back and forth to slowly reveal stories. The interconnected plots felt realistic and never too contrived. I’d recommend this book to anyone.

  • Sarah Thornhill

  • By: Kate Grenville
  • Narrated by: Emma Fielding
  • Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars 42
  • Performance
    4.5 out of 5 stars 35
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars 35

Sarah Thornhill is the youngest child of William Thornhill, convict-turned-landowner on the Hawkesbury River. Her stepmother calls her wilful, but handsome Jack Langland loves her and she loves him. 'Me and Jack', she thinks. 'How could it go wrong?' But there's an ugly secret in Sarah's family. That secret takes her into the darkness of the past, and across the ocean to the wild coasts of New Zealand.

  • 5 out of 5 stars

  • Worthy sequel

  • By A. Gander on 04-05-2018

Worthy sequel

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

Reviewed: 04-05-2018

I enjoyed The Secret River and was left wondering what happened in the years that followed these characters. I enjoyed the focus on a daughter and the switch to first person narration. Some parts were a little hurried and I’m not sure quite matched up in terms of believeability but it was a sweet coming of age story that explored first love. The journey to New Zealand felt rushed and distracted from the issues of racism and the horrific treatment of indigenous Australians. But overall, the narrator was good and I couldn’t stop listening to this and finished it quickly. A few days later and I’m still thinking of these characters and Grenville’s message about the importance telling our ancestors’ stories.

  • The Golden Age

  • By: Joan London
  • Narrated by: Daniel Koek
  • Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
  • Unabridged
  • Overall
    3.5 out of 5 stars 55
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars 50
  • Story
    3.5 out of 5 stars 49

Perth, 1954. Thirteen-year-old Frank, a refugee from wartime Hungary, is learning to walk again after contracting polio. At The Golden Age Children's Convalescent Home, he meets Elsa, and the two patients form a forbidden, passionate bond. The Golden Age becomes the little world that reflects the larger one, where everything occurs: love, desire, music, death and poetry.

  • 4 out of 5 stars

  • Shame about the narration

  • By A. Gander on 18-04-2018

Shame about the narration

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

Reviewed: 18-04-2018

If you could sum up The Golden Age in three words, what would they be?

Understated, poetic, bittersweet

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Golden Age?

The ending

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator was monotonous and wooden, not to mention almost downright insulting to women when trying to adopt a female voice at times. Apparently older female characters sound like shrieking pantomime dames.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was a poignant ending that gave me a lump in my throat.