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Crystal Singer

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Crystal Singer

By: Anne McCaffrey
Narrated by: Adrienne Barbeau
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About this listen

Killashandra Ree has spent ten grueling years in musical training, anticipating interstellar celebrity as a vocal soloist. She is young, beautiful—and still without prospects. After learning that a flaw in her voice will prevent her from singing lead, she hears of the mysterious Heptite Guild on the planet Ballybran, where the fabled Black Crystal is found. Mining this strange form of crystal is a dangerous occupation but to Killa, the risks are acceptable. Remarkably, her adaptation to crystal mining is unusually rapid and easy and Killashandra advances quickly. The problem is—few people who land on Ballybran ever leave.

©2002 Anne McCaffrey (P)2022 Phoenix Books Adventure Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Funny
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During my teens, this book took me on a magical journey through the emotions of its main character and her recovery from tragedy. I was so excited listen to it agin on Audible but it didn’t sound right. I grabbed my paperback version and compared to find way too much material skipped. I listened through and it had lost much of its sparkle. Very sad. Anne was renowned for her ability to paint images with words and this has a real pragmatic feel to it despite fairly good voice talent. Sadly not recommended.

Favourite book way too abridged

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I I remember reading the story when I was younger I'm somewhat disappointed and I'm pretty sure that it was a lot longer than what is actually in this particular reading. I'm going to have to check but I'm pretty sure that more than half the story is missing.

Where is the rest??

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Where does Crystal Singer rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Low presently as I have only two in my library.

Has Crystal Singer put you off other books in this genre?

No not at all.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Adrienne Barbeau?

Pierce Brosnan or Liam Neeson

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It could have been

Any additional comments?

I was very disappointed in the narrator and the quality of the recording. I have the complete series and loved this book as a teen. I found the audio off putting and little or no feeling in the story.

Disappointed

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Everything is read quite fast, makes the story feel rushed.
Overall the story is nice, just have to rewind sometimes as speaker is too fast

Rushed a bit

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Great story but the pace of narration felt like being driven along 20km faster than the speed limit.

Be prepared to listen fast

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I have loved Anne McCaffrey books since I was a pre-teen. I miss my hard copies, however, listening to books is easier for me now. The only thing that disappointed me about this series was that it was only available in an abridged version. I think the editing was a bit harsh and missed some of the beautiful parts of the book.

Not fond of abridged version but OK

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Close your eyes and see a world beautifully through the readers words. I look forward to more

Beautifully written

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This book is wonderful in the original paper back. This narration is terrible its so fast and sooo much of the story is skipped.

What a terrible version

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Why was it abridged? What a waste of my credit.
The recording quality was so poor. I was so disappointed with the whole experience. This should be a free book.

Disappointed

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So much has been cut out of this great book, that you don't get the real feel for the characters and story. I have read these books many times over and love the story, but too much is missing and the narrator spoke way to fast

Disappointing

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