Shame about the narration

The change in narrator was a bad decision and disappointing. Every time she mispronounced a name I mentally corrected her, which was distracting. However, more annoying was how she split sentances so the narrative didn't flow as well as it should and spoilt the action at times.
Story was good, but rambled a bit at times. I still found myself laughing out loud at parts and it was enjoyable, perhaps not quite as good as The Rook. I put that down to the narrator and if it had been read by the previous narrator and I'm sure it would've given it 5 stars all round.

17 people found this helpful

great story, shame about the narration

Being book two I expected the narrator to be the same, or to have at least read the first book. It was very grating that she miss pronounced a main characters name most of the way through.

9 people found this helpful

Good story great sequel

Shame the narrator couldn't pronounce the names properly, as a big fan of the rook it made me cringe when she pronounced the names wrong. Myfawny is pronounced to sound like Tiffany, the chequey is pronounced sheckay not checkee.... and the grafters... oh hell. Speed the book up a bit for full enjoyment. She reads it really slowly.

8 people found this helpful

not as good as the first book

having developed strong characters in the first book the author largely ignores these and focuses on new characters

performance wise some if the accents are rather off and the striking change of the accent of myfanwy is a shock having just listened to the first book. I'm pretty sure that there it explains that myfanwy is pronounced to rhyme with Tiffany and that she isn't in fact welsh!

7 people found this helpful

Good Second Book Terrible Accents

Overall I enjoyed the story and setting but the accents attempted by the narrator were frankly terrible and really brought you out of it

5 people found this helpful

Why on earth do people Switch a good narrator?

This wasn't as good as Daniel O'Malley's first book, but it was still a wonderfully invented story full of melds between science and magic that I, as a science fiction and fantasy fan really enjoyed. I can't wait for the next series installment.

However what the publisher and or author was thinking when they switched out the narrator they had for this one is beyond me. She didn't even bother to learn that Rook Thomas pronounces her first name as Miffany. She does not use the Welsh pronunciation, unless she decided to after the first book, in which case, it's the authors fault. She also didn't bother how to pronounce 'checquy', which in the first book it is explained that it comes from french influence. It is not pronounced 'checky'.

All these little inconsistancies make me spend part of my time shouting at the narrator while trying to enjoy my book, and I could have done without this.

5 people found this helpful

Please don't use this narrator for the third book.

Would you be willing to try another one of Maggie Mash’s performances? I adored The Rook, and I really enjoyed this too for the story but the narrator was awful. As mentioned elsewhere, she obviously did no research into the previous book and pronounced the main characters name wrong all the way though (its explained in the first book how and why its pronounced as it is) and gave her a Welsh accent when she is not Welsh. It was very distracting and annoying and I really hope that Daniel O'Malley or his team see these reviews and they do not use Maggie Mash again (the narrator of The Rook was perfect)

5 people found this helpful

Abysmal narration

As the other reviews state, Maggie Mash and the producers of this audiobook clearly didn't bother reading the first book... or even the first 5% of it, when it is explained how Myfanwy (Miffany, to rhyme with Tiffany) is pronounced and that she isn't Welsh. That really irritated me - although I did finish it - and I am now going to return this audiobook under Audible's guarantee and buy the US edition instead.

5 people found this helpful

Never finished due to narrator

Would you try another book written by Daniel O'Malley or narrated by Maggie Mash?

I love the first book in this series, so will probably read the others in print.While Maggie Mash is not a bad narrator, I found it really annoying that she clearly hadn't read or researched the previous book in the series and kept pronouncing names wrong and giving Myfwany a terrible Welsh accent

3 people found this helpful

Awful Narration

It’s absolutely infuriating that the narrator wasn’t briefed on pronunciation in this book. In the first book there are really specific sections about Myfanwy’s name and how to say ‘the Chequey’, so its incredibly annoying that the narrator doesn’t do it here and makes Myfanwy a very awkward Welsh person. This sets the tone for a really poor reading of this book, which should be lighthearted and wry but is instead played flat throughout. I get the feeling that the narrator just wasn’t briefed about the earlier book and is reading with no real understanding of urban fantasy books. Such a shame as they are great at multiple voices and varied reading.

3 people found this helpful