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Wheel of the Infinite

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Wheel of the Infinite

By: Martha Wells
Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
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About this listen

Every year in the great Temple City of Duvalpore, the image of the Wheel of the Infinite must be painstakingly remade to ensure another year of peace and harmony for the Celestial Empire. Every hundred years the sacred rite takes on added significance. For it is then that the very fabric of the world must be rewoven. Linked by the mystic energies of the Infinite, the Wheel and world are one. Should the holy image be marred, the world will suffer a similar injury. But a black storm is spreading across the Wheel. Every night the Voices of the Ancestors - the Wheel's constructors and caretakers - brush the darkness away and repair the damage with brightly colored sands and potent magic. Each morning the storm reappears, bigger and darker than before, unraveling the beautiful and orderly patterns. With chaos in the wind, a woman with a shadowy past has returned to Duvalpore.

A murderer and traitor - an exile disgraced, hated, and feared, and haunted by her own guilty conscience - Maskelle has been summoned back to help put the world right. Once she was the most revered of the Voices, until cursed by her own actions. Now, in the company of Rian - a skilled and dangerously alluring swordsman - she must confront dread enemies old and new and a cold, stalking malevolence unlike any she has ever encountered.

©2000 Martha Wells (P)2013 Tantor Classics Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction

Critic Reviews

"Superior fantasy work from one of the best in the field." (Kirkus Starred Review)
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I found this tale to be unusual and strange. The world created is vivid with many believable characters. I liked both leads and the ending at least satisfied. It left me with a weird impression that I can’t quite put a finger on. I didn’t enjoy the narration to begin with but found I got used to her voice over time until her voice became the voice of the book. Excellent all round so I recommend you give this a try.

Unusual

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Nowhere near as good as The Witch King or Murderbot. Painful to listen to the narrator’s various attempts at voices. Some nice moments between Maskelle and Rian, but the story was about 6-7 hours longer than it should have been.

Painful narration, slow story

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Love Martha Wells’ stories and this novel seems to be a worthy addition to her body of work. The expected deft creation of a unique world is there and the central characters are believable and sympathetic. Yet I struggled to stay engaged because the whole thing is made difficult, even painful, by the narration. The delivery is staccato at best, and painfully slow at other times, almost like a beginner reader or a not yet-graduated elocution student. Mispronouncing an occasional word maybe forgivable but with the other hesitations they become real hurdles to the listening experience. I’m only six chapters in and I’m about to switch to a print version.

Good world building and characterization but…

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The story is fabulous, however the narrator is awful and makes it really hard to listen to with any enjoyment. She swaps her ‘r’ and “q” sounds with a ‘w’ sound and places emphasis on random words during a sentence that just don’t make sense. For example, “He wolled (rolled) his shoulders” and “cwietly” (quietly) as well as “The PALACE guards …” or “the MUDDY ground….” I am very hesitant to give a bad review, however I am so disappointed.

Horrible narrator…. Great story

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