God awful narration

So hard to properly review this book given how bad the narrator is. I can’t believe it was approved for release it’s that bad. He pauses in bizarre places as if he’s unsure what he’s reading. I’d suggest buying the book rather than listening.

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1 person found this helpful

I made it to chapter 8.

I don’t know if it’s Patterson taking over from Crichton, or Clarke Peters’ narration, but I found this very hard going, even though I only got a few chapters in.

Peters sounds like he’s either reading the book for the first time, or is reading through bifocals, with pauses and changes in the rhythm of the narration seeming to indicate getting to the end of a new page and adjusting focal distance to the top of the next.

Audible, please put some time in on getting the original Crichton books recorded/uploaded such as Airframe, and possibly get a producer to sit in on the recording sessions.

Edit: I’ve just heard the beginning of the Audible.com version of this, read by Scott Brick. It’s probably a rights issue, but why isn’t that version just used over here in the UK? Maybe the same reason Brick’s recording of The Lost World isn’t available here.

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Cheesier than a Fondue

Poor storyline, dreadful storytelling. Struggled to finish which was a shame as I love Michael Crichton and was looking forward to its release. Narrator was simply awful.

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Intriguing story, but poor narration.

I went into this intrigued by the story and a "secret army base", and how that would involve a volcano. By 2/3s of the story I was pretty fed up. I read some of the reviews before listening and most went on about the bad narrator, which at first didn't bother me, but yes again by half way it's very noticeable how poor he is, tripping over words and sentences in very jerky ways.

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Average story. Below average narrator. Not worth a credit.

Average story. Below average narrator. Awful performance actually. Not worth a credit. Regret the decision.

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Leg twitchingly dull

This was agonising to listen to. It starts off ok but you can’t really talk about the peril of unlikable characters and the nature of lava flows for chapters and expect it to interest anyone. At points I was hoping they would all die and put and end to it. Liked the narrator but even lester Freeman couldn’t save this one. Some shameful sh*t

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The reality of it all

The narrator became irritating towards the end of the book - felt he missed the opportunity for creating tension and suspense. I actually couldn’t wait for the end of the book because of this. Story was good although the ending was a tad sudden and lame. Was it worth a credit? Hmmmmm

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Awful narration

Possibly the worst narration I've ever experienced from an audio book. Stuttery, slow, and hard to follow different characters. Had to listen to the book at 1.5x speed to make it bearable.

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2 people found this helpful

Awful narration

Story was OK but it was like listening to my satnav read the story to me.

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Ok book, terribly read

The narration starts off ok, but swings between sounding like an AI bot, or a 5 year old reading with no inflection. The speech has little rhythm to the extent you think you’ve missed bits because of the abstract enunciation. A real shame as the reader is an awesome actor in The Wire.

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