Lawhead revisited

Its been a long time since I read taliesin, Arthur, Merlin and Grail but I remember how brilliant they were.
This story was good but didn't quite hold me as much.
Worth a listen but try Taliesin first.

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Welsh and English place names murdered

I have read and enjoyed all the books. The listening experience was very disappointing because the reader appeared to be ignorant of English and particularly place name pronunciation.

Ewan pronounced Eewan instead of Youwan
Llanelli pronounced Lannely instead of (approximation here) Clanethli
Gloucester pronounced Glowkester instead of Gloster.

I could go on....

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Please teach narrators how to pronounce Welsh/English words

Ewan is You-an.
Draught is draft.
Cadwr is Kad-Oor.
Vacant is vay-Kant.
Hereford is Herry-Ford.
Gloucester is Gloss-ter.

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1 person found this helpful

Enjoyed this

Good story, well constructed characters , shame about the readers poor pronunciation made it annoying for this English listener.

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1 person found this helpful

Lawhead is marvellous, the narration is not

Do not expect a typical Robin Hood story. It is not.

Set primarily in Wales during the reign of William the Conquerer's grandson, Lawhead brilliantly captures the upheaval of the times to individuals, communities and politics while telling a rollicking good story.

Unfortunately, the American narrator has not the ability to pronounce a large number of the words and phrases that are not in American modern English. This is a time when diverse cultures are coming together, so there are simple phrases in Latin, French, old English, Saxon and Danish/Scandinavian. Phrases which I would have thought were in common parlance. For example, Lawhead often shows the French origin of characters by ending questions with "N'cest-ce pas?". However, the narrator pronouces this "Nessy pah", so it it quite a while before you become aware of this and I never really got to the stage where I was not so distracted by the dire narration that I was able to enjoy the story. Other phrases are so thoroughly incomprehensible I have no idea what is being said.

Names are just as bad. The narrator cannot pronounce even the names of the main characters and with some of the characters, there is no consistency, so you cannot immediately be sure who is being talked about so you spend your concentration trying to work out "who is this?" rather than what is happening or being said. (Example, "Marion or Merrian"?) and I have no idea of the name of the main character's sidekick, though I can tell you that the narrator pronounces it "Ee-wan". Place names are just as bad. Even if you are au fait with the area, working out where anything is geographically, is next to impossible, again owing to the narration.

In summary, the story is fantastic but I recommend that you buy the book instead of listening to Audible. If you do get Audible, it will take more than one or two listens.

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7 people found this helpful

Great story

The pronunciations of all the Welsh places was appalling and did spoil the experience

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Awful narration

I don't blame the narrator for the dog's breakfast I have just listened to - I blame the numbskull who employed an American to narrate a story set in England and Wales. An American who could not pronounce the simplest words e.g. Leicester, Gloucester, Hereford or Warwick - and don't get me started on the Welsh names he mangled, they were nearly as bad as his attempt to do an impression of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins when an English accent was required. I startled my wife on several occasions by swearing when yet another word was mangled almost beyond recognition. I won't review the actual story, whether or not it is a good tale is largely dependent on personal taste, suffice it to say that I ploughed on until the end. Surely a decent narrator/editor would have spent five minutes on Google and checked how to say certain English words. In all conscience I cannot recommend this audio book - if you think you would enjoy the story - get it on Kindle!

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1 person found this helpful

Awful narration

I managed only a few chapters of this before deciding I couldn't continue with it. Unfortunately the American narrator was mangling the Welsh / British names and it was too frustrating. Very disappointed

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Poor narration

Don't get an American to narrate books based on English and Welsh legends and place names the man butchered this story and completely ruined what promised to be a new take on a British legend

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1 person found this helpful