Vintage Birmingham

I am a big fan of John Birmingham and this book did not disappoint. A great, what if? story it pulls no punches. It is overly violent and obsessed with weaponry, as usual, but despite that the strength of the story and main characters keep you riveted. One terrible flaw though that really detracted from the flow... dreadful accents and truly diabolical women's voices for the dialogue, with an upper class Julianne coming out somewhere between 18th century pirate (arrrrse) and Oscar Wilde, spoiling the otherwise excellent narration. Excited to read the next one though!

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Good book let down by spoken accents

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Cor blimey guvnor, luv a duck, up the apples and pears, what a palarva, it's all gone Pete Tong, would you Adam and Eve it? Knees up motha Braan, Knees up mutha Braan. By George I think she's got it.

Water U tokkin about mon ami? Thee woerds were veeery veeery better than I thott. Eiffel tower, French fries, baguette, et cetera.

I would recommend the paper/e-book to a Sci Fi fan, but not the audio book.
I'm an English native speaker, with fluent French (having lived over here for several years).
The French and British (Australian!) accents were presumably based on a ten minute review of Dick van Dijk. They first made me laugh out loud (ten minutes into the story), then groan (3 or 4 hours) then turn off (several times) and delete the e-book before finishing it (only once).
The Cuban/American/Australian/Arabic accents (and others) may be as bad, but I can't comment.

Read the book, leave the audio book alone.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Any English or French character - due to the silver spoon/golf balls in mouth accent for the French and wavering between Austrailian, British upper and lower class, and random regional pronunciations for the English.
Oh and any dead/silent characters, because they don't speak.

Would you be willing to try another one of Tom Weiner’s performances?

For an all American performance, yes, why not.

Did Without Warning inspire you to do anything?

1 - I've already bought a John Birmingham (physical) book.
2 - I've already deleted the audio book from my device.

Any additional comments?

What a load of pony and trap.
Sacre bleu, ooh la la! Quelle horreur

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14 people found this helpful

Great start to the Trilogy

After reading negative reviews, I personally really enjoyed it. UK listeners need to stop being hung up on narrators from North America doing "bad" UK accents. No one is perfect- deal with it!

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1 person found this helpful