Beej

Perfect narration.

Reviewed: 24-10-24

This novel has always been on my "must read" list. I went in blind and didn't know what to expect. The use of the English language was immensely enjoyable. The narration was spot on. I loved it. Highly recommend!

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Meaningful.

Reviewed: 16-10-24

I loved it. It got me to thinking which books would go on my personal reading list.

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A beautiful book. The narration is perfect.

Reviewed: 05-10-24

Written like a true cat. I recognise the Japanese culture in the story and thoroughly enjoyed it. The humanness is international. A lovely book full of warmth.

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Thanks John Griffin!!

Reviewed: 24-05-24

My physiotherapist was all excited about this book, so I grabbed the audiobook version for myself - I saw it was narrated by the author and I've had good experience with that constellation.

The information is EXCELLENT, explained clearly and the author reads at a good pace which I can follow easily. It's like being in his office. I've made lots of notes which pertain to me personally. AND I'm now going on to see my cardiologist even though I still feel fine at 63. There are a lot of years which I want to experience in a healthy body, not just live until.

I highly recommend this book. Thanks, John Griffin! Without you, it may never have been written.

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Excellent despite some technical problems

Reviewed: 19-07-22

The story was great. I'm looking forward to the next book. The only truly annoying thing was the repeated drop in audio quality as passages seemed to be edited into the recording. I blame the studio/editing process, not the narrator or author. Therefore still 5 stars from me in order to avoid punishing them for something out of their control.

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Damn good stuff

Reviewed: 21-08-21

Loved it. Audio quality was surprisingly high, and both narrators were excellent. It's always satisfying when you get a narrator who can sound like completely different people on demand.

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Not what I had hoped

Reviewed: 29-07-20

I love the Assassin's Creed games and wanted the background story before starting Origins. Even with my rating of three stars, I'm still glad I did.

The writing itself was good but I think it could have been made much better with some concentrated self-editing by the author. My feeling was that the talent is there, but that there was also a rush to get the book out. Other reviewers of the book are correct, it all feels like a YA level novel and rather superficial. Still, a nice story.

The narrator was talented but two points kept chipping away at my enjoyment here:

First was that the female voices sounded very fake, for example it was hard to image the "smiled warmly" description after a stretch of Aya's dialogue. The voice didn't sound either warm or happy;

And second was that too often the spoken dialogues were a mix of pauses and then rushed speech like you might hear from someone bursting to explain something in a foreign language they have yet to master. I found it hard to get into the characters when I constantly had the impression that everyone was trying too hard to speak English (English??). I assume it may have been the narrator's attempt to sound foreign, but whatever the reason, I didn't feel like I was either in Egypt or in any of the characters' skins.

Still love the AC games. The background story here was nice to experience. If I had to choose again, I think I'd read the book instead so that the characters' voices can ring more true in my mind.

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1 person found this helpful

Kept waiting for it to pick up

Reviewed: 25-06-20

There were some good and sincere chuckles to be had, but I found the foreshadowing a bit heavy handed which made too much of the story predictable for me. I think a different narrator would have also improved the situation.

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2 people found this helpful

Really fascinating

Reviewed: 17-09-19

The book and the information in it were excellent, but I struggled to finish the Audible version (to my husband's amazement - he read the printed verion).

The narrator starts out strong, but then somewhere along way, the narrator's voice seems to take on an exaggerated "oh wow" or "ah ha!" quality - a bit like he's trying to sell me on the facts he's presenting. I found it quite irritating. I don't listen to audio books just to come away cranky. I'll give in to my husband's urging and finish the printed book. The last hour of the Audible copy was too much to ask of me.

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Voices don't match the characters

Reviewed: 22-05-19

The novel is amazing, but the voice actors don't always match their character, spoken dialogue often doesn't fit the written description of how it was meant to be expressed. It's annoying, especially the female voice actor - Allyson Johnson - ouch. She was poorly chosen for the part.
Reading the novel would have done the book much more justice. Sorry, Dan Simmons....

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