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A review by curgoth
Down and Dirty by George R.R. Martin
3.0
(audiobook re-read)
First time hitting this one since I read it first as a teenager. It's got some structural problems, which Martin laments in his 2001 Afterword. I found some of the characterization to be off (Water Lily and Sewer Jack), and some of the story lines just didn't work (I Did Not Care about Rosemary Muldoon, Bagabond or Cordelia).
And yet... I kept listening, sitting int he car after I got where I was going to listen to just a little more. It still hooked me. The Croyd and Modular Man stuff is solid.
The reading is all over the place. Adrian Paul might be someone's choice to play Yeoman for the optioned TV adaptation, but his accent is entirely wrong for a man from Texas by way of New Mexico and Vietnam. Paul's female voices are also fairly awful.
I missed the name of the voice actor doing Water Lily's chapters, but whoever it was did not manage to sight read. There were sudden stops mid-sentence where there was clearly an end of line on the page of her script, and none of the lines really had emotion.
On the other hand, every time the reader for the Croyd chapters (Raphael Sbarge, I think?) was great, and I sank into my seat and relaxed every time I heard him say "Concerto for Siren and Seratonin".
I've had issues with Roy Dotrice's Game of Thrones narration, but here he does quite well. Which may just be the difference between him reading a few chapters vs. having a 94 year old man narrate a 50 hour doorstop.
Sean Astin's Turtle actually works because I kept picturing the actor in the role, and it clicked hard enough that I am probably going to picture him as the Turtle from here on.
Absolutely none of the readers, though, can get anywhere near a Cajun accent. Attempts range from "Outrageous Euro French" to "Vaguely Southern".
Special revulsion for the Tachyon chapters here. I had forgotten how much I hated the character of Blaise, and knowing the he's going to be around for a good chunk more of these is giving me pause. I know I'm going to hit a point in my reread where I will stop, and skip ahead to the ones published in the 21st century, so how much Blaise and Tachyon soap opera whiny angst can I endure?
I at least need to get to the Leaper Trilogy, though, so on we go...
First time hitting this one since I read it first as a teenager. It's got some structural problems, which Martin laments in his 2001 Afterword. I found some of the characterization to be off (Water Lily and Sewer Jack), and some of the story lines just didn't work (I Did Not Care about Rosemary Muldoon, Bagabond or Cordelia).
And yet... I kept listening, sitting int he car after I got where I was going to listen to just a little more. It still hooked me. The Croyd and Modular Man stuff is solid.
The reading is all over the place. Adrian Paul might be someone's choice to play Yeoman for the optioned TV adaptation, but his accent is entirely wrong for a man from Texas by way of New Mexico and Vietnam. Paul's female voices are also fairly awful.
I missed the name of the voice actor doing Water Lily's chapters, but whoever it was did not manage to sight read. There were sudden stops mid-sentence where there was clearly an end of line on the page of her script, and none of the lines really had emotion.
On the other hand, every time the reader for the Croyd chapters (Raphael Sbarge, I think?) was great, and I sank into my seat and relaxed every time I heard him say "Concerto for Siren and Seratonin".
I've had issues with Roy Dotrice's Game of Thrones narration, but here he does quite well. Which may just be the difference between him reading a few chapters vs. having a 94 year old man narrate a 50 hour doorstop.
Sean Astin's Turtle actually works because I kept picturing the actor in the role, and it clicked hard enough that I am probably going to picture him as the Turtle from here on.
Absolutely none of the readers, though, can get anywhere near a Cajun accent. Attempts range from "Outrageous Euro French" to "Vaguely Southern".
Special revulsion for the Tachyon chapters here. I had forgotten how much I hated the character of Blaise, and knowing the he's going to be around for a good chunk more of these is giving me pause. I know I'm going to hit a point in my reread where I will stop, and skip ahead to the ones published in the 21st century, so how much Blaise and Tachyon soap opera whiny angst can I endure?
I at least need to get to the Leaper Trilogy, though, so on we go...