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A review by robyn161
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
1.0
I saw this on a list entitled "Big fat reads worth the time" or something similar. COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. This is the last time I force myself to finish a book just because I paid for it. I got the audiobook on sale and my god, I don't know how I did it, but I SLOGGED through 49 GODDAMN HOURS of this ferociously boring piece of historical fiction.
Aside from the snoozefest of a story I was periodically irritated by the narrator's struggle to pronounce basic words correctly. Don't get me wrong, he was pretty good for the most part, doing a range of accents (though the Irish one was HORRENDOUS) but every now and again he would pronounce a word as if he had only ever seen it written. Some examples: quayside, sergeant, chastise... I can't remember anymore (but trust me there were A LOT) but basically it was annoying AF to the point that I'd be cycling along on my way to work listening to this lame ass book and my neutral face would just break into an expression of pure incredulity and I'd lose track of the story for like a full minute because all I'd be thinking was "Really? REALLY? You're going to pronounce it like that?"
Anyway, rant over. Don't waste your time with this book. It's about a 1,000 pages too long, the characters are dull, dull, dull and the story is vaguely diverting at best and positively somnolent at worst.
I'm so glad to be finally finished!
Aside from the snoozefest of a story I was periodically irritated by the narrator's struggle to pronounce basic words correctly. Don't get me wrong, he was pretty good for the most part, doing a range of accents (though the Irish one was HORRENDOUS) but every now and again he would pronounce a word as if he had only ever seen it written. Some examples: quayside, sergeant, chastise... I can't remember anymore (but trust me there were A LOT) but basically it was annoying AF to the point that I'd be cycling along on my way to work listening to this lame ass book and my neutral face would just break into an expression of pure incredulity and I'd lose track of the story for like a full minute because all I'd be thinking was "Really? REALLY? You're going to pronounce it like that?"
Anyway, rant over. Don't waste your time with this book. It's about a 1,000 pages too long, the characters are dull, dull, dull and the story is vaguely diverting at best and positively somnolent at worst.
I'm so glad to be finally finished!