Two Audiobook Reviews:

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook for the most part. I thought Daniel de Bourg did an excellent job of reading and portraying the characters. I did struggle a bit with the pacing and the length of the book. Slow pacing in an audiobook sometimes just doesn’t work.

I did like the main character, January, I found him to be a very likable guy who found himself in a very difficult situation. He also had some very strong opinions that I didn’t always agree with, but I still wanted him to come out ok in the end. Gale was harder to like, but I also came around eventually to understanding where they were coming from.

The setting and the world building was well done. I found myself totally fascinated by how the colonies evolved over time to what they are today. There is a lot of social and political commentary in this book, with lots of themes of bigotry, colonialism and sexual orientation being discussed. All of this was interesting and well done, but was also overwhelming at times and also added to the slow pacing of the book. The action scenes were well done and I loved the twist towards the end of the story.

I did like this story, but I might have enjoyed it more if I was reading it as opposed to listening. The slow pace and the complex world and story just added up to me not being able to pay attention as much as I would have had I been reading it. Still, I would totally listen to this narrator again, and I would also give this author another chance as well.

This was another slow paced and complex story that just didn’t work for me as an audiobook. But in this case some of it was due to the narrator. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Mr Stuart’s voice and would have loved listening to him on any other book, but his style and voice just didn’t seem to match this story, but that is just my opinion.

This book is told through multiple perspectives and I really struggled to keep them all separate. The story was also hindered through the simultaneous use of the 1st person and 3rd person narrative, it really made things so confusing. The first person was told by ABBY an omniscient narrator who was in everyone’s head and could talk mind to mind with each character. The third person’s were the villager’s view of what was going on. This probably worked if you are reading the story, but not as an audiobook. The multiple points of view also jumped around a bit, which made the story even harder to follow.

The story itself is very complex and you are better off going into it blind. If you are familiar with Turton’s other books you will understand what I mean. The pacing is rather slow in this one and the world building is quite complex. The murder mystery is well done with lots of red herrings and some solid twists that were unexpected. Although I kept losing my place in who each character was and their involvement in the story, I never seemed to lose interest in the mystery which is why I kept going with the audiobook.

I have mixed feelings about this one, as I really think some of my issues were due to my listening to the book instead of reading it. It was a strange story with a lot of complexity to it. Looking at other reviews this does seem to be a story that people either loved or hated with a most having feelings like mine. If you are familiar with this author’s books then certainly give this one a try. If not, I would start with one of his other works before tackling this one.