Scattered Suns: The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 4 (Unabridged) [Unabridged Fiction‪]‬

Like just about everyone else, I've been deeply engaged in this well-writen saga. The new reader for Book 4 (and I am extremely sad to report - all the rest of them) has pretty much ruined it for me. Now instead of enjoying the story-telling during my long commute to and from work, I'm going to have to switch to paperbacks for the rest. Shame on David Collaci for not listening to the previous audiobooks. Shame on the producers for allowing this travesty.

First, allow me to say that this series of books is exceptional. Kevin J. Anderson was not even on my reading radar before I bought the first audio book in this series and now I can barely get enough. The writing is superb. The story is exciting and involving, and for die hard fans of epic sci-fi or fantasy this series is a healthy, seven volume serving of long, elaborately crafted saga.

BUT....
That said, I have to warn you that this is the “fourth” book in this long, juicy series. If you are buying this as an audio book, and have sat enthralled through the previous three, as I have, then you are going to be a little startled to find that at this point in the books, the reader is changed. Annoying, yes, but hardly the end of the world. In fact, the new reader is very talented - while he’s reading the basic narration. It’s when he gets to the character voices that things simply fall apart here. For some reason, despite the fact that this is the fourth installment of this series and anyone buying this audio book has likely listened through some 30 hours of the previous entries, there is not even the slightest attempt to tie the character voices in this book back to what has come before. You love Jess Tamblen? Well guess what, now he and all the Roamers are red-necks that slide in somewhere between antebellum cavaliers and toothless 49ers (never mind that many of the Roamers have oriental sounding last names -they are now chew slathered bubbas -big-time)... Like the Ildirans? I hope so, because now they all sound like snot-nosed Englishmen from the fine high days of Queen Victoria’s prissy, but oh so easy to caricature, British Empire.

The new reader is very good, save that he insists on slaughtering what are now well-honed characters with over-the-top voice play that was not used before. Why on Earth would he not have tried to tie the voices to the work done previously in the series (which was top-notch, and underplayed so that it didn’t get in the way of the story)? Here, in this book, the voice work just gets in the way. These kinds of silly voices would be distracting and terrible if the whole series were done this way, it’s ten times worse after having purchased and listened to three books previously. Imagine a TV series that suddenly changed all the actors (not the characters -just the actors) after the third season. “Yes, we know you like James Gandofini as Tony Soprano, but now that character will be played by Larry the Cable Guy.” There would be a revolt. There should be one here as well.

Whether this snafu in readership is due to the reader not researching what he was going to be following on the heels of, or some yes-man producer/director, thinking that he knows best, the alteration in reading here is simply destructive to the writing. I think that from this point in the series, it would be better to buy the actual books, rather than suffer the change in reader (and oh yes, you will suffer it). I, for one, will not be downloading the rest of these.

Its too bad... it was SOOOOOO goood to the point.

Adding to the other review about the new reader changing accents I was even more surprised that he changed the pronounciations of many of the names of the people and the planets in the story. I understand that two people will differ in their pronounciations of words but proper names should not change. I get the sense that this new reader didn't listen to any of the first three books at all, which seems crazy to me.