And as for the book? If you don't know Kage Baker's Company series already I wish I was you so I could have the fun of reading these books for the first time all over again. So many audiobooks seem to be read by automatons who appear to have never read the book prior to recording their narration and I am so glad that Kage Baker's work has been given to a narrator who cares about doing a good job. This book is read with great expressiveness, wit and charm, and the narrator gives the text its due. At first I was unsure about the bright tones of the narrator - so utterly unlike how I imagine everyone's favorite world-weary cyborg botanist Mendoza to sound - but after listening for a while I was won over. And now I've listened to the recording I am even more thrilled - this is a wonderful treat. I was utterly thrilled when I saw that the late Kage Baker's magnificent Company series had made it to Audible at last and I spent my last credit on this without thinking twice. I can't say it was always a propulsive read, but it was very worthwhile and emotionally satisfying one. If you are tired of standard SF/Time Travel/Urban Fantasy tropes, this is a refreshing change, if an odd book. It was a highlight of the book, and one of the most interesting performances yet. And the reading! What an interesting approach to reading a first person narration - this piece is almost acted, somewhat petulantly. It is interesting, though, and incredibly well researched, and, despite meandering a bit, ultimately compelling. At times the book seems to be a romance, at times an adventure story, at times a coming of age story, but it isn't really any of these. Barker uses time travel, are instead deeply flawed and fascinating people on not-very-important missions to do things like collect rare plants. And the characters, far from being wise beings from the future due to the interesting way that the late Ms.
It is instead mostly a strange slice-of-life in an English manor during the great events of reformation and counter-reformation. The Garden of Iden is not that kind of book.
I was expecting the usual time-travel sort of science fiction - the protagonists visit the great events of the day to save Shakespeare from an assassin, the wisdom of future is used to comment on the past, etc. Very different SF, both in performance and tone
0 kommentar(er)
