The Sword and Laser discussion

I'm about half-way through this book now and it is destroying me emotionally. While listening, I alternate states between anxiety (when Elma is anxious, I am too!), sad crying whenever the effects of the meteorite are mentioned, happy crying whenever anything good happens (especially the little girls with the lady astronaut clubs), and anger whenever that douche Parker appears. This book is killing me and I LOVE IT.

MRK's audio performance is amazing and I'm weirdly glad that my library completely failed to get hold of a paper copy for me, as otherwise I wouldn't have listened to the audio book. I'm now considering using another Audible credit for The Fated Sky despite already having the dead tree edition sitting on my shelf waiting for me (my library found the Fated Sky for me no problem) as she's just so good at reading her own work.

Anyone else listening to the audio? Are you enjoying it as much as I am?


Side note: one thing I think MRK does well is the character voices, with accents that sound authentic and not like silly caricatures (a risk when a white person does, for instance, a Chinese accent). However her attempt at a Scottish accent for the doctor was... well, I don't think that scene was supposed to be funny but I giggled a bit.

I just finished listening to it this morning. You're right, it was amazing. I kept looking for activities that would allow me to continue listening. I got a lot done. :)

Ruth wrote: "I'm about half-way through this book now and it is destroying me emotionally. While listening, I alternate states between anxiety (when Elma is anxious, I am too!), sad crying whenever the effects ..."

Yes! I am loving her narration. I frequently don't like when writers narrate their own work (just because someone is a writer does not mean they do excellent voice work), but she is really knocking it out of the park for me. I'm definitely thinking my next credit will go to the sequel.

In addition to TCS and TFS, I've listened to MRK narrate her Glamourist Histories books and Ghost Talkers. And, along with being one of my favorite authors, she's probably become one of my favorite audiobook narrators. I keep meaning to pick up one of the audiobooks she's narrated that isn't her own work but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Jen wrote: "I frequently don't like when writers narrate their own work (just because someone is a writer does not mean they do excellent voice work)"

Fortunately MRK is a puppeteer/actress, so she can pull it off. I listened to Mur Lafferty narrate her own book Six Wakes and she was very flat. Every character sounded and emoted identically.

Ruth wrote: "I'm about half-way through this book now and it is destroying me emotionally. While listening, I alternate states between anxiety (when Elma is anxious, I am too!), sad crying whenever the effects ..."

I concur, it went by fast and that's a good indicator of a good audio-book.
I have listened to Ghost Talkers before which was also narrated by MRK and while I didn't enjoy it quite as much it was more to do with the story than the narration.

Jen wrote: "Fortunately MRK is a puppeteer/actress, so she can pull it off. I listened to Mur Lafferty narrate her own book Six Wakes and she was very flat. Every character sounded and emoted identically."

No offense to Mur Lafferty but I think her audio performance of Six Wakes made me like the book much less. MRK spoils us with her writing and audio abilities!

I actually just picked this up on audible, so I'm really excited to hear it's that good. Audiobooks can really bit hit of miss for me due to some less than stellar performances, but I decided to snag this since everyone says the author does a great job.

I listened to both books and everything in this thread is correct.

Figure this is the best place....

I finished the audio book a week or two ago. The audio narration was excellent, very glad I chose this version.

But for my overall take on the book, this was not one of my favorites. I do think it is very well done. I will totally recommend to others who I think would enjoy it. For me, though, it was too real. I like my fiction to be more fantastic/absurd/disconnected from real life.

terpkristin wrote: "I listened to both books and everything in this thread is correct."

Seconded.

Ruth, you should get the second one in audio imho.

Am I the only one that thinks MRK pronounces "Eh" funny?
Everywhere I've lived (CA, WA, UT, DE, PA) it was pronounced more like a hard "A".
I admit that I'm not looking at the page, so I'm assuming that is the word she's saying. I'm also listening at 1.25 speed, but I doubt that would change it much.

I haven't listened to the audiobook, so don't know how MRK pronounces it, but for me, I say it as a long "e"

Like "egg" with out the "gg"

Update: I have now bought The Fated Sky audio book!

Ruth wrote: "Update: I have now bought The Fated Sky audio book!"

👍

Me too. This was one of my favorite S&L pics and I moved right on into Fated Sky.