Hello and welcome to Books for Your Ears, an audio books review thread. I’m Apep, and I’ll be your host.

First, a bit of background. I started seriously listening to audio books about five years ago, when I was given an iPod for one of my college classes. I didn’t have much in the way of music, so I went looking for some free audio books to listen too. I eventually ended up listening to more books than I read, due to a combination of a lack of free time and the convenience of not having to carry around another book for purely entertainment purposes.

Anyway, these reviews will be largely free-form, consisting of two general categories: Story and Performance. The first will cover the writing, style, characters, and any other topics that are based on the written material itself; the second will cover the voice actor’s performance and any related topics. I will also give a final score out of 5, with a 5/5 being the best possible score. Please note, these reviews and scores are entirely subjective, so you are free to disagree. Feel free to ask questions or comment.

Also, these will almost certainly contain at least some spoilers, so you’ve been warned.

I decided that I should start with the most recent audio book I finished, Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World. So, let’s begin.

Books for Your Ears reviews – The Eye of the World, book 1 of The Wheel Of Time, by Robert Jordan, as read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading.

Story

Quick confession: I didn’t go into this book completely blind. I’d already read some of BalladFen’s sporking of The Eye of the World (which can be found here) long before I ever started the book itself. That said, only the first few chapters were spoiled for me, and I still enjoyed it.

The basic story is fairly generic. A farm boy (with a mysterious past, natch) must go on a quest to save the world, but only after an attack on his home convinces him that the forces of evil are indeed after him. He’s joined in his quest by a warrior well versed in fighting the forces of evil, a magic user with secrets, and a few of his friends. They’re eventually separated, but come back together to face off against the Big Bad at the end.

Honestly, it’s more of a LotR-Star Wars mash-up than Eragon.

But, unlike Paolini, Jordan manages to do it right. Let’s start with the attack on the obviously Doomed Hometown of Emond’s Field. Unlike certain other farm boys I could mention, Rand al’Thor, our main protagonist, is actually present for the attack on his home. It really helps to drive the whole ‘the bad guys want to kill you’ point home. It also helps that he wasn’t a) the only one specifically targeted in the attack, and b) the only survivor.

Moving on, the splitting of the party, while still derivative of LotR not to mention bad DMing, is also done reasonably well. Taken away from the adults, the kids from Emond’s Field are given a chance to experience the world for themselves, with all the danger that entails. It also allows for some nice world-building, now that everyone’s traveling in different directions. It’s also helped by the fact that all three groups have the set goal of finding their companions, and don’t suddenly get sidetracked when they get close.

While the big final confrontation is a bit of a letdown, it’s pretty clearly set up that this book is only the beginning. While the heroes may have stopped the bad guys now, there are still major threats in the world.

I don’t have much to say regarding the style – while I wouldn’t use ‘lyrical beauty’ to describe it, it doesn’t feel like someone’s reading an instruction manual either.

I only have two minor nitpicks, story and style-wise.

The first is the term ‘gleeman’. In the Wheel of Time-verse, these are combination traveling mistrials/entertainers, and one of them joins the main party. While I understand the concept, I’m still bothered by the term. It just sounds a bit stupid to me.

The second is the repeated use of the phrase “looked a question”. How does one “look” a question? I’d understand “looked quizzically”, but not “a question”. I guess this is what happens when you’re married to your editor.

Performance

For the most part, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading do a good job. I was eventually curious as to when Reading would come in, because I’d listened to about half the book, and only Kramer had been reading.

Reading eventually made her appearance with the party split, reading the chapters focusing on the group with the female POV character. While this makes sense, I still feel that she’s under-used in this book. But, given that Kramer and Reading performed all the other Wheel of Time books, I can hope that she’ll have a greater role in following books.

Kramer does and overall good job, giving all the major characters distinct voices, so I was never confused as to who was speaking. Even better, each voice was different from his narrator voice, so there was no confusion as to whether he was reading a character’s thought/dialogue or narration.

I did have one small problem with the performance, though. Kramer and Reading pronounce the magical-mentor character Moiraine’s name slightly differently – Kramer pronounces it ‘maw-rain’, while Reading pronounces it ‘mwa-rain’. Not much, but it’s a little odd.

Final Verdict

I give The Eye of the World a final score of 4.5/5. It’s not perfect, but still very good.

The Eye of the World is available from Audible.com here for $41.97, or $7.49/1 credit with an Audible membership.

Oh, I concur! It seems like a lot of work to go through just for it to become burried under all these threads.

This was more of a practice run than anything else. Trying to work out practical things, like how to say things, more than what I want to say.

I actually finished writing this only to remember something I wanted to comment on a few minutes later, so posting here let’s me go back and tweak things before posting on the main site.

Sure, let’s go with that.

My favourite audiobooks are the Redwall books by Brian Jacques and the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell.

Tamora Pierce's most recent Circle of Magic book, *Melting Stones* was originally published as an audiobook with a full cast. I have read the paper-and-ink version, can anyone pass judgement on the recording?

I am currently listening to W. Somerset Maugham's *Of Human Bondage* . Phillip (the hero) is slowly becoming less and less sympathetic. I don't hate him, though. Not yet.