infuriating narrator

Really was looking forward to this, but the narrator is intolerable. imagine listening to every single sentence in the entire book ending in the same low-to-high cadence for 30 minutes. Then try for 12 hours. it's brutal. he reads l i k e THIS. e v e r y TIME. They all have the s a m e ENDING. Maybe you think this is a b a d EXAMPLE. But I'm n o t EXAGGERATING. Give it a try if you h a v e t h e NERVE. If you can make it past f i v e MINUTES. You're a more patient person than
m o s t PEOPLE. It n e v e r CHANGES. Why didn't someone tell him it's v e r y ANNOYING?

3 people found this helpful

A timeless classic long awaited in audio form destroyed by an abysmal reader

I was thrilled to see Blavatsky’s seminal work finally available on Audible. Sadly however, whomever cast this horrendous narrator did a horrific job in their selection of voiceover “talent” to the point of doing the work a tragic disservice. The reader continually mispronounces not only more obscure but also quite fundamental and common words and names, falls into robotically related inflections, labors to render a poor semblance of flow and lightness of precision with a woefully awkward and cloddish heaviness all too typical of the untrained and callow amateur. The author’s characteristically florid and complex prose and SM conceptual outlay is thus severely mishandled and flattened with a grating, boorish dullness that makes this vital work truly arduous to endure, rather than assisting the listener in any way beyond the most dense and dim-witted of deliveries. The editing is also equally atrocious, if entirely lacking: there are dozens of occurrences throughout this torturous slog where the so-called reader makes his all-too frequent mistakes and then, sometimes even with an audible clap, picks up again from a sentence or phrase before, without anyone having troubled to so much as cut out the flubbed passage. I do not mean to be sour or a “Karen” — yet truthfully, the work offered here is utterly lacking in professionalism, absolutely vile. Given time in my schedule, I would gladly have recorded myself or any of my voice / acting students for FREE in place of this sickening sham. Lucky for this shoddy production, I and others like me have precious little time to experience the book by traditional means and must undergo the purgatorial gauntlet of this grinding rendition audio misrendition if we are to cover the work at all. Otherwise I would have aborted this particularly grueling process long before.

Due to my love for Blavatsky, I nonetheless completed the entire audiobook, and purchased the sequel, so keen is my interest, in spite of the travesty wrought upon the invaluable material. Two stars only because I value having the work available on Audible, while the rancid excuse of a performance, casting, and editing deserve ZERO stars — if only such could be so awarded. This reader should NOT be cast, especially for anything beyond the most basic of contemporary fare.

NOTE: I am quite willing to provide a fresh, well delivered, error-free version of this, should Audible be open to it. Please contact me if this holds potential appeal. Blavatsky deserves better than the sore injustice done to her here. Thank you.

2 people found this helpful

Impossible Narration

So unfortunate. Had someone just told this narrator in the beginning the book would sound nonsensical with his inflections consistently inappropriate, he might have corrected it and not wasted his, and our time. Completely unlistenable. Hopefully he went on to get it right because his voice was very clear and exhibited an enthusiastic quality that I believe he possesses outside of this significant oddity in his narration of this book. I am returning and that is disappointing as the content may have been great.

1 person found this helpful

Mispronounced words, can’t string together a proper sentence.

Perhaps this fella should stick to narrating children’s books.
Very sad, this piece of literature deserves a proper narration.
Having trouble making it past the first hour.

1 person found this helpful

Horrible and Unprofessional Narration

The lack of editing, constant upspeak, mispronunciation of basic words, and lack of subject comprehension makes the narration intolerable.

If it wasn’t for the fact that there is no other audio version, I wouldn’t have listened to this at all.

I absolutely do not recommend accosting your ears with this unprofessional trash.

well done, widely stimulating

bunch of highly interesting data points here that also seems to kinda help explain/contextualize other writer's works from that period

an intermediate must read

A very good book detailing many things for those that know enough to follow along

a must listen for anyone on a spiritual journey

the narrator was very easy to listen to. the book and its contents speak for themselves.

wonderful

thank you for an excellent reading. I enjoyed it greatly and look forward to volume 2