Unlistenable-to

Frederick Forsyth used to be a first class thriller writer, up there with Len Deighton, certainly and Jean Le Carre, possibly. This is complete rubbish. First it is quite derivative....for example the hidden terrorist genre was handled well in the recent book I Am A Pilgrim and has been used by Tom Clancy and others. Here there is nothing new to offer, the plot is obvious and derivative and the characters are completely two dimensional and the reader doesent give a damn about any of them. And if that wasn't enough, the reader is terrible, he inserts pauses in the wrong parts of sentences and his foreign accents are a joke. One to avoid.

27 people found this helpful

Generic, superficial, uninteresting

What would have made The Kill List better?

The characters have no personality at all; they are all cookie-cutter stereotypes with no development and virtually no motives for their actions.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I was hoping for some kind of twist to make things interesting - but no.

How could the performance have been better?

He over-dramatizes, and his accents are god-awful.

What character would you cut from The Kill List?

There isn't a single interesting or compelling character in the entire book - rather than cutting any, the author needs give us at least one memorable personality.

Any additional comments?

It's just a long list of event - he did this, then that, then this thing happened, so he did that - no suspense, no drama, no humour, and utterly predictable.

22 people found this helpful

Good story but the narration hurt my English ears

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The story is enough to keep you listening, a modern day Frederick Forsyth which I found easier to listen to than some of his other books as there where less characters to remember

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The American narrator cannot do any British accent and it was a terrible distraction. One character is Welsh, althout you would never know. It is a shame that a professional narrator cannot handle accents, it is what brings the book alive

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

All Frederick's books are very long, a big plus, this book took me quite a while to listen to, I restarted it four times; all Frederick Forsyth books build a scene before they get into the story and you have to concentrate, especially with an audiobook

7 people found this helpful

Don't wast your time and money

Would you try another book written by Frederick Forsyth or narrated by John Chancer?

So difficult to listen to I struggled to get past the first chapter and then decided not to give up the ghost, life is to short and even if I was somewhere with no other entertainment board to tears I would not choose to listen to another second of this.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of John Chancer?

Anyone whose voice is engaging, the narrator of this audiobook make listening very difficult.

5 people found this helpful

Bristling terrorism thriller

Forsyth brings us a fast paced and well researched thriller that feels extremely pertinent due to recent events. I got through this in just two sittings, it worked really well as an audiobook and felt very visual, I’ve no doubt will be a on the big screen soon. Great narration too.

5 people found this helpful

Terrible accents

The story itself is entertaining enough but the narration wasn’t great.
As others have said, John Chancer’s attempts at various British accents made me laugh out loud. Maybe the author should give their approval to audiobooks before they are released as I’m sure this story wasn’t intended to be a comedy.

4 people found this helpful

The Kill litht

I'm giving this an overall two because like most Frederick Forsyth novels the actual story is very good and well researched, so for that I have given it a four. I would seriously suggest buying the book or e book as the narration is appalling. His range of accents for a trained actor is mystifying, he makes a Welsh hostage negotiator sound like an Indian shopkeeper who was brought up in Jamaica and his British soldiers make Dick Van Dykes infamous cockney accent sound very real. Add this to the lithp he reads with and everything that ends in an S sound like hissss, plusses sound like pluthesssss, it was a real chore getting to the end of the book with this narrator.

3 people found this helpful

Not one of his bset

If you could sum up The Kill List in three words, what would they be?

Detailed but predictable

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Tracker, at least we had a some detail on his character.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Unfortunately John Chancer cannot do accents, especially any from the UK, especially Welsh and what he thinks is upper class english.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Any additional comments?

In listening to over 100 Audible books this is the first time I have been disappointed with the reader.

7 people found this helpful

Killer terrorist thriller

I don't listen to a lot of gung ho stories about terrorists and military forces, but Forsyth may always be relied upon to write a first rate thriller. The narration was ok; occasionally a little stilted but not enough to be offputting.

This strikes me as totally up to date with references to so many stories we read about almost daily. Radicalised youngsters, suicide bombings and killings across the UK, USA and Europe, Somali pirates and ships hijacked for ransom, drone technology and much, much more. This story explores the international response when a decision is made to take out The Preacher, a leading figure orchestrating the attacks. I was interested in the way special services appear from different countries appear to support one another and the behind the scenes activities are complex and intriguing.

Forsyth writes with conviction about up to the minute events and I enjoyed this audiobook.

2 people found this helpful

A new one on me

I've heard of books where the final chapter is missing, but never where it appears twice!

1 person found this helpful