Not very good

What disappointed you about The Orpheus Descent?

Story is drawn out and does not engage you. Boring

What could Tom Harper have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

less of the Greek story and more engaging modern theme

How did the narrator detract from the book?

yes

What character would you cut from The Orpheus Descent?

Les of the greek characters

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A Story that Descends into Nonsense

What did you like best about The Orpheus Descent? What did you like least?

I enjoyed the general idea of the story but felt it could have been executed with more passion and excitement. A lot of the ideas have now become such old hat that they could have been plucked from a British TV drama series. A rock star main character, a dysfunctional group of wealthy and highly educated university graduates, a clever look at the past with much historical name dropping.

What was most disappointing about Tom Harper’s story?

The whole lead up to the end and the ending are extremely dissapointing. The whole narrative disintergrates into a trippy nonsense which really left me feeling I should have dropped out and not tuned in.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narration is really well read, in particular by Gareth Armstrong. Kris Milnes voice jars a little at first against Gareth's but once the listener gets used to the swinging narrative between the two it becomes less so.

Any additional comments?

There are similar books out there which have been written with more decisive and satidfactory narrative. Well read but best left alone.

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Sounded good

Disappointing in that the blurb sounded really interesting, but although I liked the narration itself I didn't feel that there was a rationale behind the two story times. I actually preferred the Classical Greek time, but the ending really didn't seem to come off.

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I struggled...

Out of the two parallel stories I preferred the modern day saga, enjoying the slow unfolding mystery. It has an esoteric feel and quite often I have to admit I had to re-listen to various passages and struggled to get my head round some of the philosophical theories, at the end I came out a little richer in my scant knowledge on the subject. Nicely written but have put on my try again pile and hope to do the book justice. Did not enjoy it as much as I thought I should.

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1 person found this helpful

A descent into Hades!

The premise of the novel was good but it all went on for far too long! It was extremely irritating the way the story kept switching between Ancuent Greece and modern times. The author should have put Plato's story ss a preface and then told Lily's story...switching between one and another just slowed down the pace of the novel.

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Did I like it?

Well...It proved interesting. Unusual narration that grew on me quickly and fit the story well.
Some thought provoking moments and nice interplay between past and present. The story did appear to lose its way toward the end. Shame as a good ending would have given a 5 star rating.

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Way above the usual thriller

Where does The Orpheus Descent rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best audiobooks I've read and nothing quite like it.

What did you like best about this story?

The present day and referencing the past as the present day bringing to life the day to day of the great philosophers.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

The interpretation of the characters.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

No idea.

Any additional comments?

Waiting for the next book

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Disjointed

This is the worst book I have listened to in two year off being with audible.
The story did not flow and was disjointed.

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Sad waste of talent

Everyone's taste is different, so I normally hesitate to offer my personal view, but I was so disappointed with this book I felt compelled to comment.
I would not detract from the narration, which is excellent, but as to the book.

The author demonstrates an ability to transport you to the various locations, and create an empathy with his characters.. So why then does he use a hackneyed storyline - interpersed with platitudes and sophistry and an ending reminscent of a rock stars take on an LSD trip.

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Myth Reworked - Badly

I read the blurb for this book and it sounded so good that I bought it without waiting for my monthly credits. I shouldn't have bothered.

The first few chapters are exciting, making the reader want to race on to find out how the plot is going to develop. Unfortunately, the rest of the book fails to live up to this promising beginning. The first mistake is that the current day mystery is wrapped around a dramatised tale of Plato's visit to Italy; the narratives in no way mirror each other and the author should have concentrated on just one.

The Plato story is one that has been revisited many, many times over the last two and a half millennia. Everything that could possibly have been said has been said and the author should have left well alone. The other strand of the book is basically a modern day version of the "Orpheus and Euridice" myth. Again, this has been done to death over the centuries and this is not one of the better versions. It starts well, but fizzles out and even the ending is predictable and not particularly well plotted out.

In the book's defence, the narrators did a sterling job. The exception to this is the quotation from Plato read at the beginning of each strand of that part of the story; it was recorded using an echo chamber mike and made it sound like the start of a cheap rock music track (an album track at that!). This was totally unnecessary.

In summary, this book attempts to be too many things and, as is usual with such things, fails to do any of them well.

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4 people found this helpful