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  • Artifact

  • A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery, Book 1
  • Written by: Gigi Pandian
  • Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
  • Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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Artifact

Written by: Gigi Pandian
Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
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Publisher's Summary

When historian Jaya Jones receives a mysterious package containing a jewel-encrusted artifact, she discovers the secrets of a lost Indian treasure may be hidden in a Scottish legend. But she's not the only one on the trail.

From San Francisco to the Highlands of Scotland, Jaya must evade a shadowy stalker as she follows hints from the hastily scrawled note to a remote archaeological dig. Helping her decipher the cryptic clues are her magician best friend, a devastatingly handsome art historian with something to hide, and a charming archaeologist running for his life. When a member of the dig's crew is murdered, Jaya must figure out which of the scholars vying for her affections might be the love of her life - and which one is a killer.

©2012 Gigi Pandian (P)2015 Tantor

What the critics say

"Pandian's new series may well captivate a generation of readers, combining the suspenseful, mysterious and romantic." ( RT Book Reviews)

What listeners say about Artifact

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Confused story

Too much characters. Hard to follow. Some characters are difficult to understand because of their accent that the narrator is using. Did not really appreciated this book. I prefer The Alchemist serie from Pandian.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

OK story. Narration not great.

I have other books by this author and I like her work. The narrator, not so much. Many of the characters had English or Scottish accents but the best the narrator could do was a kind of generic not-american. The book would have been so much more enjoyable with a professional reader.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Series

I loved this book. I found the characters and narration fine to follow.
I love the main characters in this series and the unique twist on their backgrounds. This history is interesting as well.
I have listened the the entire series before and am going through for the second time.
I would love another Jaya Adventure!

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  • JTan
  • 2015-07-01

Cozy only means no graphic sex or blood/guts

At last! A well-educated, reasonably confident, independent woman who thinks outside the box! She has an interesting background, quirky friends, and an ex lover with a mysterious artifact. Oh, and he's apparently dead, but no corpus delicti. Enter a pushy grad student and an assortment of new characters. Soon there is more history and mystery to be burrowed through, suspense, and a logical but unexpected denouement. Certainly a brain-grabbing read with clear depictions of places and people easily visualized by the reader. Characterizations are realistic (think I worked with one or three of them).
Allyson Ryan really nailed it! Her performance truly enhanced this story and the differentiation and audible attitudes of the characters are exceptional.
This book forced me to sit up waaaay too late by wanting to finish it in one sitting.

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34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Hiral
  • 2015-09-04

Terrible choice of narrator.

I'm sure she would be a fine narrator for another story but she can't a pronounce a single Indian word and her English accent is abysmal. When the protagonist is Indian, the novel revolves around Indian history and is partially set in the UK these flaws make for a terrible listen. Honestly her gaffs are distracting from the story.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
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  • LCNanny
  • 2016-07-06

Narration with over written chapters

What disappointed you about Artifact?

much of it is over written, and the narration DOES NOT match the character. I may not be the target audience as I am a grandmother, but I love the authors other books

Has Artifact turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, the context of the book is interesting and maybe this is simply inexperience or poor editing

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Alissa
  • 2017-01-18

Agonizing

What disappointed you about Artifact?

This is my first review and I moved to write because the dialog and the plot are terrible.

What was most disappointing about Gigi Pandian’s story?

75% of this book is one person asking another "What do you know?" And not getting an answer. Very little plot, the complications the main characters stumble over are so minor, and two characters at the beginning aren't relevant to the plot at all.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Allyson Ryan?

Perhaps, but her treatment of male British voices was pretty bad.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Nope. It's also primary not about archaeology. I can't believe this was the basis for a series.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Jim Lee
  • 2017-09-19

I didn't buy the story or its conclusion!

Felt like the author could figure out a good ending so she just stopped. The characters and the story were lacking. Everything seemed disconnected. I didn't find the story believable and I didn't think the characters related to each other either. I'll pass on the rest of the series.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • AnnieS
  • 2015-08-15

Artifact: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery #1

Absolutely enjoyed this story. I especially loved Jaya! She is intelligent, independent, feisty and quirky. Best of all, this larger than life individual comes in a petite package. This was a really interesting treasure hunt and the amount of historical details provided where just right.

Jaya and Lane made a wonderful team!

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2018-03-18

Just awful

I've really tried to give this story every chance, but everything about it is just awful. The writing is adolescent and the "performance" is worse.

Mispronunciations abound and the inappropriate pauses, inflections and emphases make for a miserable listening experience. Narrators should read a story in the same way that normal conversation takes place. No one speaks like this narration. Voice performance should flow easily, not with odd pauses and weird inflections. Emphasis should be appropriate to normal conversation, not random and overdone.

Narrators who try too hard with accents always fail. Narrators who try too hard with characterizations always fail. Good writers know that a very few words are sufficient to create a character's accent. More than a few words becomes distracting (and makes the writing juvenile). Narrators need to know the same thing. All the voices and accents don't help the story and are often unintelligible. It makes for a better listening experience when the narrator uses her/his own voice with occasional and modest differences for different characters. Sixth-grade performances are all too common in audio book narration.

This narrator's voice for Rupert was laughable. She made him sound like a seventh-grader mimicking a 70-year-old phony British waiter. The Russian landlady's voice was preposterous and reminded me of a bad Boris and Natasha imitation.

The story itself should've been published as Young Adult literature (at best). It's not particularly interesting, has some glaring holes in the storyline, and is poorly written. Even the grammar and general use of language is bad. I usually notice when something is self-published, but missed it with this one. There's a reason things are self-published, and the reason is that it's not good. Some self-published books are fabulous, but they are few and far between.

This gets a complete thumbs down.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • A. Truscott
  • 2016-06-13

MEH....

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Maybe a grandchild in middle school.

Would you recommend Artifact to your friends? Why or why not?

Contrived story line, mildly entertaining but harmless. Would not recommend to any adult friends

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Allyson Ryan?

Anyone who could handle believable accents. HORRIBLE!

Could you see Artifact being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

UH.....no....not without extensive rewrites.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Beatrice
  • 2015-07-01

Pretty Good Beginning

I typically don't care for adventure stories in which the lead character drops everything and goes off on what could be a dangerous "mission". So, when Jaya Jones drops everything and runs off to the UK to find out what happened to her ex boyfriend, I could barely contain my eye role. However, I stuck with it and continued listening to the very end. There were several moments when I questioned Jaya's intelligence but overall it was a good story. There were several twists and turns and lots of interesting characters that kept me listening to the story. Allyson Ryan did a great job with the accents and voices. I think it was her ability to provide voices for the many different characters that kept me interested when I might have stopped listening. I will get the next book if it is made available with Audible.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2015-08-12

a Scooby Doo episode staring Velma

as historian/sleuth and Fred an art historian/ treasure hunter. 1 dimensional stereotypical supporting characters. meh.

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6 people found this helpful

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