Good Story, Poor Narrator

After reading (listening) to The Belgariad and The Malloreon I thought I would download and listen to the prequels (addendums), Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. The two, five books series are all read by the same narrator so, the pronunciations and character voices are consistent and well done. Belgarath the Sorcerer is read by a different narrator, the pronunciations are all consistent, but obviously the character voices have to be different, and they were. This wasn't distracting and you became accustom to the new narrator quickly.

Polgara the Sorceress, however, has a poor narrator. She clearly has not listened to any of the previous books, or if she has, she ignored them completely! The pronunciations of: character names, place, and titles ignores all previous narrations. Her syntax is awful, it sounds like a female William Shatner is reading complete with weird and arbitrary pauses, and bizarre dramatic inflections. Her typical reading voice is pleasant, but some of the character voices are so irritating that it's distracting to the story. In addition to this, the audio editing of the reading isn't helping her; many of the stops and starts are very abrupt and are distracting.

This aside, the content of the story is good. It gives you another point of reference for Belgarath's history and reveals interesting things about Polgara and her motivations. I enjoyed the story and suffered the narrator.

51 people found this helpful

Horrible Narrator

I think Steven hit the nail on the head with his description. The narrator was horrible. I guess she thought that it wasn't necessary to listen to the VOLUMES of books that had been read before this one so as to make things as consistent as possible. I don't know if I can adequately describe how grating on the nerves it is. For example she pronounces ctuchek's name (one of the disciples of Torak) as chew tik. Another one that is grating is Maloria (mah loria), which she reads as mal o ria. Okay, I know, I'm quibbling, but this had such an amateur narrator feel with Ms. Pearlman that I wish I could fire the person that chose to use her as the narrator. This reminds me of awarding the contract to the lowest bidder.

Now, for David Eddings, he did a great job. I love hearing the story from a different point of view. It is definitely not the same story, unlike what another reviewer wrote. It has the same end, but both stories cover roughly 5000 to 8000 years and they each focus of different things in their histories with some common major events tying them together so that you have a point of reference from Belgarath's point of view.

Great story, would be nicer if they just deleted her recording of it and got somebody a little more qualified.

40 people found this helpful

Please re-record!

I really think the narrator should have listened to the previous audio books before delving in. The mispronunciation of the cities and names is horrible....and the accents! I LOVE these books, rather sad I wasted a credit on this one but glad to hear the book since I don’t have the time in this season to read it again.

9 people found this helpful

So disappointed with the Audio reading... why the change

I get that Polgara is from the view of a woman, but there were like 10 other books in this series and Cameron Beirlie read them all. When I listen to this it is like Polgara is this meek character. She is stern, she is more matter of fact. I get no feeling that anyone would do what she said to. All the voices sound the same. I miss the very arrogant sarcastic voice of Silk. The deep voice of Durnik.
Just very disappointed. If I didn't pay so much and it being the last book I would shut it off and beg for a refund. If I were rich I'd call Cameron and beg him to read it just for me.
Sorry if this is offensive to the woman who read this, but it was poor casting on the publishers part.

8 people found this helpful

Great Book, HORRIBLE Narrator

Including the books in the Belgariad series, Mallorian series, and the stand alone Belgarath the Sorcerer, this is the twelfth book in this series. David Eddings is my favorite author, and I LOVED the performances of the previous books, so I was very excited to hear Dina Pearlman perform Polgara. I was so disappointed! She changed the pronunciation of almost every name in the book in relation to the earlier narrations. I understand Thant some people may pronounce things differently, but some of her pronunciations don't even follow the spelling. She pronounces Ctuchik (proper pronunciation is Toochick) Chewtick?!?! There were eleven previous books and in all of them the names were pronounced properly. Maybe she should have listened to one of them first. Ruined the story for me.

8 people found this helpful

Good story, HORRIBLE narrator

I loved the whole series when read by Cameron Bierle. He was the best narrator I had ever heard, so why on EARTH they switched to this woman is beyond me. I honestly haven't been able to do more then skip around in the book, because if I had to listen to her constantly I would go mad. Her voice for C'Nedra is so atrocious. She made a young dryad queen sound like a 90 year old hag. WHY??? I just don't understand. If it ain't broke, don't FIX it!! The book is good but I am going to read it on my kindle, because I just can't stand this narrator.

25 people found this helpful

What a shame

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

This book is for me, I have it in hardback and have enjoyed it several times.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Polgara the Sorceress?

I have read the entire series several times and there are way too many memorable moments to be limited to just one. With Polgara it is attitude and insight that create the memorable moments.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I have read the series and enjoyed it several times. I have also listened to the rest of the series narrated by Cameron Beierle three times and loved every minute. I cannot for the life of me imagine how this narrator was selected or how anyone familiar with the rest of the audiobook series allowed this to be published. This narrator has obviously never listened to the rest of the series, because she has no feeling for the depth and character of Polgaras personality and bearing when dealing with others, or even day to day situations. Further, she didn't bother to learn the accepted pronunciations of names and places common to the series. I have tried twice now to listen to this book and I can't make it to the end of the first chapter before I am thoroughly annoyed and disgusted. I am going to make the time to go back and read the book for myself because it really is a delightful story and Polgara is a literary treasure.

What character would you cut from Polgara the Sorceress?

Only the narrator.

Any additional comments?

If Cameron would do the book, I will buy it in a heart beat.

7 people found this helpful

Narrator ruins the story.

I am a faithful long time fan of David Eddings' books, and Polgara the Sorceress is a great addition to the Belgariad and Mallorean series. I have all of those , and the narrator for those(Cameron Beierle) does a great job with those. This narrator Dina Pearlman , ruins it for me. She mispronounces many names and her inflections for the characters land wildly off base. What bothers me is that someone who has not read the book will get this and prejudge all of the other books based on this performance. Read the book and pass this audiobook by.

6 people found this helpful

Narrator was a distration

The narrator pronounce many of the words differently than the reader of the other books. I found the book to be a real disappointment.

17 people found this helpful

Painful Narration

Agreeing with what seems to be a consenses that Dina Perlman's pronunciation of most ALL of the cities and characters were WAY off. Drove me nuts! Book is great. I mean did she and or Audible not collaborate w/Cameron Beierle or J.P. Linton at all?! Come on Audible! Your the publisher "Audible Frontiers" of both Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress, would've been nice of you to go to the "Books in Motion" publishers of the Belgariad and see if Cameron was free from any contract so YOU could use him too.

17 people found this helpful