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The Very First Damned Thing

An Author-Read Audio Exclusive

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The Very First Damned Thing

Written by: Jodi Taylor
Narrated by: Jodi Taylor
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About this listen

Audible is delighted to bring you an exclusive, author-read production of The Very First Damned Thing. Hear it here first, months ahead of the EBook publication.

Jodi Taylor reads the long-awaited prequel in her Chronicles of St Mary’s series, as Dr Bairstow struggles to set up St Mary’s as we know it in a world still scarred by the ravages of civil war.

Ever wondered how it all began? It’s two years since the final victory at the Battersea Barricades. The fighting might be finished, but for Dr Bairstow, just now setting up St Mary's, the struggle is only beginning.

How will he assemble his team? From where will his funding come? How can he overcome the massed ranks of the Society for the Protection of Historical Buildings? How do stolen furniture, a practical demonstration at the Stirrup Charge at Waterloo, students’ alcohol-ridden urine, a widowed urban guerrilla, a young man wearing exciting knitwear and four naked security guards all combine to become the St Mary’s of the future?

©2015 Jodi Taylor (P)2015 Audible Ltd. Fantasy Fiction Funny Witty Science Fiction Time Travel Psychological Horror
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super - perfect listening for this Brit abroad. Chuckling away in my car every morning! Will definately explore the full series Like adult " Horrible Histories"

Brilliant - witty, dry, very British. perfect

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I had this series in my wish list for a while. This was NOT the way I should have started it. This prologue (which started with an overly long look at the battle of Waterloo) had too many nods to the series to come.

DO NOT start the series at this novella

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Jodi Taylor is an excellent author - but doesn’t have the range that voice actors do, so I did find this a bit difficult to listen to.

Read/listen AFTER you’ve read a few of the main books

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You should read this book after, at least, reading book one. It's a short story that broadens the background of the main characters of the series. Well worth reading, also explores a kind post-apocalyptic Britain in the near future. Well worth the expense :-)

A good backgrounder on the series

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This is a great story to listen to AFTER you have read a few of the books.
The story of St Mary’s is a great one. I love it so much. I’m stuck, and can’t afford the 15 or so main books, but groceries be damned - I’ll be having all of these books!!
This particular one though, read by the author, is hard to listen to. She doesn’t have the voice range of Zara Ram, and will hopefully keep her on for all of the series

Amazing originating story

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I was quite disappointed by this short prequel to the Chronicles of St. Mary series. I got the author-read novella from Audible with quite a few other books in the series as the descriptions (mainly of the other ones) seemed really great: what would happen if a bunch of historians actually got the chance to travel back in time to the events they wanted to study? I decided to go chronologically, starting with this prequel before getting into the actual books, as it might give some good background. Unfortunately, it was a random plot with very boring narration.

The author does not have a good voice for narration and story-telling. It was stilted, very few accents, and too soft (or possibly even just a poor quality recording). The story was also very confusing, starting as if all naturally made sense (I suppose this prequel comes with the expectation you will have read the entire series already) and then moving through scenes of poorly-described encounters with people the main character may or may not already know, talking about future events that already happened (but that we the listener/reader don't know?), and with some time travel/history elements thrown in. I was lost, confused, bored, and disappointed. I did read the first book in the series (review to come soon), which features a different narrator, and liked the story better, but don't think this was much of a prequel.

Why do authors think they can narrate???

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