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Time's Convert
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Series: Time's Convert, Book 1, All Souls Series, Book 4
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense
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Publisher's Summary
From the number one New York Times best-selling author of A Discovery of Witches - now a hit TV series on AMC and BBC America and streaming on Sundance Now and Shudder - the fourth novel in the All Souls series. What does it truly take to become a vampire?
On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one, and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus's deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.
Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor - the young employee at Sotheby's whom Marcus has fallen for - is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the 18th century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both - forever.
A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution. Time's Convert, the fourth book in the All Souls series, channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the previous books instant best sellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries.
What the critics say
A USA Today New Book You Won't Want to Miss This Week
A New York Post This Week's 6 Must-Read Books
A PopSugar New Book Your Friends Are Going to Be Talking About This September
“Harkness brings her keen historian’s eye to the American and French revolutions, drawing parallels between the two periods through not only the vampire witnesses to history but the appearances of historical figures: the Marquis de Lafayette, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine.” (Los Angeles Times)
“In Time’s Convert, Deborah Harkness, the author of A Discovery Of Witches, spins a tale of life-ever-after, romance, and family drama, and it is gloriously entertaining.” (Bustle)
“This vampire book is set during the American Revolution, when a young man named Marcus MacNeil is offered a chance to escape his puritan upbringing (boring!) and become immortal (fun!). From the bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches.” (New York Post)
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What listeners say about Time's Convert
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Anonymous User
- 2019-10-14
Performance issues...
While Saskia Maarleveld is very good, it was too bad Jennifer Ikeda did not read this addition to the series. Her tone and performance contributed greatly to the All souls trilogy and better captured the personalities of the characters in a manner that in this installment, fell short a little even though the current reader is nonetheless very good.
6 people found this helpful
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- Babs
- 2018-09-25
Story amazing, Narrating different
I wish they had the same narrator as the previous three for consistency reasons, Jennifer Ikeda was amazing. Saskia pronounced some things and names differently which threw me off a bit. But overall she did a good job.
Story was wonderful, a great addition to the series and I seriously hope there will be more!
4 people found this helpful
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- Wendy
- 2019-08-19
Disappointing performance
I have been enjoying the series very much. With this performance I felt like I was going to the theatre to see the star of the show but saw the understudy instead. I was disappointed. I may have to think twice about getting more books in the series.
3 people found this helpful
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- HC
- 2020-12-15
Continuity with voices
I enjoyed listening to the first 3 books, and I understand that this one is read by a new narrator. I just don’t understand how Marcus can have a British accent in the 3 books but this one he has an American accent. There’s no continuity if you finish listening to the 3rd book then go straight into this one. Yes I know his character is from the South... but do a little homework first. The audiobooks were released AND the miniseries had been released with both portraying Marcus with a British accent.
2 people found this helpful
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- Emily B.
- 2020-11-02
Like the first 3 more
The change in narrator made a huge difference. I didn’t prefer the narrator in this book. She seemed as if she was just trying to quickly read it, as if she was reading from a dictionary. The narrator in the first three draws you in and is fantastic. Didn’t engage as much in this book because of that.
2 people found this helpful
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- Nicole Brinkworth
- 2019-09-04
get the hardcover, maybe
struggled listening to reader... so much whispering . I could hear the words clearly the continual whispering was extremely difficult to get through.
1 person found this helpful
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- Chris
- 2019-06-21
A sign of things to come. hopefully
this feels like a good filler book. the story was not as good as the previous trilogy but feels like it's a primer for things to come, while giving some back story about Marcus. worth the read.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-11-19
soft spell
While D Harkness continues to deliver a wicked storyline, this one did not deliver the page-turning pace of the first in series. Still a great listen.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2022-05-10
Typo's or confusing the characters names...
Confusing until I figured out the narrator or the book are mixing up Matthew and Markus's names... for example, when Markus makes his first child... the name Matthew was confused with Marcus..
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- Christine
- 2022-04-18
narrative
previous 3 books performance was so much better, I could not follow the characters by their voices most of the time and had to repeat pages.
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- Gigi0605
- 2018-12-06
Disappointing
I am a big fan of the All Souls books so I preordered this one and was so excited to see it in my library on the date of publication. I ended up being really disappointed by this book. No spoilers here, but I will comment that I kept expecting something, anything interesting or exciting to happen. This had the tone of a book that the author wrote because there was a lot of clamor for a new book in this universe and because the money was good. I don't feel as if Deborah Harkness had her heart in it. That said, I did gain a bit of insight into a favorite character from the trilogy.
The other thing I absolutely hated was that the narrator couldn't do accents at all and it was so distracting to hear them done so badly. I don't think I'd listen to anything else that she narrates if an accent other than Midwestern America is called for.
66 people found this helpful
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- SweetDreamsCRTT
- 2018-09-30
Professor Harkness earned a D, the narrator gets a F
I’ve been a hard-core All-Souls fan, but I’m returning this for a refund. The narration was incredibly jarring. Even with a different narrator, I expected at least an attempt to pronounce character names and accents consistently with previous works. It’s understandable the narrator couldn’t perform voices precisely the way the Jennifer Ikeda had, but she could have at least tied to use the same vocal register for characters as they had before. Marthe, for example, underwent a transformation from a soprano to an alto, a complete nationality transplant in accent, as well as a woeful change in name pronunciation, changing the “T” to “Th!”
Marcus, the primary male character, originally a had a warm, solid voice with a slight British accent, which would have been historically accurate for a man raised in 18th century New England. He was transformed into a crude, harsh, grating Midwestern lout. The rest of the characters’ voices were even worse. It was often difficult to tell which character was supposed to be speaking, and more than once I had to rewind to make sense of the conversation.
The bottom line: Bring back Jennifer Ikeda. This narrator is absolutely appalling!!
Now to the book itself. I hoped that once I adjusted to the terrible narration, I would find another good Harkness book. Instead, it was a saccharine, meandering pastiche, a tawdry historical romance. I forced myself to slog through, waiting for something to happen. It never did.
I began to feel sorry for characters like Ysabeau and Gallowglass, who had once been vibrant three dimensional people. They were reduced to flat caricatures used as window-dressing. It seemed Harkness felt the need to drop in favorite characters, like chocolate chips, to satisfy readers’ expectations.
They were merely cameo-appearances by paper dolls.
And Miriam... poor Miriam lost all her crackle and fire, quenched by a literary cold bucket of water. She should have been Phoebe’s ideal Maker, reinforcing her independence and intelligence. She seemed just nanny with a haughty temper instead. Sadly, she was vocally castrated as well.
Was this book really written by Harkness, or a ghost writer? It doesn’t sound like her at all. Maybe she’s spread too thin, juggling the TV production of the All Soul’s Trilogy with writing and an academic career. If the publisher pressured her into a rush to print, shame on them. But shame on Harkness for being cowed into it. She can do better.
131 people found this helpful
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- LKF
- 2018-09-19
Distracting and disappointing narration
As with others, I was really looking forward to this book and, even with poor reviews, wanted to give the narrator a chance. 9 chapters in, I am so distracted by poor the narration I am struggling to follow the story. Accents, timing, tone - all seem off. In her webcast the author indicated Jennifer Ikeda was not available but I would have gladly waited for a delay in release of the audiobook to have her tell the story. Not sure I will finish this and will not purchase the book in other formats, but if redone with Jennifer will gladly listen.
410 people found this helpful
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- teri segrest
- 2018-09-19
Please have Jennifer rerecord this book. Please
I have been waiting for months. I've been crossing off the days on the calendar for this to come out. These are my favorite books. I wanted to be submursed back in their world. the new narrator can't even pronounce Mart right. It just throws the whole vibe off. She has a great voice, just not for this series. I know important people read the reviews so I hope if enough people complain something will be done.
391 people found this helpful
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- nanki888
- 2018-09-18
Where is Jennifer Ikeda?
The change of narrator is spoiling this book. It's so hard to listen to when it is supposed to read as a continuation of the series but the voices, accents, tempo, everything is off. Saskia's reading of it is very flat and makes this sound unrefined and like fanfiction vs. one of Deborah Harkness' books. I'm having trouble believing or having sympathy for the characters and what they are going through as her voice doesnt convey the emotions and the severity of the situation. In the past books, I would "feel" for the characters and be so much more invested. A shame. Can Jennifer Ikeda rerecord the book?
217 people found this helpful
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- Tonyab824
- 2018-09-18
Great story ~ poor narration
I have been looking forward to this book for quite some time as I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Deborah Harkness' previous books in this series. The story is great but the narration is poor in comparison to the previous.... very disappointing.
145 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-09-19
disappointing narration...
I tried so hard to get into this audio but I just can't. The voices all blend together. It's hard to differentiate between characters. All the character personalities from the previous books are gone. It's so frustrating, I've been waiting for this book for a long time and expected at least the same quality as before if not better. All the voices are flat, male and female are all the same. I tried turning the volume up to see if it was a volume issue but no, this audio easily becomes background noise. I want the previous narrator back.
142 people found this helpful
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- Bonnie J. Dooley
- 2018-09-18
Great story
I've been waiting for this with such excitement and the story is wonderful, as expected. Unfortunately I'm having a very difficult time with the narrator. I loved the prior narrator and the new narrator is disappointing. I'm not sure if I'll finish listening or not, since I also have the book I might just read this one and enjoy it that way.
87 people found this helpful
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- 3Steps
- 2018-09-19
Just read the book
I've been waiting for this book "forever"... ok maybe it just feels like it. I couldn't wait to hear Marcus' story. But the narration is just horrible. Bad accents. Bad timing - she rushes through her words like they are a chore instead of being something to enjoy. I tried to get through it. Told myself it was just because it wasn't the same narrator. But I just couldn't.
Thankfully I also bought the book.
130 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-09-18
Love this series of books.
I love the stories in this series. However, I can't get past the narrator in this story. They should never have changed the narrator mid series. I will have to buy the book to finish it. The original narrator is one of the best I've ever listened to.
100 people found this helpful