was okay.

Not particularly exciting. Can't remember portions because I want engaged with the story. Wasn't excited to pick it up

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Stories of there time terrible narrator.

The narrator Robin Sachs was terrible he sounded like a computer with no feelings or emotions.

Some people might be offended by these stories especially The Lair of the White Worm which uses the "N" word quite a few times so be warned if you can't read/listen to stories from the past and get offended by the way they where written then don't read/listen and stop complaining. The story also seems quite disjointed and jumps around a lot.

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2 people found this helpful

And one of them should have stayed lost

The Lair of the White Worm is the most racist novel I've had the misfortune to listen to so why Audible thought it fit to issue it is beyond me. 'Camp' it is not. The N word, 'savage', and various other derogatory terms are repeatedly used in reference to a character of African origin: he is even referred to as a slave at one point. I had to remind myself that the novel was written in the 20th C not the early 19th. Given this and the rampant misogyny and plot so full of holes it could pass as a Callander it does not make for an easy listen. It begs a number of questions, what medication was Bram Stker on when he wrote this? Who failed to edit it? Why was it originally published? Was the narrator that desperate for money that he agreed to read this? As a final novel it is a damning indictment.

The other two stories are a much better listen and of their time in a more positive way although the Lady of the Shroud does drag on a bit towards the end. There is evidence in both of some background research by the author to flesh out the plots but in all three novels he demonstrates an appalling lack of comprehension of basic science that can't be excused by their date of publication. He isn't a Jules Verne or H G Wells and can't carry the fantastic off and make the impossible possible in the same believable way and it spoils the story.

The narrator for all three stories ploughs through them with a fairly monotonous workmanlike delivery that isn't bad but doesn't add to the experience.

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2 people found this helpful

Lost

Should of stayed lost overall terrible as for the narrator sounds like a robot

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Awful performance

The narration in this audiobook beggars belief. I thought it was computerised reading to start with. No into ation, strange minotone from clause to clause and no breath between sentence, character speech or thought. So bad as to render unbearable books that I quite enjoyed reading in the past and intended to listen to for research

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I never want to hear about blue mountains again...

Oh my days, this book is bad.

Firstly, let me say that Dracula is one of my top 5 fav books of all time and is considered a classic for very good reasons. Among them is the way it is written, seemingly compiled from documentary evidence as if it all really happened. Having read Stoker's other works now, I'm convinced the only way he wrote Dracula is because it did really happen, as when he has to come up with his own original works, he's hopeless.

The introduction in this book is interesting; it provides a bit of a whistle stop tour of Stoker's life and I learnt a bunch, though there are probably other biographies that provide much greater detail if you're interested. After that... things go bad, real bad.

I admit, I only got two-thirds through this collection and gave up, which I almost never do. Even I had to just abandon this book. The stories I did listen to had the vaguest semblance of good ideas in them but unlike with Dracula, the execution was far from satisfying (?). Stories seem to span multiple genres, turning on a dime and even multiple endings don't save these sagas from just being unsatisfying, confusing and most of all, just dull. I admit I missed some details along the way here and there but unlike if I was reading a decent book, I'd go back and check what happened, in this case I didn't as I just didn't care.

The reader doesn't help things much either. He has some accents available to him but he reads everything in the same tone and pace that sometimes makes it difficult to figure out when one character stops talking and another starts or what's part of the letter being read and what's narration.

The genre of Dracula is part of what makes that book so great, the collection of documents, journals and receipts that tell a story, each only providing enough information to help move the narrative along but enough to leave you in the dark and to show the ignorance of each character at vital times just makes that a gripping read; the found-footage horror movie of its day! The Lady with her Shroud (or whatever it's called) in this collection clearly tried going for that again but frankly it's unrealistic that people's journals have full, hour-long conversations transcribed in them and that's only partof the problem.

I don't know how Stoker did it but he capture lightning in a bottle with Dracula; maybe he had good editors, maybe he had good advice on how to craft the story, maybe he just got lucky but it was a one-off sadly and these stories prove that. If you have good people around you who advise, encourage and criticize you, hold them close and read this book every time you wish to be without accountability and criticism as it'll remind you how important those people are.

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