Keating’s narration is consistent, clear, and compelling.
This interesting audiobook defies genre. The scientific journal of the main character, 19th-century English ornithologist Ignatius Green, quickly becomes a survival adventure novel as well as an odd-couple comedy. Green is on an island off the coast of Ireland during the famine, studying a bird nearing extinction as the Irish people face a similar fate, when he becomes unwilling guardian to a mysterious feral child. Narrator John Keating performs through the filters of Green’s self-centered personality and the distance created by recounting events in an ostensibly scientific account. This limits the vocal drama, but the narration still has moments of audible emotion, like quiet horror when Green is forced to face the famine’s ravages.
Keating’s narration is consistent, clear, and compelling.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 14 mins
DD ISBN: 9798318549205
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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