With a hint of an old-time Western twang, narrator Stephanie Cannon easily coaxes the listener into this sweeping, multilayered yarn that unabashedly mixes the worlds of graphic novels, high fantasy, time travel, frontier history, and the author's own "Pandominion" multiverse into an entertaining space-opera stew. When a young schoolmistress sees her best friend murdered and her border town ransacked, she sets out on a rampage for justice. Cannon gives Dog-Bitch Bess a breathless vocal quality while giving a dead-on "old-prospector" voice to her talking six-shooter. That's right, most everything in this tale is anthropomorphized, from the Labrador retriever, Bess, to groundhogs, dishonest squirrels, and Pugfaces. Luckily, Cannon just tells this wild tale with conviction.
Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 15 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781668652596
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Asimov's sweeping tale of the disintegration and fall of the Galactic Empire has never been more relevant or poignant. In the third book of the original trilogy, Dan Lazar handles the material adequately. He uses his limited range of voices nicely, if sometimes amusingly--he sometimes sounds like a foreigner attempting to mimic American accents. Varying pitch and pacing make for a lively narration, and his reading of a precocious young woman, who is ultimately an important figure, is delightful. Technical and editorial problems plague the title. Hearing Lazar repeatedly mispronounce a word that the text itself explains how to pronounce is very frustrating. Intermittent fade-outs on one channel; inconsistencies when switching sides; and low, rumbling background noise mar the sound quality.
Pub Date:
Duration: 8 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Asimov's sweeping tale of the disintegration and fall of the Galactic Empire has never been more relevant or poignant. McKeever reads rapidly, but he also manages to identify individuals, if minimally, and the main characters are voiced consistently. His voice for the aging professor, in fact, is quite charming. Narrative passages are read competently with appropriate emotional expression. Technical and editorial problems plague the title. Intermittent fade-outs on one channel; inconsistencies when switching sides; and low, rumbling background noise mar the sound quality.
Pub Date:
Duration: 13 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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