Tamara's Reviews > Cronin's Key
Cronin's Key (Cronin's Key, #1)
by
by
Tamara's review
bookshelves: romance, contemporary, lgbtqa, paranormal, audio, mystery
Mar 09, 2015
bookshelves: romance, contemporary, lgbtqa, paranormal, audio, mystery
Read 2 times. Last read October 16, 2015 to October 17, 2015.
DNF @ around 80%
So. Back in May, I stopped reading this book at 26%. I figured I was not in the right mood for the amount of fluff present.
Today I was going through a list of books I should read for a challenge, and I found the audio version of Cronin's Key III on that list. So I did a search on Scribd, and found all three audiobooks in the series available. I figured I would have an easier time with audio and I gave it a try. I started listening to the book at around 20%.
My main problem is with Eiji's voice. At first I was amused at how Eiji, supposedly Japanese, sounded exactly like Indiana Jones' kid sidekick. But it grated on my nerves more and more as I listened. I studied Japanese at uni and I had many native lecturers. I have also met a lot of Japanese people at language exchange groups. When not conversing in Japanese, we mostly talked in English. None of them sounded even remotely like what Eiji sounded in this audiobook. What Eiji sounded like was a Hollywood representation of how an Asian person is supposed to sound like, and frankly I find that offensive.
As I said in one of my status updates, if you're gonna do an accent, do it right or not at all.
At around 80% comes a scene where Eiji is excited and is almost incomprehensible. That's when I decided I've had enough.
My rating is purely for narration.
So. Back in May, I stopped reading this book at 26%. I figured I was not in the right mood for the amount of fluff present.
Today I was going through a list of books I should read for a challenge, and I found the audio version of Cronin's Key III on that list. So I did a search on Scribd, and found all three audiobooks in the series available. I figured I would have an easier time with audio and I gave it a try. I started listening to the book at around 20%.
My main problem is with Eiji's voice. At first I was amused at how Eiji, supposedly Japanese, sounded exactly like Indiana Jones' kid sidekick. But it grated on my nerves more and more as I listened. I studied Japanese at uni and I had many native lecturers. I have also met a lot of Japanese people at language exchange groups. When not conversing in Japanese, we mostly talked in English. None of them sounded even remotely like what Eiji sounded in this audiobook. What Eiji sounded like was a Hollywood representation of how an Asian person is supposed to sound like, and frankly I find that offensive.
As I said in one of my status updates, if you're gonna do an accent, do it right or not at all.
At around 80% comes a scene where Eiji is excited and is almost incomprehensible. That's when I decided I've had enough.
My rating is purely for narration.
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Reading Progress
March 9, 2015
– Shelved
March 9, 2015
– Shelved as:
to-read
March 9, 2015
– Shelved as:
romance
October 16, 2015
–
Started Reading
October 16, 2015
– Shelved as:
contemporary
October 17, 2015
–
Finished Reading
July 16, 2017
– Shelved as:
lgbtqa
March 18, 2018
– Shelved as:
paranormal
May 25, 2018
–
0%
"Re-reading this so I can read book #3 and finish the series.
I found the audiobook on scribd though, so maybe I'll listen instead."
I found the audiobook on scribd though, so maybe I'll listen instead."
May 26, 2018
–
0%
"I don't remember it being this bad though...
I think I'll just leave the re-reading for some other time."
I think I'll just leave the re-reading for some other time."
July 9, 2018
–
Started Reading
(ebook Edition)
July 9, 2018
– Shelved
(ebook Edition)
July 9, 2018
–
Finished Reading
(ebook Edition)
March 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
contemporary
(ebook Edition)
March 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
lgbtqa
(ebook Edition)
March 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
paranormal
(ebook Edition)
March 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
romance
(ebook Edition)
March 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
audio
May 26, 2025
– Shelved as:
mystery
May 26, 2025
– Shelved as:
mystery
(ebook Edition)
Comments Showing 1-12 of 12 (12 new)
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Trio
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rated it 4 stars
May 26, 2018 06:36AM
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Elena wrote: "You did better than me, Tamara, I stopped at 17% the first time."
I can understand why!
Tbh I can't remember that part anymore :/
And the way things went with the attempted re-read, I doubt I'll be finishing the series, even though I managed to grab book #3 for free on Amazon at some point.
I'm not really surprised to hear what your issue was. It's a tricky thing, casting a narrator in a way to ensure they would have the ability to do a quality sounding accent. Back in the medieval times when I was young, I worked as a sound engineer recording the occational audiobook. Back then there used to be a director on the recording set, who would have the skill to catch the narrator's shortcomings, and coach the voice actor how to do better. Meaning some lines would be read over and over again until the director was happy with the result, and then edited by the tech into a seemless narration of the book. Given how (relatively) cheap current audiobooks are sold for, I bet they no longer hire such directors. That means the producer/author have to trust the narrator saying they can do it, without anyone able to offer an objective opinion until after the recording is done. By then several days of work = lots of money already spent, so easy to see why the audio would get published regardless of shortcomings.
Still, not a good look to have an attempt at accent play into stereotypcial territory. As you say, it would be better to not do an accent at all in that case.
It makes sense to have a director - same way it makes sense for a book to have an editor. Sometimes you may not be aware of how you sound, and another perspective could really come in handy.
Joel Leslie is notoriously bad at doing non-English accents. I've listened to him doing various non-English accents, often for characters that spent a good part of their lives living in English-speaking countries, and they are mostly just so bad (as in incomprehensible) and cliche it's really frustrating...
In this day and age at least it would be easy to do some research, and it's really disappointing he decided to go with a cliche instead of just googling a little.
True! Applying tough love makes a big difference to the end result.
I wasn't aware about Leslie. At least knowing is good because then you can avoid the audio for those titles. No fun paying for a bad performance.
I usually avoid audiobooks because I go into automatic critical work mode listening to them - not great for relaxing with a book - but I found one narrator I enjoy listning to; Steve Shanahan, reading Poly. His voice give me goosebumps, the good type. :)
I understand! Someone should really add warning labels to when Joel Leslie does accents.