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    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
    Audiobook14 hours

    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

    Written by Jules Verne

    Narrated by Norman Dietz

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Professor Pierre Aronnax is a fortunate though unwilling passenger on the amazing submersible, Nautilus. Its captain, Nemo, hounded by the "civilized" world above water, wages a solitary war against what he views as injustice and hatred. While Aronnax gazes out through the observation windows of the massive craft on the deepest trenches of the sea, the greater wonder may be the enigmatic commander at his side and the deadly quest he pursues.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 25, 2011
    ISBN9781440795428
    Author

    Jules Verne

    Jules Verne (1828-1905) used a combination of scientific facts and his imagination to take readers on extraordinary imaginative journeys to fantastic places. In such books as Around the World in Eighty Days, From the Earth to the Moon, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, he predicted many technological advances of the twentieth century, including the invention of the automobile, telephone, and nuclear submarines, as well as atomic power and travel to the moon by rocket.

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    Reviews for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

    4/5

    91 ratings48 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I am so divided on my feelings about Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Starting with the positive, it was a groundbreaking novel when it was published in 1870. It foretold many pieces of technology that didn’t even exist including portable electric lights, SCUBA equipment and the centerpiece of the story, the submarine. Verne really was a pioneer of what we now know as Science Fiction storytelling. He also captures the character of Captain Nemo by making him so multidimensional. He is a scientist and adventurer who loves his crew like children and is a gracious host. But he is also a vengeful, dark, brooding madman. Verne captures that conflict so well.However, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in many ways is a burden to read. The lion’s share of the story involves listening to Pierre Aronnax catalog every animal, vegetable, mineral, island, sea or line of latitude or longitude he comes across. Page after page of zoological classifications and atmospheric observations slows the story to a crawl. In all honesty, the missing element of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a good editor. Half of the text could be cut out without losing one single element of the story.I feel that Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is an important work that everyone should read, if for no other reason than to see the birth of a genre. But I can’t say that it is a really enjoyable story to read. It is a flawed execution of a brilliant concept.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I loved ? this book ?! Lucky ? I know what happened to Captain Nemo….
    • 3/5
      An okay read for me. Highly detailed, but those details tended to get a bit long-winded and I found myself getting bored with them after a while. I would have liked a little more insight into the personality of Captain Nemo and exactly what happened to make him shun the world. I felt like that was a very important part that seemed to be missing.
    • 4/5
      An excellent classic. Lots of stuff that I did not remember
      about the book. Captain Nemo was way ahead of his time...
    • 2/5
      The story showed promise and I can sympathise with Nemo. Unfortunately, the author uses the whole thing as a vehicle to tell the world (or just France; I forget who he's trying to impress) how smart he is. Verne should have read more Wells before trying to write.
    • 4/5
      A good honest adventure book. With lots of fish.
    • 5/5
      For reasons I cannot now comprehend, I checked this book out of my school library in second grade and read it all through class. Also for reasons I can't explain, I LOVED it. Which is why it has a five star rating, even though in all honest consideration it's probably not that great. I can't even be honest anymore; it's stuck to my memory like a twig between teeth, ever-present and slightly minty tasting. There are some very involved politics here, interesting from an anti-nuclear-war position. I was fascinated with the use of sea life for supplies as a child, and the imagined technology of the submarine has held up surprisingly well. If either of those things interest you, pick this book up. I'd also recommend it for anyone interested in older science-fiction, or for those reading through the Verne canon (of which I think this is the best). Otherwise, well, the five stars aren't as brilliant as they might appear.
    • 3/5
      I read this because it was on a list of Great Classics. I saw the movie long ago but did not remember much of it. I thought the title meant 20,000 leagues down! It seems Captain Nemo and Professor Aronnax (and Conneil and Ned land ) went on a submarine for 20,000 leagues, often under the sea's surfacce. It has some exciting things, especially when they almost die at the South Pole. This book is nnotated, and corrects some things in the standard English translation. The sequel is The Mysterius sland, but I don't think I have to read it. Verne wrote 65 books. I think I've read enough bny him.
    • 2/5
      As often happens when I read a book that inspires countless movies, I found 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea much stranger than it’s legion of popular adaptations. Often cited as a pioneer of science fiction, it reads more like a brochure for underwater tourism. The book consists mainly of amazed sightseers following a rigorous underwater itinerary inside a steampunk submarine. I could sense Verne checking off his list as he devoted each chapter to a distinct marine trope: kelp forests, sunken ships, sunken cities, volcanoes, shark attacks, squid attacks, navel battles, deserted islands, swift currents, coral reefs, icebergs, whirlpools, and all the rest are represented. If I were considering an expensive vacation I would call Nautilus Adventures and book a seat. Yet this aquatic amusement ride makes frequent stops for doggedly educational lessons. The “halt and explain” technique appears endemic of marine fiction; Moby Dick uses it famously, but whereas Melville inserted discreet explanatory chapters in his own voice, Verne has his characters break into learned discourse right in the middle of the action. The effect is usually comic. The characters will plummet down a dark underwater chasm, stop, discuss at length how atmospheric pressure can be withstood by reinforced glass, then plummet down some more. It’s like the cartoons of my childhood, where the cat and mouse would, at the sound of a bell, immediately stop their violent antics, sit down to high tea and discuss the weather, then, when the bell rang again, immediately resume their war. If Verne intended to do this as an ironic distancing device then he would be a genius akin to Brecht, but such is not the case. He intended to show how the seemingly impossible is in fact plausible. A noble goal, but he did it very clumsily. In this maladroit oscillation between narrative and exposition, Verne is indeed a pioneer of science fiction, for it is common flaw of the genre. Verne had ideas galore, far, far more ideas than most mortals ever conceive, and he had a rich imagination that gave his ideas wonderful color, but like many an author of speculative fiction, he struggled to integrate his ideas smoothly into a story. His wooden characters do not help matters much: an officious professor, a deadpan manservant, a hothead whaler, and, most famously, the “enigmatic” Captain Nemo. The professor is mainly a vehicle for Verne’s lectures, the servant is a source of lame one-liners, the whaler is there solely to fight the sharks, and Captain Nemo behaves more or less like a brooding teenager throughout the story. These are not psychologically complex, well rounded characters. Nor are they, in the manner of Dickens, poignant caricatures. They are naught but empty narrative vehicles. A robot could have stood in for any of them, and perhaps should have done so, as it would have added yet another expository twist to the story.This novel is tremendously influential and choc-a-block with images and ideas, but all in all this is not a fantastic work unfairly obfuscated by subsequent cinematic adaptations. In fact, some of those movies may actually be better than the book.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating! A wonderful insight into the glories of marine life, and a comprehensive guide to world geography as well as a compelling story. Gratifyingly, it also leaves so many questions unanswered.Of course, everyone is broadly familiar with the story of Captain Nemo and his extraordinary submarine, but the detail that Verne offers is beguiling.The story is recounted by Professor Arronax, a leading marine biologist of the 1860s who had been approached by the US Navy to join their expedition to investigate a spate of sightings of a mysterious body at different sites all around the world. Most of Verne's central characters have an unswervingly loyal manservant and Arronax is no exception - wherever he goes, so goes Conseil.After a long voyage the navy boat does eventually encounter the strange form that has been causing such unrest around the maritime world. A cannon is discharged but the shell merely bounces off its target. In the ensuing melee Professor Arronax and Conseil are swept overboard and find themselves rescued initially by Ned Land, the legendary Canadian harpoonist. However, as they drift on the surface they gradually lose their strength and are on the verge of succumbing to a watery grave when the Nautilus surfaces, and they are gathered in by the crew of Captain Nemo.They are treated for the effects of their ordeal and then taken on a voyage all around the globe. Verne gives the most enticing descriptions of the wonders of the world beneath the waves, and the limitless beauty and undreamt splendour to be encountereed there. Nemo is fours us but distant, and rules his ship with unquestioned ardour, being rewarding with absolute and unquestioning loyalty from his crew, all of whom have turned their backs on life ashore.Arronax comes to respect Nemo but is left astounded by the harshness of many of his views, and with no insight at all into what has driven him to this self-imposed, underwater exile. Once the initial sense of relief at having been rescued, and the ensuing wonder at everything they can see, fades, the thoughts of the three captives turn to escape.I can't imagine how exciting this must have seemed when it was first published - even now it is instantly and comprehensively captivating.
    • 3/5
      A good story, a little slow at times but it never stops moving entirely. It was interesting to see how people viewed our ecology in the past. I would reccomend reading it with a dictionary at hand as the main character is a zoologist and uses terms not familiar to the common man. All in all, I'm glad I read it.
    • 5/5
      Excellent narration with a depth of character for each of the main figures aboard.
    • 4/5
      This novel tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine, the Nautilus. The story is narrated by a Professor Aronnax, who by accident and chance becomes a part of the ships crew, along with his servant and a whaler called Ned. They travel the seas, exploring the many wonders that the oceans normally keep hidden beneath its waves. I enjoyed the book throughout, however, the beginning and the end chapters are the most interesting, having more adventure to them. Verne is a lover of scientist and he can't help going on and on about the new species of fish and plant life beneath the waves, which are a wonder to the Professor narrating, but all sort of blurs together as any long list of names and descriptions would do. It fits perfectly with the character, of course, since he would have been deeply fascinated by such things, but it's a bit tedious for the reader.
    • 5/5
      this book is good but at times it can get boring.
    • 4/5
      I first read this book when I was eight. While my classmates were rushing against one another to bring home Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, I was devouring our library's collection of Verne and Sherlock Holmes books. They were thick, with huge prints and illustrations - clearly intended for kids. One time, I took out a book in the morning, read it during breaktimes, then returned it in the afternoon of that same day before I went home.Of all the titles in that collection, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ended up being my favorite. So, more than ten years later, when I saw it again in the bookstore, I knew I just had to relive the adventure again. It had been a light and fast read in that small, thick book from third grade, so I certainly didn't expect it to be long and, frankly speaking, quite dragging in its unabridged form. That said, it was still a better adventure than before. If Verne didn't expound too much on the sea creature naming, this book would've been paced faster, but less believable too since he wrote it in a professor's point of view.In all, I still loved it and I look forward to re-reading his two other books that I first read a decade ago: Around The World In 80 Days, and A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
    • 1/5
      In 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne gives way too many details, about every thing; fishes, mollusks, machines, and more. Also, the book has very little excitement and loses your interest after about 5 minutes. I would not suggest this book for a pleasure read unless you are very interested in the sea and all of its inhabitants. However if you have to read it try to read it in small portions spread it out over time so you don’t get too bored.In 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, Professor Arronax goes on the Abraham Lincoln to figure out the mystery behind a sea beast that has recently started appearing all over the world. When the Abraham Lincoln finally finds this creature professor Arronax his faithful servant council and their new friend Ned land a whaler from Canada are knocked off their ship and are left to survive in the mysterious ocean with their fates controlled by the creature they had just been hunting.The only thing interesting in this book is when they actually do something like visit an under water forest of a drowned city. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen much, and you get bored between events. The rest is pointless and boring details that take up over two thirds of the uneventful book.
    • 4/5
      A true classic. It did have sections where the scientific detail got a bit overwhelming, but they were easily skimmed and did serve to help with the characterization. For the most part, the narrative kept moving and the characters were fully developed. I was slightly disappointed in the ending. After all those adventures, I wanted the best adventure to be the grande finale, but the author employed the deus ex machina by having the narrator fall into a state of unconsciousness where he (and the reader) essentially missed the last adventure. Sad. But overall, a good read.
    • 2/5
      Started off with a bang, but then got bogged down with endless description of the scenery. I guess no one ever told Verne to show rather than tell.
    • 5/5
      I love this book. Anyone who wants to write sci-fi must learn from Verne. He makes it what it should be: man and nature in conflict, and the technology he envisions to unite them. But an undercurrent in this book of rousing, scientific, seafaring adventure is one of tragedy and a deep bitterness. Yes,I have a fondness Captain Nemo. I still like to think, as he sat alone in the half-light, playing his organ, he played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata...
    • 3/5
      At first I thought that the title implied a great depth, but no, 20,000 leagues is how far our adventures sail, submerged in Captain Nemo's early submarine.Verne's dramatic descriptions are spot-on as always, but he does grow tiresome sometimes when he insists on naming every species observed under the sea - down to the genus and everything. This is a classic adventure that remains very much of its time without really sharing anything terribly special, unlike some of his other work - especially "80 Days."
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. In the begining the author tells the reader that he, Mr Aronnax, studies the ocean and is quite famous for his work. te book takes place in the early 1800s, so their sciences are not very advanced. The author goes on to tell about the rumors and sighting of a giant sea monster the size of an island, being a man of science Mr Aronnax is very skepical at first but is swayed to believe that a giant moster does live. When he is invited to go hunt for this notorious beast he jumps at the chance and he also brings allong his servant Conciel. After voyaging for days they finally find thebeast, but to their surprize it is actully a submarine vessle, navigated by Captin Nemo who cut himself off from life above the water entirely and has a mysterious way of going about things . When they acciedently get thrown to mercy of Captin Nemo and his under water exporatory they find that there is no escape. While escape is on the mind they are taken around the globe, and to the depths of the sea. These captives are witnessing and experiencing things that normaly people would never even get a chance to see.The author is very descriptive when is comes to the bottom of the ocean, these places and animals are described to be SO magestic SO beautiful and SO breathtaking that I had dreams about these fictional places for DAYS. The men have wonderous and exciting adventures under the sea, yet are still taken captive. Should they choose to abandon shipp and flee to shore or should they take up this exciting and opportunistic, yet isolated lifestyle? I would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction novels or who really loves a good piece of literature. This book was very challenging because it inculded a lot of scientific vocabulary that I, as a freshman, am not used to. But since this book was so exciting i couldn't put it down. Out of five stars i would give it four and a half to five. I really loved this book and I hope you do to.
    • 3/5
      In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne's 1869 adventure story, a strange creature has appeared in the world's oceans. It looks like a whale, but it is much larger and faster than any whale yet known to science. When international hysteria over the mysterious creature reaches its height, the U.S. sends a warship out to find and destroy it. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a famous French naturalist, is invited to come along and observe. Also on board are Conseil, Aronnax's faithful manservant and classification expert, and Ned Land, an expert harpooner. When they finally do meet the creature, they are astonished to learn that it is not a creature of flesh and blood at all, but a manmade ship that sails under the water. A submarine! Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned are shipwrecked and taken aboard the Nautilus by its enigmatic and brilliant captain who calls himself Nemo (Latin for "no one"). Why has Nemo built this incredible submarine, and what has caused his intense hatred for the powers that reign on dry land? And — more to the point — will he ever let his prisoners go?20,000 Leagues Under the Sea begs comparison to Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, and Ray Bradbury's introduction to this edition explores each to illuminate the other (please note there are spoilers for both in this paragraph!). Bradbury says both Melville and Verne are "blasphemers" in their open questioning of God's dispensations. But while Melville is bleakly existential, Verne has a much more practical view of things. If Melville and Verne were building the Tower of Babel, Melville would write poetry about ascending the heavens while Verne would be busy trying to discover the best mixture for the bricks. Ahab goes down dramatically with the Whale to his death; Nemo builds a mechanical whale and plumbs the depths of the oceans to survive. Both stories end in a swirling vortex, but while Ahab's fate is certain, Captain Nemo's is left open.I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with this book. It is evident that Verne did a lot of research for it — too much at times. In every ocean they visit, Monsieur Aronnax gives us detailed descriptions of the ocean life, telling us what each fish looks like (and whether it is good to eat). This is interesting some of the time, but as it went on and on, my eyes started glazing over. Often the characters ask questions that are obvious lead-ins to info dumps. This is fine to a point, but when it happens in every chapter it gets a bit old. I do see why Verne would go to such lengths (depths?) to describe everything minutely; his readers in 1869 would be thirsty for every word detailing the mysterious underwater realms of the ocean. Maybe it just doesn't work as well with modern readers who have already seen all kinds of underwater exploration footage and pictures. I do have to give Verne credit for thinking up halfway-plausible theories for how his submarine could operate (though several are not at all correct). Verne is a towering figure in the science fiction genre, and it's easy to see why. Despite the slow parts, there are some iconic moments here that I remember from the Great Illustrated Classics edition I read as a child... the shadowy underwater graveyard, the giant squid attack, and the pearl-oyster beds of Ceylon. Verne does not dwell overmuch on the philosophical aspects of the story, but their undertones are very much present, and they come out strongly when someone dies. Gradually we come to see that Nemo is just as much of a fanatic as the more demonstrative Ahab; he really means it when he says he hates the human societies on the dry land. In this book Nemo's nationality and the specific injustices he suffered remain a mystery, though I understand that these are explored in the sequel, The Mysterious Island.This book is thought provoking when read in our context of the modern environmentalist movement. In one place, it sounds like Nemo doesn't care about using nature responsibly; dugongs are becoming quite rare due to overhunting and yet Nemo allows Ned Land to harpoon one in a very offhand manner. But later, when Ned wants to kill some baleen whales, Nemo refuses to allow it because they would not use the meat; it would be for the sheer joy of killing, and those particular whales were already becoming rare. It is fascinating that Verne was so aware of the issues even then, and embodies these two opposing viewpoints through Ned Land and Captain Nemo. Neither, of course, can understand the other.And yet Nemo has no problem killing a group of sperm whales that were going to attack the more benign baleen whales. The carnage is quite graphic. Nemo justifies this by saying that the sperm whales are vicious killers that the world can easily spare. It seems that Nemo equates the vicious sperm whales with a particular nation/political movement, the one that destroyed his family. He sees himself as judgment meted out upon them.And randomly, I was also hugely amused at the brief mention of and explanation for global cooling (yes, you read that right). Interesting how we keep changing our mind on this topic. Maybe in the next century we will determine that the earth's temperature is remaining constant?I can understand why this is a classic, and I am impressed at the breadth of its ideas. Underwater ships, batteries powered by sodium, pressurized diving suits, guns that shoot electric bullets, incredibly inventive ocean cuisine — all of man's creative forces focused on reaping life from the elements. Man is moving forward, conquering, exploring, classifying, and cataloguing every inch of the globe. But after all its underwater victories over the forces of nature, the Nautilus disappears in a raging whirlpool... or does it? If the Nautilus is a metaphor for scientific progress, there is an interesting parallel here; its implications are still too ambiguous to admit of a neat and tidy conclusion. Every reader will come away with a different perspective.Just a note: I do not recommend the Tantor Media audiobook of this story. I tried to listen to it and had to turn it off because the narrator's voice (which was fine in itself) kept spiking and distorting even at a normal conversational volume level, resulting in a grating fuzziness. This really surprised me because it was recorded in 2003, presumably with decent equipment (?). But it was too annoying to be borne. I have not listened to the audiobook done by Naxos; perhaps it is better.Overall, I would say this is a work I respect because of its landmark position as a classic of science and adventure fiction. But besides Captain Nemo, the characters aren't very compelling, and the long, frequent descriptions of ocean life impede the plot. It left me cold, and I don't think it is a book I will revisit.
    • 3/5
      I liked the book because I AM fascinated by the sea, but everyone is right, the details of EVERYTHING are awful to sit through. You completely forget where you are in the "story" after pages and pages of detail on a fish, or a rock. A tough read, but a nice fantasy story. I personally don't think the details and monotony were NEARLY as awful as say Moby Dick, but they were pretty bad.
    • 3/5
      In 1866 there are a number of sightings of an unexplained object in the ocean. Some of these objects are far apart and with no other explanation, it is thought that it might be a sea monster.An expedition is established with the U.S. Naval frigate Abraham Lincoln under command of Captain Farragut. They are determined to find this sea monster and deal with it.Professor Pierre Aronnax of the Museum of Paris had written articles about this phenomenon of a possible sea monsgter and he his asked to join the others, along with his man Conseil and Canadian harpooner, Ned Land.Once they are out to sea and have traveled far in search of this monster, something is sighted and a small boat is launched. Ned Land is ready with his harpoon and Pierre and Conseil are with him. Ned realizes that this object is not a monster as their boat is swamped and they are picked up by the submarine, the Nautilus under Captain Nemo.They are kept in gentle captivity as the Nautilus travels around the world with Captain Nemo commenting as they reach various places. Pierre also comments on some of the things they find, such as a sunken ship with treasure aboard.The style of writing is dry and without much emotional comment. The style was so different from today's writing that It was challenging to get involved with the story.Jules Verne had some excellent ideas such as the deep sea diving equipment but when the Nautilus is said to go 20,000 leagues under the sea, that is more than the circumference of the earth.It was interesting to see where writing has changed in the last one hundred years and the changes in science fiction writing.
    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed rereading this wonderful classic as an adult. The social commentary that Verne offered escaped me when I first read this book as a child. The Afterward provides a good discussion of the challenges to Verne that came about as a result of this work.
    • 5/5
      Vernes undersea adventure is an amazing trip that I've taken many times. Although history has proven his vision to be incorrect on many occasions in this yarn, it is still a mesmerizing odyssey. One of my favorite books.
    • 3/5
      "Among the molluscs and zoophytes, I found in the meshes of the net several species of alcyonarians, echini, hammers, spurs, dials, cerites, and hyalleae. The flora was represented by beautiful floating seaweeds, laminariae, and macrocystes, impregnated with the mucilage that transudes through their pores; and among which I gathered an admirable Nemastoma Geliniarois..."*flip flip flip*"...carpet of molluscs and zoophytes. Amongst the specimens of these branches I noticed some placenae, with thin unequal shells, a kind of ostracion peculiar to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean; some orange lucinae with rounded shells; rockfish three feet and a half long, which raised themselves under the waves like hands ready to seize one. There were also some panopyres, slightly luminous..."*flip flip flip*"...phyctallines, belonging to the actinidian family, and among other species the phyctalis protexta, peculiar to that part of the ocean, with a little cylindrical trunk, ornamented With vertical lines, speckled with red dots, crowning a marvellous blossoming of tentacles. As to the molluscs, they consisted of some I had already observed--turritellas, olive porphyras, with regular lines intercrossed, with red spots standing out plainly against the flesh; odd pteroceras, like petrified scorpions; translucid hyaleas, argonauts, cuttle-fish (excellent eating), and certain species of calmars that naturalists of antiquity have classed amongst the flying-fish, and that serve principally for bait for cod-fishing. I had now an opportunity of studying several species of fish on these shores. Amongst the cartilaginous ones, petromyzons-pricka, a sort of eel, fifteen inches long, with a greenish head, violet fins, grey-blue back, brown belly, silvered and sown with bright spots, the pupil of the eye encircled with gold--a curious animal, that the current of the Amazon had drawn to the sea, for they inhabit fresh waters--tuberculated streaks, with pointed snouts, and a long loose tail, armed with a long jagged sting; little sharks, a yard long, grey and whitish skin, and several rows of teeth, bent back, that are generally known by the name of pantouffles; vespertilios, a kind of red isosceles triangle, half a yard long, to which pectorals are attached by fleshy prolongations that make them look like bats, but that their horny appendage..."Zzzzzz....
    • 4/5
      Another episodic book full of lists! But I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Moby Dick; the lists in that one were at least about a range of different things, but I can only read so many names of fish species before I start to fall asleep. I did mostly enjoy this one, especially because it's science fiction where the sciences that are fictionalised are like... electric motors and submarine construction. The chapter where they argue about whether electricity is as good as steam was particularly entertaining.The manservant Conseil did start to get on my nerves a bit towards the end, around the "if only I didn't have to breathe to leave more air for Master" section.
    • 2/5
      Good book when I could hear it. Audio quality and volume dropped drastically, to the point I couldn't listen to it if there was any other noise around
    • 1/5
      It was Horrible u shouldnt read it i hated it! it was boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!