The Trouble with Kings

By: Sherwood Smith

Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

"With music you can tell the truth about human experience." In this romantic fantasy set in the same world as Crown Duel, Flian is an ordinary princess who would rather be left with her music but gets abducted not once, not twice - three times. What is a civilized princess to do? Especially when she can't tell which prince is the hero and which the villain!

©2008 Sherwood Smith (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Wonderful story, but omg the accents

I love this story and found it after revisiting a childhood favorite: Crown Duel. It’s a very satisfying listen, but oh my god....the ‘Russian’ accents are absolutely excruciating. It was difficult to persevere to finish such a great story without grating my teeth.

A wonderful story of finding yourself

Loved this story! A wonderful story of learning who you are and what you’re capable of!! The narrator isn’t the best, but you do get use to the voice fairly quickly into it! I definitely recommend!

ASMR?

the narrator seemed to think she was performing an ASMR session the whole time. she whispered THE WHOLE TIME! And gave one character an impossible to understand lisp. Why? I love the story, and I love the author. Sherwood Smith is my favorite, unapologetic, and perhaps unintentional, feminist fantasy author!

Not fond of the Narrator

How could the performance have been better?

It's like the narrator is whispering to you the story. When action arises, there is no excitement but stays dull and unaffected. Disappointing!

Any additional comments?

Book is a really fun read but narration isn't the best. :(A fan of Smith but not of this narration.

Great story, annoying voices

I really liked the story at first, then got a bit confused but back into it. However, the narrator drove me crazy. her whisper narration voice was hard to hear at times. the main character's voice was okay but most of the others were grating. Jewel's voice was particularly annoying, as were Alejandra's and Gillion's. I have to wonder how much more I would have liked the story without those grating voices.

A Travesty Of Narration

I love this story. I was going to purchase the Audible so I could listen again and again. But the narrator was deplorable. She seems to think she can do accents. 8 different characters including the hero were given what I assume was supposed to be a Russian accent. They sounded as if they all had cancer of the throat or at least strep throat. It sounded as if they had trouble pushing words out of their mouths.Her men's voices were particularly bad. And the few characters with a "French " accent were just as poorly represented. It was so painful to listen to. She ruined one of my favorite books. Dreadful.

TERRIBLE narration - GREAT book

I loved the story but almost had to stop because my volume didn't go any higher and I couldn't hear what was being said. The main character whispered the whole time, and all the male voices were like nails on chalkboard. The female voices were so accented that I couldn't understand some of them.

Sherwood Smith's writing saved the day from really awful narration.

Avoid the audio version of this wonderful book

What can I say? I wanted to revisit this fantasy world from my youth but was stopped by a voice actress who apparently never read the book. Why else did she change the bubbly heroine with the beautiful crystal singing voice into a whispering, lisping introvert; mistreating Jason and his sister in the process with weird slavonic accents although they're supposed to live in a nordic kingdom. In short: stick with the book.