• The Palace Job

  • Rogues of the Republic, Book 1
  • By: Patrick Weekes
  • Narrated by: Justine Eyre
  • Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (1,186 ratings)

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The Palace Job  By  cover art

The Palace Job

By: Patrick Weekes
Narrated by: Justine Eyre
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Publisher's summary

Loch is seeking revenge. It would help if she wasn’t in jail. The plan: To steal a priceless elven manuscript that once belonged to her family, but is now in the hands of the most powerful man in the Republic. To do so, Loch - former soldier, former prisoner, and current fugitive - must assemble a crack team of magical misfits that includes a cynical illusionist, a shape shifting unicorn, a repentant death priestess, a talking magical war hammer, and a lad with seemingly no skills. This crack team of misfits will help her break into the floating fortress of Heaven’s Spire and the vault that holds her family’s treasure - all while eluding the unrelenting pursuit of Justicar Pyvic, whose only mission is to see the law upheld. What could possibly go wrong?

©2013 Patrick Weekes (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

What listeners say about The Palace Job

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    518
  • 4 Stars
    376
  • 3 Stars
    188
  • 2 Stars
    74
  • 1 Stars
    30
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    571
  • 4 Stars
    278
  • 3 Stars
    129
  • 2 Stars
    55
  • 1 Stars
    41
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    482
  • 4 Stars
    330
  • 3 Stars
    172
  • 2 Stars
    59
  • 1 Stars
    26

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Awful narration

What would have made The Palace Job better?

A different narrator!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Although Justine Eyre does a decent job on the characters, her narration of the main story is delivered in a whiny, drawling posh English accent that I just can't listen to. I didn't listen to the sample before I purchased, because it perfectly captures the issue I have.

Any additional comments?

Although I gave up shortly into Chapter 1, I had to rate the Story, so I've given it a rating of 4, which is the average of the existing reviews at the time of this one, and won't skew the story rating.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

YOU HAVE GOT TO READ THIS

This is like Leverage except in fantasy land. And it's not even a generic fantasy land! Seriously, Weekes writes for some incredibly popular video games, and while you can see that he went to the shelf and picked up all the necessary stock characters and locales, none of those things remain stock by the time you read them.

The plot has all the depths and twists and turns you expect of a good heist, and the world, characters, and world-rules are detailed and well fleshed out. I've already recommended this book to a good ten people, and I gave it as Christmas presents to several of my friends, all of whom are now raving about how fantastic this is.

The reader, Eyre, does such a great job. I can't even begin to praise her work enough. She really brings this book to life. Characters all have distinct voices, and her choices are absolutely perfect.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well Written Fun...With a few twists along the way

What did you love best about The Palace Job?

A good story brought to life with great narration. I was instantly drawn to the main character and the storyline that actually had a few surprises in it as well

What did you like best about this story?

Well delivered with multiple strands of characters interwoven with enough back story to make it fun and interesting. When the individual characters begin to interact it is like well woven tapestry

Which character – as performed by Justine Eyre – was your favorite?

Actually enjoyed them all. Very well delivered with great personality for all of them. The Death Priestess though....Very interesting.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Lost on Page 1

I was thoroughly confused while listening to this book. Was I not following approved listening procedures? Did I skip the instructions? Were there too many characters? Was the narrator too clever with her accents? If there was a quiz after the book ended, Audible would be emailing me a big fat “F” and contacting my parents.

To be fair, the narrator was enthusiastic and parts of the book had me biting my nails.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Some nice twists but overly "busy"

There is so much going on in The Palace Job that you definitely don't get bored, but you also don't have much chance to really get to know the characters and the plot gets muddy and confusing at times. This is a fantasy con story like Ocean's 11 or The Sting set in a world of wizards and unicorns. Weekes has a real talent for being able to "twist" a story - sometimes quite delightfully - and he sketches out characters that are easy to like and root for. But, he keeps the reader so in the dark that it is hard to understand the action at times and there is insufficient backstory to truly fall in love with the characters. Justine Eyre has an amazing voice - the timbre is lovely and perfectly suited to a fantasy story. But I found her difficult to understand. Her enunciation is not really precise and combined with her pronounced accent, I had a tough time understanding her when there was any other background noise (like the car or the washing machine). She does do really nice character voices and I would have rated her higher except that I had to rewind so often because I didn't catch what she said.

I liked The Palace Job enough to read the sequel (The Prophecy Con), but my feeling about the second book was about the same. I found both books to be entertaining enough that they were worth the price, but far from the best fantasy I've read. I will keep an eye on Patrick Weekes - I think the talent is there and experience might make him a pretty great fantasy author.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow! What a book! Great Fun & Amazing Characters!

A con job, swindle, & revenge story... A fast paced adventure with strong characters and a lot of twist and turns!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fun Fantasy Heist in a Well Thought-out World

Would you listen to The Palace Job again? Why?

I might listen to this again, and I might actually read the book as well in addition to listening to it. Partly because I'm sure I missed some things the first time through, but as much because I really enjoyed the story and would love to revisit the characters.

What did you like best about this story?

The characters did feel a little like they were pulled out of stock character classes from a role-playing game (which isn't necessarily a bad thing as far as I'm concerned), but they were very nicely filled out with a back story and personality, so they didn't actually feel like stock characters. I really liked them by the end of the story, and would love to read about their continuing or prior adventures.

In addition to the characters, I was very impressed with the richness of the world. It was well thought out, had lots of layers and history, and plenty of room to explore more, while not simply being a typical Tolkien-derived fantasy world. It was also quite modern in some ways, which allowed for creative things like puppet show 'newscasts.' I would really like to read more stories form this world -- with the same or different characters.

The writing was quite witty -- a few laugh out loud moments, but a lot of chuckles and smiles. The fight sequences were well written.

Have you listened to any of Justine Eyre’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

First time listening to her. She did a good job -- the voices were reasonably distinct and I usually didn't have any trouble identifying characters.

There were times when the accents were a bit much and the story was complex enough that I had trouble following along (which is more the author than the narrator) -- thus the drop to 4 stars -- but I'd definitely be willing to listen to her read another book.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There were some heart-tugging moments, but I'll leave those spoilers out of the review. On the whole though, this is a pretty light and fun book (although not without dark parts) -- the heroes get into trouble and it's mostly a question of how they'll get out of it (this is not a George R. R. Martin Game of Thrones story where characters get killed with wild abandon).

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book. If Patrick Weekes writes more in this world, I'll definitely pick it up.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly good!

What made the experience of listening to The Palace Job the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed the light, tongue and cheek humor and the twists in the story. I read a lot of fantasy as a teen and this book brings back some of the fun, with a bit of sly irreverence to standard fantasy elements.

What did you like best about this story?

I really enjoyed the dialog between the characters and the humorous comebacks.

What about Justine Eyre’s performance did you like?

At first I found the narrators voice a little difficult to follow, but within a few minutes, I found myself immersed in the story, narrator forgotten.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The ultimate fantasy heist? A unicorn, tinkerer, magician and two thieves? I am not great at tag lines, but it's a great heist adventure I couldn't stop listening to!

Any additional comments?

I was looking for something light, funny and magical ( since I was feeling like the world was rather bleak at that moment) and this fit the bill perfectly. I enjoyed the performance and story immensely.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 09-06-16

Couldn't make myself finish

I hate when authors feel to make up a world they have to make up words for items and then they don't explain what they're talking about.
Also narrators who shift scenes but give no pause in the narration. By the time you figure whose talking you've lost the thread of the story.
Since the story was so hard to follow I lost all interest in caring about the characters

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Better read than listen.

What disappointed you about The Palace Job?

The story line was good but the narration was so bad, to the point of absurdity, I tried to listen but couldn't finish the book. This is the worst I have ever heard. I think the book would be good to read but the audible version is not worth spending you credit or money on.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Sounded like the narrator had a something in her mouth and was unable to pronounciate because of it.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I think that the writer could do well if the narrator was changed.

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4 people found this helpful