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  • Sailing to Sarantium

  • Book One of the Sarantine Mosaic
  • Written by: Guy Gavriel Kay
  • Narrated by: Berny Clark
  • Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (75 ratings)

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Sailing to Sarantium

Written by: Guy Gavriel Kay
Narrated by: Berny Clark
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Publisher's Summary

Crispin is a mosaicist, a layer of bright tiles. Still grieving for the family he lost to the plaque, he lives only for his arcane craft. But an imperial summons from Valerius the Trakesian to Sarantium, the most magnificent place in the world, is difficult to resist.

In a world half-wild and tangled with magic, a journey to Sarantium means a walk into destiny. Bearing with him a deadly secret and a Queen's seductive promise, guarded only by his own wits and a talisman from an alchemist's treasury, Crispin sets out for the fabled city. Along the way he will encounter a great beast from the mythic past, and in robbing the zubir of its prize, he wins a woman's devotion and a man's loyalty - and loses a gift he didn't know he had until it was gone.

Once in this city ruled by intrigue and violence, he must find his own source of power. Struggling to deal with the dangers and seductive lures of the men and woman around him, Crispin does discover it, in a most unusual place - high on the scaffolding of the greatest work of art ever imagined....

©1998 Guy Gavriel Kay (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
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What listeners say about Sailing to Sarantium

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

The lack of narrative breaks and mispronunciation are problems

Another wonderful book from Guy Kay.

My main quibble with an otherwise good performance surrounds the complete lack of pause between narrative breaks. Kay frequently changes scenes within a chapter through the use of a visual break on the page. Other narrators of his works give a noticeable pause at such times to cue the reader.

Here there is no break. If one isn’t very familiar with the book, I suspect the sudden uncued scene changes will be undetected and confusing.

A lesser problem is the occasional mispronounced word. Anyone narrating a work set in this period should know “daemon” is pronounced just like demon, with a long E, not ‘daymon’ and quay is ‘key’ not ‘kway’

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

One of my favourite audiobooks.

This audiobook gets top marks in all categories. My only criticism is that the female voices are too quiet. It's like every woman in the book can only whisper. It gets quite annoy when you have to constantly adjust the volume.

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1 person found this helpful

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

Excellent book, unfortunate narrator

I love this author and own all his books in both audio and print format. The choice of narrator for the Sarantine Mosaic (made up of this book and Lord of Emperors) was unfortunate. He seems unprepared, as if he’s reading the text for the first time and without thought for the story as is develops. The music and rhythm of the prose is lost. Nuance disappears under the repetitive, slightly whiny cadence. Someone also made the irritating decision to pronounce the god “Jad” as “johd” instead of quite simply as it is written.
Such a shame. An engrossing story, expertly crafted, elegantly written, grossly underserved by the presentation.

I wish the publisher would re-record these two books. It would be such relief to hear Simon Vance read the Mosaic instead.

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2 people found this helpful

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

good book bad narrator

The narrator has a decent voice but his rhythm seems really off. book is decent otherwise

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

Excellently crafted story

Fantastic story that is neither too fast paced nor too much of a slow burn. Narrator can seem robotic and unnatural at times.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The narrator is a robot

If you want to listen to this book DONT BUY this version! I couldn’t concentrate on the story as his snide- sounding voice and repetitive intonation ruined this for me.

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1 person found this helpful