Heartless
Series: Parasol Protectorate, Book 4
By: Gail Carriger / Narrated By: Emily Gray
Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
Four down, One to go? Say it ain’t so, cuz this book is to die for!!!
Ya know? Have y’all been privy to any of my earlier reviews of the AWEsome “Parasol Protectorate” series? Cuz I do believe I shall start this review of Book 4, Heartless, by hearkening back to the only ding I had in Book 3. And that was a sliiiiiight muddling of the narration, and a question about the audio production. You see, the thing is that author Gail Carriger is vaaaastly creative and peoples her stories with ooooodles of diverse characters (Think: Werewolves, Vampires, Preternaturals, etc.) of many diverse places (Think: English, Scottish, French, Italian, etc.). And in Book 3, narrator Emily Gray rather twitched it up just a weeee bit by mixing up all the accents when all hit the fan in an action scene. Further, there were long production pauses in the recording that had me thinking Audible’s latest update had the app crashing cuz there was no sound for, like, forever.
I’d hoped it was a One Off… And it WAS!
So I’m going to go straight into how unbelievably fanTAStic narrator Emily Gray is as THE Voice Actor of the YEAR when it comes to delivering Carriger’s creation of the indomitable Lady Maccon, Alexia, as she gets into all sorts of scrapes in her work as muhjah for Queen Victoria. NATURALLY there are Action Scenes Galore, and Gray does rapid-fire dialogue between characters of All Ilks with nary a misstep to be found. Her performance is lively, and Big Sis posited that only Gray could EVER be Lord Maccon. Her voice for such a prickly, loving, Werewolf is to die for. Ditto that for Alexia as she finds herself battling massive Steampunk-y creations hellbent on DESTRUCTION, only to come through the Chaos of Action with thoughtful decisions. Or not so thoughtful, this IS Alexia after all…!
What to tell ya about the story without giving anything away? A wispy ghost, heading rapidly towards her Second Death appears with DIRE warnings: There’s a plot afoot to assassinate the Queen, and as muhjah to the Queen, Alexia is ON IT posthaste. Turns out, there was a failed plot in the past, so Alexia starts stirring up things she’s suddenly cautioned, most earnestly, NOT to. That’s never stopped her in the past, and so there are many revelations as the story progresses.
BEST of all is the further development of much-loved characters. Professor Lyall is fleshed-out in a rather heartbreaking scene, and Biffy is NOT doing well as he tries to survive becoming a part of the Woolsey Pack O’ Werewolves.
Now ALL of this is undertaken as Alexia waddles along, eight months knocked up. The Infant Inconvenient kicks and wriggles A LOT whilst our Heroine Most-Extraordinaire fights evil plots, bad*ss inventions, and tries to cease all Vampire attacks on her impregnated person, allowing Lord Akeldama to adopt her babe once born. And trust me when I say that for all this, Carriger’s writing is hiLARious! How MANY times can Alexia fall on her bustle, and how LONG can her sooo-abused bustle hold up?!?
PHEW! for no production glitches, and HUZZAH for pitch perfection narration. DeLIGHTful story-crafting, wonderful writing. Heartless was juuuuuust what I needed after doing some Heavy Listening!
But Four Down, One To Go?
Booooo! and Waaaaaahhh!!!
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