Wolf on a String
A Novel
گزارش تخلف
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
Starred review from April 24, 2017
Black (The Black-Eyed Blonde) displays his mastery of yet another mystery subgenre in this brooding, atmospheric whodunit set in 16th-century Prague. Christian Stern, the bastard son of the Prince-Bishop of Regensburg, has arrived in that city in the hopes of winning the favor of Rudolf II, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, and obtaining a place among the court’s learned men, such as Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. The first night he spends in Prague, Stern finds Magdalena Kroll—the teenage daughter of Dr. Ulrich Kroll, Rudolf’s physician and “one of his chief wizards”—lying in a snowy street with her throat slit. Initially a suspect, Stern soon becomes the emperor’s designated investigator. In order to discover the truth behind the murder, he must navigate a realm in which no one can be fully trusted. Superior prose (Magdalena’s head rests in a pool of blood, a “black round in which the faint radiance of the heavens faintly glinted”) complements the intricate plot. Black is the pen name of Man Booker Prize–winner John Banville. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Literary Agency (U.K.).
Narrator Simon Vance brings intrigue and depth to Black's historical novel. Vance does well in building the identity of the protagonist who tells the story, a young scholar in the sixteenth century specialising in alchemy who chances upon a dead body. Overall, Vance makes strong work of an audiobook that, at times, is difficult to invigorate. His narration lends a consistently venerable and contemplative tone, for the most part injecting life into passages that are heavy on the historical and light on the fiction. While Vance's voice sounds slightly older than that of the character he's portraying, it adds a tone of authority, from which the story greatly benefits, and momentum, without which this audiobook would make for stodgy listening. Z.S. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
دیدگاه کاربران