JACK

By: Al Lamanda

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Jack is a little boy with a big secret. He’s a true telekinetic. Guarded by the US Secret Service round the clock, Jack lives alone with his mother Jennifer in a secret location known only to a few. So it was thought. A leak puts Jack and Jennifer, in grave danger, and aided by Secret Service Agent Ryan Dunn, they are forced to flee and go into hiding. With unknown killers stalking their every move, Dunn is willing to risk his life to save Jack and his mother, but Jack has other ideas. This is a page turner with an ending that will shock you and leave you breathless.

Gawdafle narrator

I liked the story. The ending really was a twist. That’s what kept me going.

The computer generated narrator was beneath Audible standards. The voice was really just reading. Some of the inflections were wrong. I’m somewhat of a grammar police kind of person, so when the wrong words are used or the pronunciation is wrong, it’s like someone running their fingernails down a blackboard with no prior warning. Jerks me straight up.

Sooooooo much mispronunciation going on in this book and not even over big words. Some of it had to be from bad input, others just from misunderstandings. I can see how the word limo might be pronounced “leemo”, but didn’t they have someone listen to it before releasing it?? And some of it was from spelling errors. Ever heard of spellcheck? If you spell it wrong, you can’t blame the computer for pronouncing it that way.

Again, I enjoyed the story. But making it through the whole thing was work; like reading a chemistry textbook. I read books for enjoyment/relaxation, not work.

The virtual narration does not work

The story was pretty good and engaging, but the narration was horrible. My interactions with Alexa have more emotional range. Not only was the voice monotonous, but the pronunciation was way off in some cases (dell-eye for deli and inferred for infrared for example). The intonation and emphasis were bad, too, so you had to think about what was meant rather than what was said. Please spring for a human narrator next time.