The Talisman

By: Sir Walter Scott

Narrated by: Jim Killavey

The Talisman is Sir Walter Scott's tale of the Crusades, a tale of chivalry, of violence, of virtue, romance, and deceit.© and (P) Jimcin Recordings

You need long stretches of time for this book,

First let me say that I did not read the trade revues of the other reading of this book. I am glad that I did not because they lay out the plot in great detail! The book is quite long and at my first attempt at reading I abandoned it after a little more that one hour. The language is very elaborate and florid and there seems to be no discernable plot. Some time latter, faced with a ten hour drive I decided to try again, I am very glad I did. The plot moves very slowly because of the elaborate dialog but it still held my attention with many unexpected twist and turns. You get used to parsing the long and elaborate sentences and they turn out to be quite charming as often it is the characters chastising each other in very polite terms. I also found interesting the portrayal of the European Code of Chivalry with the portrayal of the Code of Honor for the Warrior class in Japan as presented in the Otori Trilogy. I will listen to this book again when I have long stretches of time available, I am sure I missed many important clues in the early part. My ranking went from a one star to a five star.

The Talisman by Walter Scott read by Killevey

I enjoyed both the reading and the book to such an extent that I was disappointed when at the very climax the book skipped a chapter or two and went to the last few pages of the book. It was easy to fill in what had happened, but I would rather have been able to listen to the whole book. There is a serious flaw here and I have reported it and hope the audio book people correct the error.

would have been a good book

What disappointed you about The Talisman?

The recording skips the climatic chapter.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger. The recording skips the climatic chapter.

Any additional comments?

The recording skips the climatic chapter.

Missing chapters

The story skipped from King Richard hearing a minstrel in his camp to a concluding banquet with Conrad dead. Something is missing.