DBS: Oh...ph no no no! Not DOBBY!!!!!! (audio book version)

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

So I was listening to the the audio book while walking home, and as usual, was finding it hard to keep my focus, but then an alien character arrived (I think she said her name was Saturn) and I found her rather interesting, imagining her as some strange, wise creature, very interesting. Then, suddenly, she speaks and...it's Dobby, the annoying house elf from Harry Potter for those who have been living under a rock for many years. By which I mean it is an incredibly irritating and completely unsympathetic voice which makes the alien seem quite stupid and repulsive. Urgh, why? I'd heard lots of criticism for the reader, but, aside from struggling to keep focused on the story, I hadn't had any problem, but this voice! I was completely thrown out of the scene, and lost all the affection that had been building for what I'm quite certain was a really interesting character. Now I'm afraid I may end up lemming my first book from the group, not because of the book, but because of the reader.

Did anyone else have a problem with it? Anyone know if this kind of thing gets better or worse as the book continues? For those actually reading, did the way it was written create that sort of voice in your head, or did you hear it in a more pleasant way?

I'm really really regretting buying the audio.

[Rob, Roberator]

The version of English Satin (and the other Downers) speaks can be a bit tough to read, but I've never been thinking about Dobby. Maybe Jar Jar, but that's only occurred to me now, and not as I was reading it.

[David(LA,CA)]

I'm not sure how saying it's more like Jar Jar is an improvement.

I didn't make the connection between Satin (like her prized bit of red fabric) and Dobby before. I can kind of hear it. All of her species seem to have the same speech pattern, but she's the only one that sounds close to Dobby in my opinion.

[Rob, Roberator]

I didn't mean Jar Jar was better. Just that the way she speaks English reminds me a little of the way he does.

[Paul]

I've found the portrayal of the Downers problematic from the beginning to be honest. I didn't think Dobby but I did think that their simplistic version of English was unfortunately child-like. At first I thought fair enough, as it is a second language to them. But then when they speak with only other Hisa present, so presumably in their own language but rendered in English, it's still fairly simplistic in tone. Which makes me think we're supposed to think of them as fairly limited in intellectual terms. And I suppose there's nothing wrong with that, aliens could just as easily be less intelligent than more, but it just makes me a little uncomfortable.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Dobby/Jar Jar aside, I do actually like the Hisa, just not when they are talking! I'm surprised that they seem annoying even in the print book, because I feel sure my internal voice would do a better job with them, but maybe I'm just thinking that grass looks greener over there when it isn't.

On the plus side, the horrible voice at least makes it very clear who I am following at that moment, so I understand Satin's story better than the most of the characters, and it has kept me interested enough to keep from lemming just yet.

[Christopher]

The audio is killing this book for me. And a print version is more hassle then it's worth for me. To bad an ebook no longer exists. That would have been ideal.

[Sandi]

LatePaul wrote: "I've found the portrayal of the Downers problematic from the beginning to be honest. I didn't think Dobby but I did think that their simplistic version of English was unfortunately child-like. At f..."

I think I see where you're coming from, Paul. I'm very uncomfortable with not only the way the Hisa are portrayed, but also with the way they are treated. At first, I thought of them as like the Fuzzies in Little Fuzzy. You know, cute and fuzzy little sentient beings. However, it soon became apparent that they were being treated more like the Native Americans or the aboriginal peoples of just about any continent during expansionist settlement. They have to learn the human language because the humans can't be bothered to learn theirs. They are brought up to the station to work menial jobs. As far as I can tell, there's no benefit to the Hisa for helping the humans, they're just too childlike to realize they're being taken advantage of. The worst part is that nobody in the story is objecting to this treatment.

Now, I might be able to attribute this depiction of the Hisa to the era if the book had been published before 1970. However, we were much more enlightened by 1982 and I find this portrayal of an aboriginal population as a bit backwards if not completely offensive.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I'm reading this, and they appear to me in my imagination more like skinny ewoks. (Personal too-much-information note: I cried - CRIED - in that scene from Star Wars where the paired ewok couple are running from the bad guys in the woods and one of them falls, then the other shakes the fallen one saying something plaintive like, 'mama?' to the killed ewok.)