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Sea of Poppies

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Sea of Poppies

By: Amitav Ghosh
Narrated by: Kish Sharma
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About this listen

At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an old slaving-ship, The Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its crew a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.

In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a truly diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt Raja to a widowed villager, from an evangelical English opium trader to a mulatto American freedman. As their old family ties are washed away they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races and generations.

The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of China. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, which makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive - a masterpiece from one of the world's finest novelists.

©2008 Amitav Ghosh (P)2009 Isis Publishing Ltd Fantasy Historical Fiction Destiny Sailing

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Kish Sharma takes a little while to get accustomed to but does a very fine job.

The author took a great canvas of time, place and detail but ended up with all the improbability of a Bollywood script.

Great narration of a Bollywood story.

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I was wondering if I could make it through this book. The narrator was galloping and I wasn’t catching names etc. I saw others had mentioned this in reviews. But then I found the speed setting for the replay. Set at 0.75 it slowed down sufficiently to not slur, and give me the detail and time to absorb comfortably. Huge difference. Great book....

Use the replay speed facility

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Totally engrossing story beautifully read. It’s a long book but I could have listened all over again. My only complaint is that each of the books in the trilogy are narrated by different readers. The voices of the characters have been lodged in my head now and just can’t bring myself to listen to new ones, so have decided to buy the next two books instead.

I’m hooked

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This is a really original and different story, about a time and a place that most of us know little of. It is outstandingly well narrated by Kish Sharma, who gives each character a unique and entirely convincing voice.

Great story, exotic location

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I really liked the background and history to the poppy trade.
I also enjoyed the way the story unfolded, the connections were made and characters were brought together.
It seemed to end a bit abruptly but from the threads throughout the story we know it all comes together. Great book!

Loved this book

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Once again, Ghosh grips you from the very first word of the very first page and doesn’t let you go. The pace of the book is slow and languid. The different subplots flow down like tributaries into the main plot (the Ganga) until it reaches the ocean and readies for the next part of the trilogy (it ends abruptly on a cliff hanger and wants you to take up the next book of the trilogy straight away).
Found Kish Sharma’s pronunciation of Indian words jarring. If you can do an American and a French accent surely you could try and pronounce Indian words better: especially the voiced consonants like Dh or Bh. But the book is teeming with different accents and languages (Avdhi, Bengali, Urdu) which would have tested anyone. I think someone like Naseeruddin Shah or Kabir Bedi would have done it justice (although I think the latter is no more).

Slow and steady like the flow of the Ganga

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Great story well read. Is the next book available? I would like the same narrator.

Good read

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This is an absolutely cracking read, a story so vivid and sublime, I lived through the sailings, the islands, the laskars and everything unique about this period of the East India Company, indentured Indian coolies, opium trade with China and a lot more.
Unfortunately it is narrated extremely poorly. Kish Sharma absolutely gallops away and at time it’s a blur of slurred words. I had to listen at x0.8 to be able to understand anything. I suppose the reasons to select Krish Sharma could have been his Indian decent, but this doesn’t work at all. I speak the language well and it’s jarring to hear such poor accent and incorrect use of the words. Given that the book is full of Hindustani, Bhojpuri and Urdu this means a lot of words are painfully incorrectly pronounced.
I absolutely love the story and will definitely be downloading the next books. I am just extremely glad that the next book is read by a different narrator.

A brilliant book....ruined by the narration

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I thought this excellent tale was well read (if a little fast - 0.9 speed sorted that out). Have dived right into part 2!

Epic tale

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Would you listen to Sea of Poppies again? Why?

I never listen to a book twice.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I loved this book, but I wonder if the narrator got a bonus for reading at twice the normal rate. I am glad to see that the second part of the trilogy is narrated by a different narrator.

Loved the book

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