Feast of the Drowned

Review: does the audio book version sink or swim?

Harry, Jack and Michael from Patcham High School, Brighton have been listening to The Feast of the Drowned on CD.

The students are drawn from an English class where reading issues such as dyslexia and dyspraxia are addressed - they're bright and keen readers, but really enjoy listening to audiobooks, especially when the book is so fast-paced.

Listen to an extract.

Here's what the kids made of it:

Harry: I didn't know that David Tennant was Scottish.

Jack: I didn't know... on TV he sounds English.

Michael: It's quite clever. He does the narrator in his Scottish voice and when he does the Doctor it's in English. It's clever.

Harry: He does a Mickey voice, too.

Michael: He does Rose...

Jack: He does a posh voice like Giles from Buffy.

Michael: When something bad happens David Tennant needs to slow down.

Harry: Well it's like he does in the tv series... but you're not watching it, so it can be more confusing.

Jack: It's a really cool story.

Michael: He's talking about the how the boat sank and then he's talking about the strange things in the water. Like Rose sees body images that turn into water.

Harry: Strange and interesting - like Iceman from the X-Men.

Michael: It was eerie when something strange and mysterious happened. Like when at the end of CD one Rose was asking for help in a weird like voice.

Harry: I found it hard to picture. I saw a dark room - just a square - full of disgusting water stuff. I thought it was set in the olden times because it was talking about a boat in the sea with men on with spices. Then they came to London with stuff like the newsagents...

Jack: Hi-tech stuff like mobile phones, machine guns... It was weird listening to it rather than watching it. It was better than reading the book because you can pause it. When you're listening to the CD you go into the place like you're the Doctor. It's quite good.

Harry: The books though you can read at your own pace and stop where you want. I'd listen to another one if David Tennant slows down...

Jack: I'd listen to another one if there were sketches or pictures in it.

Harry: After each track there could be a picture to make it more exciting.

Michael: I did enjoy listening to it.

Harry: They should get the actual actor to do the actual voice... like Noel Clarke does Mickey...

Jack: I think he was good and brilliant.

Michael: It's quite good with the actual Doctor. In the last CDs they had a narrator but now it's the actual Doctor.

Harry: Put this story on TV...

Michael: They'd have to shorten it down... or put it into parts like Genesis of the Daleks.

Harry: Rose would have to come back!

Thanks to Harry, Michael and Jack, and their teacher Rowlie Darby.