I love the book greatly; it's just the right mix of Neil Gaiman's acerbic wit and Terry Pratchett's endless imagination, and the story is brilliantly told via the written word. I also love the TV series, which of course shares several members of the cast with this audiobook. So you're expecting me to say that I love this too as it has the best of both worlds.

I don't deny that that is true; having the characters brought to life by familiar voices is amazing at helping you picture the scenes in your head, and the animated and 'active' voice of the narrator, Rebecca Front, makes this a very easy, very enjoyable listen. It makes every aspect of the writing jump out, so you get to enjoy the little comedy asides and the more serious, darker tones in such a vivid way. And I'm never going to turn down anything that lets me enjoy David Tennant's voice...

However, there are a couple of things that don't quite hit the mark with the audio version. Firstly, where there are multiple scenes happening simultaneously, in the book it's quite easy to follow the jumps by way of paragraph and page breaks, but where there are no visual cues in the audiobook it is quite disconcerting jumping between multiple events, particularly as the story progresses and the pace increases within each strand of the story. I initially wondered whether they could have used more musical cues to indicate a change in perspective (rather than just a slightky extended pause), but I'm not sure that would work, again due to the pacing. Even though it's not impossible to follow, I can imagine it'd be very difficult for a person using the audiobook as their first foray into the story.

On a similar note, it struck me when listening that, overall, there's not a huge amount of dialogue throughout the story, so the various actors' roles are quite restricted. And they only voice direct speech - any thoughts or internal monologues are voiced by the narrator, which to me seemed like an odd choice. So while I am incredibly grateful that this audio version exists so I can have more of the DT/MS bromance in my life, it does seem like perhaps a bit of a wasted opportunity? I'm not suggesting that this version should have been more reflective of the TV series rather than the book, but instead that perhaps these amazing actors could have been utilised more thoroughly to both bring the characters to life in a more complete way and to help the audience pin down the narrative a bit more clearly.

Definitely don't regret this purchase, but next time I think I'll use it as an aid to relaxation in tandem with the book so I can be sure where I am.