Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

Jul 2020 · Google Play Public Domain · AI-narrated by Archie (from Google)

About this audiobook

Written in 1726, this adventure story describes the mishaps of Lemeul Gulliver, a surgeon who sets out on voyages that introduce him to unbelievable places and people. He faces danger and narrowly escapes absurd and humorous situations. The story was intended as a satire of human nature and the travellers' tales literary sub-genre.

Ratings and reviews

The robot voice is awful. It is also a triumph at the same time! it takes a trained actor or voice-over artists to do justice to this text. The cadence and the use of commas for asides rather than pauses, mean that the robot does a very bad job of conveying the story. It takes almost as much concentration to get past the impenetrable meter and rhyme of 'Archie' as it does to understand the 18th century English. The fact of a AI voice can make such a good stab at trying to read this is testament to the brilliance of the Google AI researchers. I can understand why they wanted this recording to exist, but I would counsel them to be less ambitious next time. Bravo and boo!

VERY FEW books have I ever actually quit because I could no longer endure something I found so agonizing it overrode any enjoyment the book had to offer. This was disheartening to me since I really enjoyed the book when I was younger. I don't know if it was the way it was read to me, my imagination, or a different version perhaps. This time each time all I kept thinking was, "Did that really add to the book in any way?" or "Man does this sound like Charlie Brown's teacher!" I have no interest in finishing the last 40% of the book nor do I recommend at least this version.

It is always good to read the classics. This was a story I really enjoyed as a child visually so I thought I'd enjoy the book more than I did. the narrations just fun, the writing itself is bland.