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Pilot Error cover art

Pilot Error

By: David Spiller
Narrated by: Anthony Caprio
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Summary

It is 1964, and Chris Nash is 20. His mother is married to Reg, whom Chris thinks is his father. He is, therefore, astonished when she tells him that his real father was a pilot, John Gregson, killed during the Second World War in an accident training Australian air crews. Chris sets out to discover more about the little-known incident. He tracks down his father's only living relative, and visits the site of the crash, near a small church in Bedfordshire.

In flashback, we see what happened to Gregson during the three days before the accident. He conducted his last bombing flight over Germany, and was seduced by an actress named Sarah. He visited his fiancée (Chris' mother), who broke off their engagement; unknown to him she was pregnant with Chris.

To commemorate the airmen who died in the crash, Chris organizes a memorial stone in the Bedfordshire churchyard, and a church service. To his amazement, a surprise guest turns up: an Australian who was the one survivor.

In talking to local people who were involved in the accident, and to his father's former engineer, Chris comes to believe there were seven airmen on the plane, not six as previously believed. And when he locates Sarah, the actress who seduced his father 20 years earlier, she tells him something that plays havoc with the lives of his whole family.

©2011 David Spiller (P)2015 David Spiller

What listeners say about Pilot Error

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narration - AWFUL

Quite a good story based on a true WW2 incident. The “twist” was pretty predictable but didn’t detract from the book. Downside was the terrible narration - easily the worst I have heard on any Audible offering. Since the entire story and all participants (bar one Australian) are British it seems strange to choose a North American to narrate. We can live with that but the clumsy reading, appalling mispronunciation and inability to appreciate sentence structure in its reading hugely detracted from the book. Not recommended for this reason - sorry!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

pilot error

a good listen I enjoyed the story
but the narrator was bloody awful, I'm afraid
no inflection to his voice at all, and frequently stumbled on paragraphs,

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars

Truly dreadful narration

Gave up after two chapters, could not very past the awful emotionless narration. No idea what Audible were thinking about getting an American to narrate an English novel.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent story

What did you like most about Pilot Error?

I really enjoyed the story and thought the pace of the book worked really well

What was one of the most memorable moments of Pilot Error?

His exploits in Ireland

What aspect of Anthony Caprio’s performance might you have changed?

His accents were at times comical but I didn't mind it - In fact it kind of added to the experience a bit

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Disapointing

Reasonable story but let down by poor naration and production.
Just not good enough.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration

I have up due to awful narration. American trying to do sound English & failing miserably

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Shockingly bad Performance .

The concept of the story attracted me so I thought I’d give this a go. From the start the choice of narrator was wrong, on so many levels. Poor performance, poor narration, poor editing and poor production all contrive to ruin the experience, if I could I would give this production a minus on performance.

This is the first audio book I’ve stopped listening to and removed from my library. Total waste of money.

Shame on Audible for hosting this and making it available. As a veteran audiobook listener I expect a higher quality of product to be available on Audible and this production has shaken my confidence in what’s being selected by Audible to host and ultimately sell.

Take my advice. Save your money unless you like listening to junior school level acting from an American who can’t pronounce English place names all within the backdrop of shameful production and editing.

In short, I didn’t get on with it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Nice story shame about the narration

The audio book version is awful beyond belief to any native English speaking listener. Whatever possessed the publishers to hire an American/Canadian God only knows what speaker to narrate this very English story. The utter car crash of his mispronunciation of even simple words became in the end comic. Had the narrator just read the story in his own voice it wouldn't have been so bad but the abysmally bad attempts at accent are unforgivable. If I was the author of this book I would be heartbroken. It spoils what is actually a rather well told tale. Be sure not to have a hot drink in your hand when the main character visits Ireland. The attempted accent is indescribable. The aviation detail was well researched enough to wash over this ex RAF pedant without pain. If you have the choice read the printed version yourself.

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