The Bright Messenger

Julian LeVallon, born and raised alone in the Jura Mountains, is referred to psychiatrist Dr. Edward Fillery for care in London. But is LeVallon merely a schizophrenic with a secondary personality, "N.H." (non-human), or is he really an Elemental Being, a "bright messenger" who brings, perhaps, a new age of human evolution? And if so, is the human race ready for a major step forward? [Summary by Mark Nelson] (14 hr 50 min)

Chapters

Chapter 1	16:15	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 2	14:48	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 3	9:17	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 4	23:33	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 5	34:20	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 6	51:43	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 7	28:53	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 8	5:38	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 9	54:19	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 10	33:21	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 11	26:28	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 12	1:04:42	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 13	28:35	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 14	36:10	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 15	22:40	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 16	21:07	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 17	33:33	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 18	22:03	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 19	28:27	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 20	39:49	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 21	45:49	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 22	32:36	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 23	56:03	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 24	39:10	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 25	41:29	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 26	51:25	Read by Mark Nelson
Chapter 27	28:42	Read by Mark Nelson

Reviews

tremendously tedious, despite good narration

(1.5 stars)

quo vadis?

The pacing is a huge stumbling block, hooking you with enigma and substance at the beginning of the story before throwing the brakes and glacially grinding through countless subsequent dry, repetitive, and even for Blackwood heavy handed emanations lesser in their form than when they first appeared. Full disclosure, I gave it up around 7 hours, but were it a physical tome which placed the burden of reading on me rather than the quality narrator enjoyed by this upload, i would have dropped it after one.

Not bad but...

(1.5 stars)

Ewan

The reading by Mark Nelson is brilliant as always. The book itself is interesting but it does waffle a bit. The author definitely preferred to use 50 words in many cases where 4 would do. This did tend to make me lose interest in parts. Is it worth a listen? For me it was hard work....the whole book was 10 chapters crammed into 27.

(3 stars)

Bill

First of all i like The author and Love Mark Nelson (would rate Mark's reading at a 5 but dont want to mislead about the book). At first i wanted to disagree with the other reviews but after about 1/2 way in i was struggling to even be interested. The story started well and the storyline was interesting. But, then it then gets bogged down with a lot of un neccessary "dialogue" that feels disjointed and distracted from the story. The author may have intended parts to be boring like reading a medical report, if so he nailed it. It sort of felt like someone else had written the latter portion after a quick reading of the first part.

Hard going

(1 stars)

Akku

The book starts well enough, then becomes very interesting. for the first 4 chapters or so I felt other reviewers may have been mistaken. but then things go awry. I'm not sure if the book is philosophical, religious or an exploration of the authors thoughts on psychoanalysis, but it seems to be all three and that's an unhappy mix. its also laced with endless moralising which is turgid and annoying as is the dreadful depictions of women (either mothers or whores) and the occasional barb at foreigners and those born out of wedlock. these were doubtless the standards of the Time when the book was written but compounded by the wandering and nonsensical narrative. Then there is a large portion devoted to describing what I can only assume to be an acid trip. the best bit of the whole book is where a character is referred to as listening in the manner of someone who doesn't care about it but just wants it to end and I felt seen.

Too "wordy"

(2 stars)

W. M. Pienton

I like Algernon blackwood. I don't like this book. it is slow, boring, and repeats itself several times, telling the same event over and over from different points of view. It picks up toward the end, kind of reminding me of the movie K-PAX.

love it

(5 stars)

rachael jensen

I enjoyed the premise of the story and the character nh. to the listener who has a problem with it not paying heed to their religion... it's a story, enjoy it for what it is, not meant to be a bible.

Very unusual

(4.5 stars)

Sherie Black

I enjoyed this story but I found it rather drawn out at times. There were some parts I was a little confused. Mark's fantastic reading made it all worthwhile.

Interesting premise.