Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection

******* SORT OUT THE NAVIGATION ***********

Bought this today as have read so many good reports. Astonished that there is no accompanying PDF to navigate through the content. This is exceptionally poor and already detracting form what I hope will be a great journey. FWIW I found the following on Reddit (with the caveat that this refers to the US store, which is surely the same) Here's a copy/paste from a review somebody left in the US Store that has a breakdown of the chapters. Perhaps it's a similar breakdown as to how the files are separated in the UK? Note: "Chapter" refers to the audible "chapters" button, not to Stephen Fry saying "chapter 1, chapter 2, etc). Sherlock Holmes Audible Part/Chapter Guide: Part One: Chapter 1: Foreword to A Study in Scarlet Chapters 2-15: A Study in Scarlet Chapters 16-28: The Sign of Four Part Two: Chapter 1: Foreword to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Chapters 2-4: A Scandal in Bohemia Chapter 5: The Adventure of The Red-Headed League Chapter 6: A Case of Identity Chapter 7: The Boscombe Valley Mystery Chapter 8: The Five Orange Pips Chapter 9: The Man with the Twisted Lip Chapter 10: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle Chapter 11: The Adventure of the Speckled Band Chapter 12: The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb Chapter 13: The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor Chapter 14: The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet Chapter 15: The Adventure of the Copper Beeches Part Three: Chapter 1: Foreword to The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Chapter 2: Silver Blaze Chapter 3: The Adventure of the Cardboard Box Chapter 4: The Adventure of the Yellow Face Chapter 5: The Adventure of the The Stock-Broker's Clerk Chapter 6: The Adventure of “The Gloria Scott” Chapter 7: The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual Chapter 8: The Adventure of the Reigate Squire Chapter 9: The Adventure of the Crooked Man Chapter 10: The Adventure of the Resident Patient Chapter 11: The Adventure of the Greek Interpretor Chapter 12: The Adventure of the Naval Treaty Chapter 13: The Final Problem Part Four: Foreword to The Hound of the Baskervilles Chapters 2-16: The Hound of the Baskervilles Chapter 17: Foreword to The Return of Sherlock Holmes Chapter 18: The Adventure of the Empty House Chapter 19: The Adventure of the Norwood Builder Chapter 20: The Adventure of the Dancing Men Chapter 21: The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist Chapter 22: The Adventure of the Priory School Part Five: Chapter 1: The Adventure of Black Peter (Continuation of The Return of Sherlock Holmes stories) Chapter 2: The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton Chapter 3: The Adventure of the Six Napoleons Chapter 4: The Adventure of the Three Students Chapter 5: The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez Chapter 6: The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter Chapter 7: The Adventure of the Abbey Grange Chapter 8: The Adventure of the Second Stain Foreword to The Valley of Fear Chapters 10-16: The Valley of Fear Part 1 Part Six: Chapters 1-7: The Valley of Fear Part 2 Chapter 8: The Valley of Fear Epilogue Chapter 9: Foreword to His Last Bow Chapter 10: Preface to His Last Bow Chapter 11: The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge–The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles Chapter 12: The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge–The Tiger of San Pedro Chapter 13: The Adventure of the Red Circle Chapter 14: The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans Chapter 15: The Adventure of the Dying Detective Chapter 16: The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax Chapter 17: The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot

Brilliant audio book, shame about the navigation.

Sherlock Holmes has deserved an audiobook of this standard for a long time. Fry's narration is superb, his skills as an actor giving depth to all of the different characters that crop up in Conan Doyle's work. It's just such a shame that Audible don't seem to be able to divide the various books and parts that make up this epic book in a sensible way. The first part, consisting of 21 chapters, contains all of A Study in Scarlet, but only half of The Sign of Four. Why not just bundle both books into the first part, or have them in their own separate parts? It makes navigation very confusing, and the lack of a viewable guide in the audible app makes navigation extremely annoying. To find a favourite story, you either have to adopt a tiring method of trial and error, or look up the chapter divisions on the website. It's a shame that something so avoidable has let down what will become the definitive narration of Conan Doyle's masterpiece.

Update: Audible have created and sent out a brilliant chapter guide to accompany this audition, so it is now much easier to navigate. Thank you audible.

Irritating beyond belief

I love this collection of stories. But the badly curated and non titled chapters makes it so irritating to listen to. Sort it out Audible...

Dreadful organization of stories

Is there anything you would change about this book?

There is no way to see the order of the books, no chapter headings, no named books...it seems to be a start at the beginning and go all the way through..The book is divided into 9 parts, fair enough...it's a lot to download at one time, but the order is impossible to follow...for example Section 3, Chapter 3 was Silver Blaze Chapter 13 is the adventure of the Naval Treaty Chapter 19 is called Chapter 4 of Hound of the Baskervilles Chapter 7 of Hound of the baskervilles is the first part of section 4....and so it goes on

Location Location Location....

Love Stephen Frys narration
Loved the books for 50 years
Very good marketing by Audible, I bought it immediately and listened to Mr Frys introductions. He rightly points out that you can start anywhere but this isn't quite the case with the audiobook version. Whilst there is a chapter list on the website and on each download part the chapter numbers restart with each volume so the chapter numbers don't correlate. Also chapter numbers don't assist in finding a particular or favourite story. This is a terrible weakness for any compilation so I'd request audible to give it some thought and come up with a PDF file at leat to assist in. Avocation

Annoyance about chapters

It was annoying that the chapters did not have titles so that you could not remember which chapter and story you had heard and so did not know where to pick up from later. I had to keep starting each chapter one after another to find out if I had already heard it. Even then if I had stopped listening part way through a chapter just listening to the beginning of a chapter would mislead me into thinking that I had heard the whole of the chapter. This was made worse since the audible voice gave chapter numbers which did not correlate with the numbers listed on the chapter page. If you have any ideas about how to overcome this I would be happy to hear of them. This interrupted any enjoyment of Stephen Fry’s ability to use his voice convincingly to represent each of the many characters in the book. He was so good that if you did not know it was him you may not have known it was him. Lilliana

Layout is an issue

Any additional comments?

This would have been an undoubtable 5-star review. Sherlock Holmes read by Stephen Fry - of course - 5 star! However it is very difficult to navigate to individual books let alone stories and practically impossible on Alexa.

Excellent

I’m bereft now it’s finished. Can’t recommend it highly enough. Stephen Fry is a marvel!

Over 70 hours of pure brilliance.

Would you consider the audio edition of Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection to be better than the print version?

100%. Stephen Fry brings such love to the writings.

What other book might you compare Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection to, and why?

No other

Which character – as performed by Stephen Fry – was your favourite?

The works. You cannot pick a winner here.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

If you are reading this you are already interested in the writings of SACD. Let me tell you now, when you listen to this you will be truly blown away. The story telling genius of Mr Fry excels anything you have heard before and he raises the bar very high, very high indeed.I too like Stephen Fry enjoyed reading the stories as a child, but this performance blew me away! Let me explain. I am a 47 year old who listens to audio books whilst travelling the length and breadth of the UK with my job whilst driving. This reading was paused after the first 5 minutes of the introduction because I wanted to indulge on every word. From the opening gambit the listener is drawn into Victorian London, you can almost taste the vile stench of poverty and feel almost embarrassed about sitting in the opulence of 221b Baker Street watching the unraveling of peoples lives. John Watson takes you through the memoirs of the worlds greatest "consulting" detective with such realism, the performance is immense. I won't write anymore as I do not wish to be branded a reviewer for Amazon. Just take my word for it, if you are a fan, or even a passing visitor to the world of Sherlock Holmes, just buy it.

Navigation Navigation Navigation...

What disappointed you about Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection?

This is an amazing work with a great performance from Stephen Fry - HOWEVER... The chapter navigation is impossible to use - try scanning through 71+hours of audio to find the beginning of the short stories....