My kids and I listened to the audiobook of this one, and aside from the fact that Medwyn sounded vaguely Jamaican, I totally loved it. I cannot believe I didn't read this series as a child. Okay, I can believe that I didn't read it (I was too busy brooding over Edgar Allan Poe for much other extracurricular reading), but I can't quite believe that no teacher or friend ever suggested it to me and that I never even heard of it until I started homeschooling my kids. 
 This is just a fabulous book...incredibly imagery and complex characters. I almost look forward to the long, long drive to flute lesson every week when we have this audiobook in the car. Now to pick up The Black Cauldron at the library. 
 ****** 
 04/30/15: We (spouse, kids, and I) just got done with a >10-hour car trip and listened to this again. This time I was really aware of just how whiny Taran is in the first half of the book. He's like Luke Skywalker in the first part of Episode IV (which I still think of as the first Star Wars movie). 
 ****** 
 10/23/15: Another car trip, another time through The Book of Three. This time, I had much more empathy for Taran, and I thoroughly enjoyed the narration. James Langton adds these little touches, like brief laughs or little sighs, that I'd never noticed before. Third time through, and if anything I loved it even more than the first two times, which was something of a surprise as I thought it would get old by now.