The cradle series takes place in a complicated world and the author does talk to quickly. I just used the Audible setting and slowed the speed to 0.8 and found it perfect. There are all of these terms that you don’t really understand at fist but eventually it makes sense. Honestly, I zoned out on some of the explanations but still didn’t have any trouble following the story. So glad I pushed through this story to get to the rest because I am really enjoying the books now!