I don't like leaving negative reviews. Clearly, this team worked hard to spin a tale, and it is an original and interesting tale too, but I couldn't make it to episode 3 because one of the biggest turn offs in serial podcasts for me is when voice actors adopt an unmistakenly forced cartoony pitch, as if their listeners were kids. But you don't have exploding heads and sex dioramas in kids stories so I must be honest in case other listeners are of like mind.The first red flag was the king, who's fake cantankerous delivery was thankfully short lived. When we were introduced to, at the age of twenty-five, the squeaky whining heroine of the tale I almost stopped listening but decided to hang on in hopes of a maturing as the plot developed. But when the witches son overacted his part like an early manga villain I had to bail. To be fair, the witch was believable and the narrator carried the listener through scenes with intrigue, but that wasn't enough for me to continue.The goal with actors should be to suspend disbelief, not distract.

I've recently had to start driving three hours a day, got tired of the listen-to-people's-opinions-in-conversation podcast format and shifted to full-cast serial audio-dramas, leaning towards sci-fi and suspense to keep my brain alert. Early on, it was easy to find great serials like The Leviathan Chronicles, The Left Right Game, Rabbits, End of All Hope, etc., but now I have to dig through reviews and forums (forums are especially helpful), which is how I found Syntax.I give this only four stars because it is a really good story with effective sound effects but a mediocre script. Much of the dialogue comes off as high school level conversation, and two of the main female characters, Alex and Lizzie, have irritating high pitch deliveries like what you'd hear in many of today's cartoon characters. Lizzie, in fact, does not sound like the educated scientist she is supposed to be, but like a gibbering, giggling pre-teen. The rest of the cast is either good or adequate enough not to be as distracting as some of the shallow lines they must deliver. But back to the good part, the plot is linear, clever and mostly exciting. It is the story of a team, each with unique skills, thrown together to explore a portal leading to another world that has it's own portal to another world, which also has another portal to another world, and so forth. They find the deeper through the portals they go the more challenging it gets to make it back to the starting point, and safety. I'm almost done with season two and am glad I've stuck with it. Listen if you need to drive a lot and want to be carried through an otherworldly journey of unknowns as the miles clock up.