I liked Norm's reading of this, particularly the robot voice. Many altered voices just become annoying or incomprehensible, but I could understand it perfectly and it helped differentiate the characters, and even did all that without using the reverb that's used for nearly every other voice effect.
The story, though, I didn't finish. I listened to it most of the way through, but some major things bugged me to the point of turning it off:
1. The robot beginning to show human traits has been done so many times (usually by Resnick) that it really has to be something special to make it shine. I liked the unique perspective on this with the Crow tribe, but I just didn't buy that Harry was actually a robot. His robotness was completely irrelevent to the story, you could've swapped in a human and nothing would've been changed. Aside from a few weird looks, that is. I would've thought that someone would've questioned whether they wanted to be led by a robo-chief.
2. The trials really seemed badly suited for tribes who are more or less peacefully coexisting. Particularly the horse-theft. In a society of warring tribes, sure, stealing an enemy's horse from another tribe might be seen as honorable, and could help your war effort. But in this case, his "enemy" is just a guy that he's had arguments with. And stealing the guy's horse is just going to piss him off even more. I don't know exactly what value they put on their horses but I'd expect them to be very valuable since they seem to be their main form of transport and it takes a lot of time and effort to raise and train a horse. Also, the trials just seemed ridiculously easy, with the current society--I would think that there would be almost as many chiefs as people!
3. The boy, to the point in the story that I listened to, was just passive and obedient to his father's every whim. Did he even WANT to be a chief? It wasn't clear at that point. Dad sets up the trials for him, but then TELLS him how to do each one, and then the boy passes if he obeys. That's not a rite of passage, that's just following a recipe. To really be a worthy rite of passage he'd have to figure it all out by himself, and do it all by himself. When he becomes a chief is Daddy going to stand behind him and whisper in his ear what to do?
4. Did they really have to have the stun prods? I would think that a human going through these trials would have to do so WITHOUT stun prods, so it just seems like an unfair advantage. When I would expect people to be divided over the topic of a robo chief anyway, adding in an incapacitating weapon would push many over that line.