The Last Heroes

A Men at War Novel, Book 1

By: W. E. B. Griffin

Narrated by: Michael Russotto

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

June 1941. Determined that the United States will be prepared for war, Franklin D. Roosevelt and "Wild Bill" Donovan orchestrate the most complex espionage organization in history, the Office of Strategic Services. Young and daring, the OSS assemble under a thin camouflage of diplomacy and then disperse throughout the world to conduct their operations. And no operation is more critical than the one being conducted by hotshot pilot Richard Canidy and his half-German friend Eric Fulmar: to secure the rare ore that will power a top-secret weapon coveted on both sides of the Atlantic - the atomic bomb.

Listen to more of W. E. B. Griffin's Men at War novels.

©2011 W.E.B. Griffin (P)2011 Penguin Audio

Great Story Very Forgettable Performance

Love W.E.B. Griffin's books and until now, the audio interpretations. Michael Russotto should have read this book without attempting to change his voice to match the characters. It was, at times, VERY difficult to listen to. So much so I unfortunately could not finish this particular title, nor will I listen to the next book in this series as he narrates that novel as well. Instead I will skip on to the book that follows and hope that the narrator is more enjoyable. The trouble with Mr. Russotto's narration is that when he attempts to change his voice to the different characters, I cannot imagine that person speaking. Instead, I get a vision of a person standing in front of a studio microphone, pulling his chin in, pushing his chest out, and attempt to act like he is speaking as someone with authority. In addition, Mr. Russotto does not use inflection or tone when narrating a conversation between several characters, you can tell he is reading a script vs acting out parts. i.e. when two characters are obviously joking with each other, he reads right through the conversation. There is no jocularity or personality involved. Just the narrator attempting to change his voice for each character which comes off very badly.

Enjoyable Listening and I do not mind telling you

W.E.B. Griffin wrote a great book and Michael Russotto gives a wonderful performance worth listening to.

Master of story telling

W.E.B Griffin is a Master of building a story of World War II
The Narrator voice is easy to listen too.

Great book

The book was really good but, the reader left some to be desired. It was a struggle to listen to him ......

Narrator is awful

The narrator is so monotone and reads like a 2nd grader. No flow. Pauses long at inappropriate times. Story is rather bland probably due to the difficulty to follow along. Dick Hill is great. Don’t let this guy near a sound booth again.

Captivating

I was disappointed at the ending. I wanted the storyline to continue through the war.

Good books terrible narrator!

I like this author a lot and read the series when they first came out. Regrettably this is the most Horrible performance I have listened to. I would not listen to this narrator again.

Worst narrator

Good gravy , the only way o could listen to this was on 1.5x. Story was great though. Performance gets one star because you can’t do no stars.

Forced myself to finish

I could barely get through the first chapter. My ears were hurting this guy narrating was horrible and I almost stopped listening. I wanted to get to the next book however so I continued. hopefully, the next reader will be better

like putting sandpaper in your ears

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

While this is a great anthology & story line, the narrator is totally out of his depth.
The narrator doesn't know the word "caveat" in the military intelligence sense.
Lots of starting and stopping in the dialogue.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

The plot is a do-over of other W.E.B. Griffin books. You know what you are getting into when you start.
Great to work out with or ride your bike.

How could the performance have been better?

Get someone like George Guidall to narrate for you.
I recently listened to another book that had a female & male narrator.
I thought it would of been great & it did work for the story line, but the had horrendous orchestra music that over-whelmed you.
The point is that the male/female team would work well in this anthology.

Do you think The Last Heroes needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Duhhh-it's part of a series.

Any additional comments?

Get a better narrator.
But it is a good listen if you like WEB G.