The Grail

Area 51, Book 5

By: Robert Doherty, Bob Mayer

Narrated by: Martin Gollery

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The Grail is another knockout from New York Times best-selling author Bob Mayer writing as Robert Doherty.

The Holy Grail - is it the key to a miracle...or a terrifying truth? The Great Wall of China, the immense carvings on Easter Island, Egypt's pyramids, UFOs: What is the chilling connection? The answer, unearthed by an elite band of soldiers and scientists based at Area 51, is rewriting human history - to include the aliens who shaped it!

Now, in this heart-pounding novel, Area 51 personnel embark on a top-secret search for the Holy Grail, a glittering artifact with the power to save the world...or lead to its destruction.

Special Forces officer Mike Turcotte has paid his dues in battle and in blood. Now assigned to Area 51, he fights the toughest enemy of his career: the alien race who arrived on Earth millennia ago and have returned to claim the planet.

Mike has dodged bullets and faced weapons of mass destruction to give humanity another day of reprieve. But when his lover, scientist Lisa Duncan, falls into evil hands, Mike must decide which prize means the most to him - the woman he loves or the legendary Grail. It's a decision that could damn him...or damn us all.

©2012 Bob Mayer (P)2012 Bob Mayer

Good story but the narrator ruined it.

I don't even know if I fully heard this entire story because the narrator was SO BAD that I always found myself tuning out. Is this actually a person? Or maybe a computer? The inflections were all wrong, words were pronounced incorrectly, he paused strangely after every third word or so, so you thought the sentence was over, but it wasn't, so it started up in the middle all weird. The narrator so completely distracted me from this story that I just played it every change I could get just to get it over with to get on to the next book with a different narrator. He pronounced all the character names so differently than the other narrators that I thought maybe we had new characters that were introduced that I just missed somehow, and then everyone had different accents (or NO accents!) than the previous books; UGH, it was JUST TERRIBLE! Hopefully the next guy will be better. They really need to re-do this book with a different narrator, because it's probably significantly affecting the ratings on this book.

Who was the one that directed this narration?

The book is great. Narrator horrible. I hope they have not used him for other books.

Avoid this Narrator!!!!

A good story can become a great audiobook in the hands of a talented narrator. This one proves that the opposite is also true - a terrible reader can destroy a story. Monotonous pace, nearly no inflection, and inconsistent pronunciation of names combine to make this a chore to listen to. Nearly every character voice is done the same way, so the male African archeologist sounds just like the female Chinese professor. And to top it off, there are many instances where the reader stops and restarts reading. Editing, anyone?

The story itself is very good, but the performance makes it barely tolerable.

worst narrator EVER!!

What did you like best about The Grail? What did you like least?

Its a good story. Through out the series Bob Mayer makes several technical mistakes, ie. F-16's cant take off from an aircraft carrier, the Pave Low is an MH-53, not an HH-53, there were many others, you would think a guy who used to be a green beret would know these kind of things. However this is something I can live with, its still a good story. I don't like how the author seems to minimize religion.

Those are only the MINOR issues over come by a good story line. You remember the robot voice from the '90's answering machine, I would rather have that thing read the book. This guy has to be the worst narrator EVER!!

A robot would read this book better

Would you be willing to try another one of Martin Gollery’s performances?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! He is very monotone; and actually seems bored reading the book. What an awesome way to RUIN a great story. And his attempt at different voices.... Well Martin's droning simply puts me to wishing I could drag my fingernails on a chalk board to hear something less grating.

Narrator is among the worst I've ever heard.

I don't think I've ever heard a worse narrator. Studders and mispronounced words in multiple ways in the same few minutes and had no style at all. He needs to be fired. If I ever hear him again I'll delete the audio book and ask for a refund. Truly terrible. Read this one and skip the audio.

Worst narration in history.

The audio books series up until now has been great. I almost didn't finish this entry though due to it having the worste narration possible. The reader is dry and emotionless and adds in all sorts of strange pauses and inflections where they don't belong. It's so distracting that you just can't get into the story. Picture if Steven Segal and William Shatner had a baby. That baby then grew up to read audio books. Out of the hundreds of audio books I have listened to this is by a long shot the worst narration.

What was this, Baby's First Narration?

What would have made The Grail better?

A different narrator. Or at least a narrator that pronounced the names in the story correctly. Editing of the narration when mistakes were made, instead of catching the mistake and restating. I couldn't believe the poor quality.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

By being the narrator. He was terrible.

Worst narration ever

It says a lot about an audiobook when one decides that the narration takes centre stage of one's book review. While I enjoyed the story, the narration simply was not enjoyable. I am hesitant to become personal, but Martin Gollery sounded like a singing robot most of the time. I even started thinking of him as a poor man's John Malkovich. It detracted from an otherwise enjoyable story.

This book was better than the others in the series so far. There were a couple of great scenes, such as the battle at Easter Island. The editing seemed tighter, and as a whole, the story wasn't as disjointed as some of the previous books.

All in all, a good book but for the narration. Otherwise, I would have easily scored it 4 stars.

This Narrator must be stopped!

Would you try another book from Robert Doherty and Bob Mayer and/or Martin Gollery?

I have listened to all 5 of the Area 51 books before this one and enjoyed them all. And I plan on listening to the rest of the series. As for Martin Gollery I hope I never have to listen to another book narrated by him.

What did you like best about this story?

The way the author blends history with fiction,

How did the narrator detract from the book?

His voice was a monotone. It did not change from character to character, You could not even tell if it was a woman or man, And no matter if it was an action or calm section his voice remained in that same dull tone. I have listened to a lot of audiobooks and this was by far the worst narrator I have ever heard. Anybody who is considering using him on one of their books should just listen to the first chapter of this book (getting past that will be enough torture) before making their decision. If I had not listened to the first four books I would not have finished this book. But wanting to hear more of the story I struggled through this terrible narrator.

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

Yes, yes, yes! I need to know what happens next. And after putting up with this narrator I am hoping the next book will be read by anybody but him.

Any additional comments?

Ban Martin Gollery from ever narrating another book.