King of Duels

The Wandering Inn, Book 16

De: pirateaba

Narrado por: Erin Bennett

King of Duels marks the passing of the torch from our beloved Andrea Parsneau to a new narrator. Erin Bennett, a Golden Voice narrator, will continue to bring the magic of The Wandering Inn to life.

The world is full of adventures, big and small.

From exploring the [Garden of Sanctuary] to the depths of the sea, there are countless fascinating discoveries to be made. Not just in the places people go, but in the things they create... or recreate from Earth. Chocolate, lifting weights, and alcohol all flow through The Wandering Inn with unexpected consequences at times.

However, there's also war, [Assassins], and scams that ruin or destroy lives. For every monster, there is an adventurer. The Stitch Witch may creep forward, and the King of Destruction continues his rampage across nations, but there will always be a champion who steps forward.

Featuring a foreword from Andrea Parsneau.

©2024 pirateaba (P)2025 Podium Audio

It’s not the same without Andrea

Great story just not the same Andrea if feels like a different story now good but not the same it’s missing the magic that was Andrea

So Different

The story is as good as ever, but its just.. not the same. Erin is doing a great job! But.. if you played me 50 one sentence clips of Andrea voicing, I could probably name the character 45 of 50 times.
Now, I'd be lucky if I got half right, so many sound so similar. Some, i wouldnt believe you if you told me who they were. I understand Andrea needed a break after so many, many hours and so many unique voices..
I wish they had just waited. Waited until Andrea was okay to continue, and split the load. Had both her and Erin, made it easier on both. If it took a year, so be it. I wonder if pirateaba has considered soundbooth theaters? A full reboot? Truly unique voices for everyone would make the entire story all the more incredible..

hmmmm

Not my favorite. Erin did a great job stepping into huge shoes. Some voices are completely off from what they were but what can you do. Flos went from a cool uncle's voice to more of what you would think a King of Destruction would sound like. Some are more pretentious than they were previously. The writing felt different to me on this one. A bit more scattered than usual. We are used to jumping from story line to story line but, I don't know.

The story continues... with broken pronunciation

I had decent hopes for the incoming narrator she was supposed to have done her homework in taking over the series but it's clear she maybe listened to part of the first book. Aryn now comes across as a nitwit you can almost feel the narrators disdain for her. The momentous moments lack the gravitas they once carried. The male characters do have a decent variety at least. I'd even be willing to let most of that pass but the pronunciation changes for places and people are spirit breaking. I also found the mastering to be heavy handed on the tape compression effect and needing sibilance work. Welcome to just another Podium title... I am a bit heart broken.

Poor choice on narration

After 15 books, in a story that has many different characters with their own tone, the production team changes the narrator to someone who does not have enough vocal range to differentiate characters’ tone. Now you need to wait until the story identifies each character by context or name before you know which character’s story is being shared. I’m more than a bit disappointed. If it does not change, then this may be my last Wandering Inn.

Narration change is rough

Erin is a good narrator. But Andrea was 100x better. It didn’t totally ruin the story - it’s not bad enough to make me stop listening, but so many characters become entirely indistinguishable from each other. Some are still close enough, but The King of Destruction is terrible. The nuances of so many characters have been lost, and it takes several hours to get used to it. Andrea said the world got too big for her to voice the thousands of characters - fair, but then why bring in an inferior narrator with less range to try to do so? Bring Andrea back for just the major characters and have a secondary narrator (or a team) handle all the side characters and new introductions. Losing Andrea was such a huge loss for this audio series. I think enough people are upset by this we could easily crowdfund her back for even a partial narration of future books. Hope she decides to come back…

Terribly disappointed

I am such a fan of the “Wandering Inn” and this story! I preorder every audiobook as soon as I can. That being said, this lone book has disappointed me terribly. I have listened to each book at least 3 times up until this one. It’s not necessarily the narrator, though after so many books it’s hard to switch to a new voice doing the narration. It’s the story as a whole felt like it was written by a completely different author. Previously the story has sucked me in and made me want to be part of it. I didn’t feel that in this book. This book felt like it had one main goal and it has nothing to do with the story but in making sure the listeners believe the same as the author. I don’t come to fantasy lit rpg to deal with real world situations. I come to this genre to get away from real life. This single book has put a shadow on this whole wonderful world and series. There’s absolutely no reason to add the things that were added except to push a single world view on the listeners. I’m not going to continue only say please get back to story telling and not making the story take a back seat to a particular world view. This world and the story deserve to be the main focus of the series.

great job Erin

awesome story as always,and loveed it

narration was very good

of course I loved old narrator,but Erin did a really good job

awesome work Erin 👍

The new voice actor is just as good

New voice actor sounds almost the same as previous one, but higher pitched voice like the younger sister. She did a great job being consistent with the previous voice actor’s character voices. The story itself had one pretty boring chapter in the middle. Found the chapter after with the content warning amusing.

A sad turn...

The Wandering Inn has been one of my favorite series ever... Until this book.
Let me first say: Erin does a great job narrating. My comments should not be perceived as berating her or her abilities.
With that out of the way:
1. NARRATORS SHOULD NOT BE SWITCHED THIS FAR INTO A SERIES. Every reader learns the voices of their favorite characters, and now we have to learn them all over again. Also, and this is just opinion, Andrea is irreplaceable. She remains my favorite female narrator to this day. I do not know how, but Andrea has distinct voices for EVERY character... That shouldn't even be possible, but she does it. The amount of pure emotion she invokes is also second to none. I can't even count the amount of times she's made this grown man cry. BRING BACK ANDREA!!


Keep politics out of the book. When a character has political beliefs, that's great. When the author pushes political beliefs book-wide, it spoils the entire story.


While I will certainly try the next book, that will be my last attempt. I really, sincerely hope it redeems the series and I can continue to sing praises about "The Wandering Inn", but if not, it's just another failed series; regardless of how strong it started.