The Emperor's Sword

Warhammer 40,000

De: Nick Kyme, George Mann, Joe Parrino, David Guymer, Graham McNeil, Phil Kelly, L.J. Goulding, Ian St. Martin, Steve Lyons, Josh Reynolds

Narrado por: Toby Longworth, Jonathan Keeble, Sean Barrett, Luke Thompson, Gareth Armstrong, John Banks

A Space Marines Audio Drama Collection

Space Marines can be found fighting hundreds of wars across every sector of the Imperium - they are the will of the emperor made manifest. These audio dramas will bring you into their battles as never before, as bolt shells and chainswords lay waste to any who would stand against them.

Listen to it because...this collection of audio dramas from Black Library authors including Nick Kyne, Josh Reynolds and more, weaves tales of fan-favourite and lesser-known Space Marine Chapters, providing new insight into the Imperium's Angels of Death, how they think, and how they fight.

Contents:

• Fireborn by Nick Kyme
• Vulkan's Shield by Nick Kyme
• Helion Rain by George Mann
• Labyrinth of Sorrows by George Mann
• The Geld by George Mann
• Soulbound by George Mann
• Loss by Joe Parrino
• Alone by Joe Parrino
• The Calculus of Battle by David Guymer
• Eye of Vengeance by Graham McNeill
• Veil of Darkness by Nick Kyme
• Brethren by Phil Kelly
• Scythes of the Emperor: Daedalus by L J Goulding
• Taker of Heads by Ian St Martin
• The Madness Within by Steve Lyons
• Master of the Hunt by Josh Reynolds
• The Shape of the Hunt by Joe Parrino
• The Tranzia Rebellion by various authors

©2021 Games Workshop Limited (P)2021 Games Workshop Limited

Distracting sound effects

I actually like this collection of stories. Unfortunately, this collection uses a lot of sound effects and they are all louder than the voice actors performance. You cannot make out what is being narrated over the alarm klaxons or gun fire, etc…

The audio mix channel volume ruined this audio book. Suggestion to publisher. Make sure the sound effects are quieter than the whispering narrator.

WWWOOOOO!!!

All I have to say is 17 hours of killing taking out xenos and traitors alike.🤘😉🖤

The Tranzian rebellion steals the show

This anthology is a must have for any Warhammer fan! So many stories and top tier voice acting. The last story will blow you away! Definitely recommend!

Add Some Color to Your Warhammer Knowledge

This is my first big step into the lore behind the game Warhammer 40k. Listening to this book was a joy that inspired my imagination and sparked ideas for the hobby that I enjoy.

Not a fan of the radio drama format

This was going great until the final story. They should have meshed the radio drama into a single story. The constant breaks took me out of the story and killed the enjoyment and flow. This flaw took 1 star away from Overall and Performance along with 2 stars on the Story.

Both more and less then what you are expecting

I want to start this by saying that I am a huge fan of the Warhammer 40K Universe. I am also a 24 year Army Veteran. Please bear that in mind as the review continues. To start if you could not tell from the description this is a collection of stories and not one cohesive single story. Some of the stories are linked, others less so. I will start with what I did not care for. The vast majority of the stories have the depth of half full thimble. I understand that the writers are trying to portray a "Grim Dark" Universe but these stores lack any reason to like the protagonists. In fact if the 40K universe was as bad as it is portrayed in these stories the Imperium would have long since fallen. Often the Space marines do not trust each other, and Emperor forbid a Psyker is mentioned, the distrust of the Liberians inside the chapters is laughable. While I do not know the back grounds of the various authors, I truly felt that these where people who had been told how soldiers (Insert Space Marine) operate (Shoot / Move and Communicate) by someone who claimed that they once talked to a guy who knew a guy who said his brother watched a war movie as a child, Oh look the forces of Chaos are beating down the walls, well lets stop and chat for a while and use the most long winded way possible to say anything. Now I understand they would be speaking a variation of a language we don't speak and its not fair to use our standards against a fictional language, but I am sorry, during combat you are not going to find the most long winded platitudes that are used in these stories. Soldiers (in this case Space Marines) especially toughs that have served together for a long time will find the fastest most accurate means to communicate especially in a combat situation. Ok enough about that. The next issue is editing the audio dramas. There are several episodes or parts to some of the stories. When the story starts you have the typical music intro ect.. the problem comes in where you are forced to listen to the start stop music over and over each time there is a new part / Episode. It would not be so bad if this happened every 30-60 minutes but no, its happening every 5-10 minutes over and over. Honestly there were times I felt like I was spending more time listening to the start stop music then I was to the story.

What they did right.
I love that they are trying to add the drama of war to the books, Hearing the bolters fire, people walking in and out of rooms explosions, Vox messages, all of it is outstanding. In many ways this reminds me of the audio dramas of the 1940's. I love the direction they are taking with this and truthfully its the only reason I listened to the end. The Narration was great (the dialog less so, but that's not the narrator's fault). I strongly hope this level of production continues.

Overall I gave it 3 stars. The performances were amazing, the stories were subpar.

Word of advice Black Library on sound effects

First of all, I enjoy the audio drama style. I can understand why some would think it can take away from the book overall. I would recommend those individuals listen to the audiobook then listen to the audio drama version for a more in depth experience.

Here is my only real complaint for the sound effects:
I do not like how the automatic bolter fire sounds like a pellet gun or old automatic paintball gun. The bolter is supposed to be a large caliber gun. Go record a Browning .50 cal on full automatic fire for the bolter. That’s it. Make it more bad @$$!💥💥

Over produced

I do not know if it is the narrators or the producers for these short stories but it is hard to listen to. The music is not leveled properly to the voices, the sound effects are not subtle and leveled properly, the male voices are to hard to distinguish. One space marine talking to another sounds like the same character, then chaos characters in the same 2 to 3 minutes sound just like the space marines. Every warrior type male sounds like what you would expect an orc to sound like with slight distortion. The stories are the only thing that this has going for it. They used entirely to much computer voice alteration software that made it a mess. Just way to many post production issues. If you like listening to old video game cut scenes this is it in long form.

just doesn't do anything very well

the audio effects are louder than the words.
the plots are usually hard to follow and not very interesting.

Jacked up audio

Something is wrong with the audio as it has a robotic sound during the reading. Volume drops to a almost whisper then jumps back up to normal.