Age of Legend [Dramatized Adaptation]

The Legends of the First Empire, Book 4

De: Michael J. Sullivan

Narrado por: Amanda Forstrom, Bradley Smith, Chris Stinson, Colleen Delany, Jacob Yeh, Joe Mallon, Nora Achrati, Terence Aselford, Todd Scofield, Tracy Olivera

Each culture has its own myths and legends, but only one is shared, and it is feared by all. With Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and New York Times best-selling Age of War, fantasy master Michael J. Sullivan riveted listeners with a tale of unlikely heroes locked in a desperate battle to save mankind.

After years of warfare, humanity has gained the upper hand and has pushed the Fhrey to the edge of their homeland but no farther. Now comes the pivotal moment. Persephone’s plan to use the stalemate to seek peace is destroyed by an unexpected betrayal that threatens to hand victory to the Fhrey and leaves a loved one in peril.

Humanity’s only hope lies in the legend of a witch, a forgotten song, and a simple garden door.

©2019 Riyria Enterprises, LLC (P)2019 Graphic Audio

Great book! Bad pronunciations

Switching accidentally to this performed version. Many of the pronunciations are inconsistent to the normally read audiobooks. I didn’t like that.

Exciting narration with potential for improvement

Positive:
- FAST narration allowing for 1.0x listening speed (vs. my usual 1.5x). This was absolutely crucial because 1.5x would ruin the sound effects.
- Excellent background sound effects and music.
- One narrator per character

Negative:
- Narration ignored precedents from previous books:
- Malcom's voice was the total opposite of authoritative and fitting of a "god". Also the total opposite of the previous narrators take on him.
- Calling the wolf "minnnna" and not "miiiina"...
- In some segments (<30min total), the background sounds were too loud compared to narration, forcing an uncomfortable listening volume.

Poor story writing meets worse production

I’ve listen to most of the Age of Legend books as well as all of the Ryera series, most in graphic audio. This is BY FAR the worst.

First the actual worry witting. The first half of this book attempts to move the story forward but does so by skipping MAJOR developments for just about every character. These are the things they’ve struggled with or strived for the entire series and this book goes, “oh yeah, that thing they were striving for happened last year”. It completely disconnects you from the characters and makes you not care what happens. I’ve come to expect much better from Mr Sullivan.

Then the graphic audio production. I don’t know who they put on this one but it is not up to their standards. First, swapping talent; Nyphron appears to be played by another actor who sounds NOTHING like the prior one. For a race that isn’t supposed to age quickly, he somehow went from sounding Noble to sounding the the love-child of Hagrid and a dwarf who worked on a shrimping boat his whole life, all in the course of a couple of years. I get that you can’t always get the same talent back but they should at least attempt to sound similar.

Next the music. What distracting garbage. Fight scenes have this terrible music that sounds campy when the characters are supposed to be scared or tense. Then in scenes where the character is having a major emotional breakdown they inject 80’s movie love scene music. I hope whoever did the music and production for this one had moved on.

Lastly, we don’t need a 10 minute ad for graphic audio 3 times per book. It’s grating enough that I think I’m done with Graphic Audio after this book. Stick with the other version and you’ll be much happier.

Dramatized version no my cup of tea

I really miss Royce and Hadrian! So I thought I would try the age books. The background sounds at times were too loud. Transition could be bumpy. I much prefer Tim Gérard Reynolds.

Graphic Audio

“Graphic Audio” is loud and noisy. It ruined the narrative for me. After hearing only the beginning I’m now trying to “return” this book. I was looking forward to listening to the next 3 books. No more.

Dramatization not for me

Didn’t like the multiple narrators. Good series but I prefer 1 narrator. I feel the story more when Tim Reynolds narrated

Not a format I enjoy.

I dislike the distraction from the sound effects. The cast of narrators are fine but the unabridged version narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds is better.