Covenant of the Forge

Dragonlance: Dwarven Nations, Book 1

By: Dan Parkinson

Narrated by: Allen O'Reilly

Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

This book explores the folklore and history of the dwarven clans of Krynn through the bickering clans' reconciliation and the construction of the legendary Thorbardin. By the author of Gates of Thorbardin.

An old dwarven chieftain, Colin Stonetooth, leads a tribe of Hylar in a migration across Ansalon, pursuing a vision of a new home.

Hordes of dangerous outsiders, fleeing the Dragon Wars, are sweeping the countryside. Evil magic, strange knights, precocious kender, too, abound.

In the Kharolis Mountains, in Kal Thax, the Hylar come upon squabbling dwarven clans and knit them into the new nation of Thorbardin. But a Theiwar assassin precipitates a civil war, a curse is fulfilled, and a child is born destined to become the Father of Kings.

The long-awaited historical saga of the bitterly rivalrous dwarven clans of Krynn is told for the first time by Dan Parkinson, author of the Dragonlance novel The Gates of Thorbardin and stories in the Tales II Trilogy.

©1993 TSR, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Horrible pronunciation

In a book about dwarves, it is crucial to get a reader that can say "dwarf" instead of "dorf". I expected better.

great story, poor performance.

I love this book. It's one of my all time favorites. But the narrator seems to struggle constantly with the cadence of sentences, so much so that it makes it a difficult listening experience.

Great Story but bad narrator

I have loved this series since I was in High School but this narrator is killing me. "Dwarf" seems to be above his ability to say correctly and almost sounds and feels like he is speed reading. There are no different voices for the various main characters which I can live with but the sheer speed that he is reading and monotone is really driving me crazy

slow down

mr. O'Reilly has a good voice but needs to slow down and work on the punctuation of reading many sentences sound run on. that makes it difficult to follow the story at points when switching between speakers of the book

narrator was awful

story is great. the narrator was monotone, boring, and super fast. it was speed reading.

Good story, horrific performance/naration

The story is good by DL standards; it's a bit event-driven, but still good.

The performance is one of the worst I've experienced with Audible. Allen waffles between speed reading and a normal cadence. He is completely monotone; no vocal variations between any of the characters. But worst are the mispronunciations, particularly dwarf and Reorx. Dwarfs gets pronounced like "dorf", just plain missing the "w". Beguiling is how Allen mangles Reorx; by saying "Rear Ox". I can forgive someone who is unfamiliar with Dragonlance not knowing how to pronounce the many various names. I cannot forgive a supposed professional failing to lookup the pronunciations, or switching lettings around in a name to the point where I couldn't figure out what a Rear Ox was for the whole first chapter. Reorx isn't even particularly hard once you've heard it, "RE-orcs" (almost just the way it's spelled).

Allen has given me a new appreciation for terrible narration. I used to think Ax Norman was the worst in DL books. No more.

Pronunciation.

It's pronounced DWARVES with a W!!! Not Dorfs! Very distracting. Otherwise a good listening. Needs verbal variation between characters.

Simple fun

This is one of the first series of books that I read growing up. Truly do love them. They, even now, still help illustrate simple but powerful guidelines for leaders should they look past the story and into the words, actions, and theme represented throughout.

great story bad delivery

the reader had poor rhythm and did not differentiate voices. led to the story not being conveyed well.

Couldn't get past ch. 4, the narrator is horrible!

Any additional comments?

I couldn't get past the narrator's inability to say "dwarf" and his terrible phrasing; often taking breaths in the middle of sentences. It was all too grating, I couldn't get past chapter 4. Had to return it.