Blood and Honor

Honor Bound, Book 2

By: W. E. B. Griffin

Narrated by: Michael Russotto

Length: 26 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

As did his three immensely popular series Brotherhood of War, The Corps, and Badge of Honor, W.E.B. Griffin's novel of World War II espionage Honor Bound became an immediate best seller: "A superior war story" (Library Journal) "whose twists and turns keep readers guessing until the last page" (Publishers Weekly). Now the characters of Honor Bound are back, in an adventure as exciting as anything Griffin has crafted.

It is April 1943, and Marine aviator Cletus Frade, Army demolition's wizard Anthony Pelosi, and communications expert David Ettinger are thrust again into the lethal nest of intrigue that is wartime Buenos Aires. A clandestine German vessel sets sail to resupply submarines in the South Atlantic...as a massive shipment of money earmarked for postwar Reich makes its way to South America...and a coup designed to topple the government reaches critical mass. In the midst of it all, the German-ordered assassination of Cletus Frade's father demands only one response: revenge. Threading their way carefully between Axis and Allied sympathizers, and even between rival OSS and FBI factions, the three solidiers must strive their utmost not only to fulfill their missions - but just to stay alive. And for that, even their utmost may not be enough....

Written with all the energy and expertise that Griffin's listeners have come to expect, filled with drama and authentic heroes, Blood and Honor is a captivating novel sure to please fans old and new.

©1994 W.E.B. Griffin (P)2011 Penguin Audio

OMG! WHERE did you get this narrator?!!!

I am a HUGE fan of W.E.B. Griffin.., But this narrator could put to ANY poor person to sleep with his painful voice. I have NEVER heard such horrible narration. I do not have the vocabulary to sufficiently put into words the pain to my ears he creates. If not for the desire to hear what will happen in the story I would gleefully cut my wrists to not have to listen to another moment of his voice.

Enunciation takes some getting used to

The narrator’s enunciation is very noticeable to the point of distraction for the first hour or two. This audible does not have the sound effects found in the first book of this series

The story is great

Good Story, Terrible Narrator

I’ve previously read this series (I’ve read every series of Mr. Griffin’s books over the last 30 years, several numerous times) and started listening to them more recently. This was the worst performance by a reader that I’ve ever had the displeasure of coming across. If you’re listening to this series, read Blood and Honor then resume listening to the next book in the series.

OMG - Russotto...please find something else to do.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed to story (as I enjoy all of WEB's stuff). However, if it wasn't a book from a series I enjoyed and didn't want to miss, I would've moved on...the narration was painful.

How could the performance have been better?

It seemed he read the book like I was a 2 year old. The Harvard droll and excruciatingly slow pace was torture at times. He made most every male character sound like a wimp, and those he attempted to make sound more macho were bordering on comical. Russotto's performance nearly ruined the story.

Great story - insufferable performance

Great story, as is the case with all of Griffin's works, although the 'Honor Bound' series seems to have spots where it seems to drag. The narration/performance in this one is not well done and is very difficult to abide.

Great audio book!

This 2nd book in the series did a great job following the 1st book. The story was well written with loads of historical information. The narrator did extremely well at separating the characters and using the proper tone as the story dictated. Another great book by Griffin.

Blood and honor

Absolutely the worse dictation I have ever heard. The speech affectations made it painful to hear. I have read the series twice an Dick Hill rules.I want my money back. I actually tried speeding up the reading. Horrible. Looking forward to Dick hill recapping this book on the next one. Doesn’t deserve the one star, there should be a negative star.

I needed to Increase listening speed to fix the horrendous narration!

I could not listen to this narrator! It was god awful. I almost quit and got my credit back, something I do not do! I have over 500 books in my library. Then I discovered that you could make it better with increased speed! Thank god! It actually made the narration palatable! I increased the speed from “NORMAL” to about 1.25 and it sounded like I was listening to a normal human being! Not a math professor teaching juvenile delinquent kids in jail.
Most of the time if you increase your speed, you get a chipmunk or someone on helium. This time, I got hours of enjoyable story!
I love Griffin, I hate this Narrator’s voice…. Bad mix. Great book.
Results may vary….
Hope this helps.

Michael Russotto was beyond awful

What did you love best about Blood and Honor?

W. E. B. Griffin's Honor Bound series is a great series and of course if you want to listen to the entire series you need to listen to Blood and Honor even though Audible hasn't made Secret Honor (book 3 of the series) available yet. It is available as a digital download though so if audible doesn't add it I have to get it else where.

How could the performance have been better?

My only complaint about this book was the narrator Michael Russotto was terrible. The voices he used for so many of the characters in this book made them sound like little girls. I know that not all narrators are as good as Scott Brick but in this case Humpty Dumpty would have undoubtedly been a much better choice as narrator. It's amazing how thoroughly a poor narrator can decrease the enjoyment I normally get listening to a good book. The problem is that Michael Russotto wasn't good enough to have been merely poor.

good story

the book is a good on. I find it very interesting and funny that , in the audio, is the choice to immasculate the nazi voices to sound feminine. it took me a bit to get beyond the high voices thinking how annoying it was and how bad the narrator was with voices. but the only high voces , other than women are the nazi's. then, I loved it.