Overlord, Vol. 1

The Undead King

By: Kugane Maruyama, so-bin

Narrated by: Chris Guerrero

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

For 12 years, the virtual world of Yggdrasil has served as the playground and battlefield for the skeletal lord Momonga and his guild of fellow monsters, Ainz Ooal Gown. But the guild's glory days are over, and the game is shutting down permanently. When Momonga logs in one last time just to be there when the servers go dark, something happens - and suddenly, fantasy is reality. A rogues' gallery of fanatically devoted NPCs is ready to obey his every order, but the world Momonga now inhabits is not the one he remembers. The game may be over, but the epic tale of Ainz Ooal Gown is only beginning....

©2012 Kugane Maruyama (P)2021 Yen Audio

Good, but needs work

I thoroughly enjoyed the light novel, and Mr. Guerrero’s performance was very good in places there were only a few things that bugged me.

Of course, I’d be partial to the idea of Overlord as an audio drama; wherein the actors from the show performed the book. However I know scheduling conflicts could definitely wreck such an idea. There were times when it was hard to tell certain character’s voices apart, especially during Ainz’ and Gazef’s conversation due to how similar the voices were.

A very small, albeit nitpicky thing that I found myself bothered by was the pronunciation of the names of the 9 realms from Norse mythology; ‘Nifl-hay-m’ rather than ‘Nifl-high-m’, and so on. It just seemed to catch my ear whenever I heard it.

That being said, I’d love to see more of the light novels become audiobooks in the future. Chris is quite the talented individual, and it’s always fun to have a new medium to enjoy something you like through.

A decent start to an epic story of conquest

While some of the translation decisions could be a little iffy it’s overall great. A story from the side of the villains in their way to take over the world. My only complain would be the voice acting in terms of variety for the men and quality for the women, Ainz’s voice is adequate but not as regal is it could be, specially in the moments when trying to be intimidating. As for the women well, the voice tends to be more shrill than anything, also sometimes the tone didn’t match the word context. Oh, an Mare’s voice specially when flustered leaves much to be desired, sounding way more whiny and annoying than timid. But these are surrounded by an otherwise good narration so it is passable.

Overlord books have all the detail missed

This is a great book that has all the details that are missed in the Manga. I feel like albedo's voice is a bit weird but hey it's just one guy doing voices so can't complain. Looking forward to all the other books to come out on this format.

Great Book and Awesome Voice Acting

This book was fantastic and made even better due to the Reader being the same voice actor from the English dubbed series.

More Detailed anime

This was awesome. I loved every second. Made me feel like I was watching a more detailed version of the anime. I’m looking forward to more.

Really great

Except for some translation errors and some minor cringey female voicing this was great. He did great on all the male voices and it's Overlord so the story is amazing. I recommend hiring someone to do female voices but overall really close to perfect.

Read by the English VA For Ainz himself!

I am a huge Overlord fan and have watched it in both the Japanese and English versions with no way to truly tip the scale on which I prefer. However when I started listening to this audio book and heard a voice that was very familiar I stopped for a minute to think before it hit me that I might be listening to the English VA himself; and the second he deepened his voice to be that of Ainz Ooal Gown, it was confirmed. Needless to say I find his performance to be absolutely amazing; not just his narration in general, but the added noises he does for the Death Knight, as well as sounding like he is shouting over a great distance when a messenger on horseback brings a message forward. His vocal range is astounding, which is probably to be expected since he is a professional voice actor, but it is just such a huge boon to this book that I cant help but say that they struck gold with using him.

The story itself is very well written with only a few translation errors, Ex. the name of the character Bukubukuchagama. Bukubuku meaning lose fitting or baggy and chagama meaning tea kettle; so when they translated her name into English they went with the word "Bubbling Tea Pot." Not a major point, just something I made note of.

All in all, its an extremely well written book with a stellar vocal performance by a professional in his field, a must buy and I hope they make the rest of the series soon AND keep Chris Guerrero as the narrator. I WILL be listening to this on repeat for quite a few re-listens just because of that.

Great Book

I love the Overlord series, and this is the best adaptation of the initial part of the story.

Love the work put of into this title.

Great for fans if the series or for anime fans to get a feel for Audible light novels. I do love the work put together into this series but I haven't read the actual light novel so I can't say if this was abridged or lengthened due to casting. Judging by the run time I think if was true to the l.n.. I love the music and background noise that can really put me in the action and setting of this story. I only wish they would use a larger cast of voice actors. One talented voice actor is good enough but would be better if two or more for both female and male characters.

love these books

love this series, love the anime.....I am a major fan. the voice acting only make it better