Retribution

The Beginning After the End, Book 10

By: TurtleMe

Narrated by: Travis Baldree, Elizabeth Evans

"I'm not your savior."

I didn't want to be worshiped like some deity—an instant replacement for the asuras. For so long, these people looked up to the asuras as gods, but the asuras kept trying to kill them.

Arthur Leywin has finally returned to the continent of Dicathen, but his home is still firmly in the hands of the enemy. His display of unprecedented power brings hope to his allies and fear to his enemies. It also deeply embroils him in a conflict between the godlike asuras, with Agrona Vritra on one side and Kezess Indrath on the other.

With the crimes of his past life haunting him in the form of the Legacy, Arthur can no longer afford to hone only his strength. He must also empower those closest to him or risk losing them all.

©2023 TurtleMe (P)2023 Podium Audio

Favorite story, but narration SETUP was not great at all

I love this story. I’ve listened to every book 5 times waiting for vol. 10, but was disappointed when it started out without Travis narrating. Mrs. Evans did alright, but for male characters she completely ruins the build ups in between each chapter. I almost entirely stopped listening after chapter 2 when the chapter opened on a serious note in Arthur’s voice(by Elizabeth) but it came out uncharacteristically in her voice and I was left confused and underwhelmed. She did well on female voices, but starting with Travis doing every other book then switching to this new style where each narrator voices every other chapter just throws of the flow of the story. Still gonna listen because I love the story, I love Travis Baldree, I’m giving the new narrator a chance, and it’s bearable in between chapters, but just doesn’t flow like it used too. Great story TurtleMe.

Great addition to the series

Loved the book, but not too happy with the narration changes. I don’t understand why they would make changes this far into the series, and with someone who isn’t on par with Travis Baldree. The two of them switching off ruined the flow. I hope they change it back going forward.

Why The Added Narrator Is A Bad Idea

There's no reason to talk about the story, It's in my Top 3 favorite pieces of Fiction and if you're reading this review then chances are you are already aware that it's very good and you shouldn't let any of the reviews dissuade you from giving it a listen as at the end of the day it's still the same series we all love. However I'd like to share my reasons on disliking the new Narrator since most of the reviews are just saying she sucks without actually saying why for the most part.

✦When everyone heard that there was going to be a female narrator added I'd assumed it was going to be of a format where Elizabeth plays all the female characters and Travis plays all the male characters as I'm sure many else thought as well. Instead When it's a female/male POV the corresponding narrator just does the entire chapter, If you're still making Travis do entire chapters then why even bother getting her in the first place.

✦both Narrators have different takes on a character to the point where sometimes it doesn't even feel like the same character, You'll get one chapter where a character feels all playful just for another chapter having them all timid. As much as I hate to say it Elizabeth does not understand the characters nearly as much as Travis, Delivery is extremely important and when two Narrators are playing the same character you need to be able to play them similarly or it takes you out of the story and is disorienting.

✦I really do apologize for the rudeness and I'm sure a lot of her other works are great but a lot of Elizabeth's voices sound either similar or basically the same voice. You could play a clip of Travis and I'm sure a lot of people would immediately be able to tell what character is talking without even saying who. Travis is an excellent actor to the point where A lot of people found out about this series specifically trying to find other works that he's Narrated, even I plan on listening to another one of his works after this so it's just not necessary to get another voice actor when the one we already have is awesome and doing an incredible job. Elizabeth's male voices aren't that good either, She kind of just sounds like how most of the other characters sound expect you can hear her trying to put on a deeper voice. With Travis you can play multiple characters females included and you genuinely would not be able to tell it's the same guy a lot of the time. The list continues though, Elizabeth is not a good actor, I'm sure it's really weird for her to come into a series 10 books in and be expected to act perfectly but half the time the way she acts as a character doesn't fit the situation at all.

✦If the new Narrator was added in book one I'm sure less people would have an issue with it and had just gotten used to it. This is the 10th book in the series, Most of us spent around 120 hours listening to this series with Travis, Imagine watching actual days straight of a show and they suddenly change the voice of a character for no reason at all when you're already used to their voice especially when it's a downgrade and everyone loves the current Narrator already.

The two different voices

I love this series and the book was no less awesome. I can't wait for book 11. But I was no happy at all withe the 2 different narrartors. I Travis's voice and I hope that going forward it will only be his voice again. Though the other is good, her voice was very distracting and made me want to fast forward past her chapters.

The narration almost kills it

The story is awesome as always , lots of Arthur kicking butt, but the female narrator is so grating I wanted to skip all the Elle and Cara chapters, hearing the known male characters speak in god awful attempts at a masculine voice right after hearing the same characters from Travis killing it was so bad