Shadows Rising

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

By: Madeleine Roux

Narrated by: Susan Wokoma

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

An all-new official prequel novel to Shadowlands, the next expansion for Blizzard Entertainment's legendary online game World of Warcraft.

"The Horde is nothing!" With those infamous words, Sylvanas Windrunner betrayed and abandoned the Horde she vowed to serve. The Dark Lady and her forces now work in the shadows as both the Horde and Alliance, including her own sister, Alleria, race to uncover her next move. Struggling to shoulder the crushing weight of leadership, King Anduin entrusts the void elf and High Exarch Turalyon to uncover Sylvanas’s whereabouts.

The Horde now stands at a crossroads. The various factions form a council, leaving the mantle of warchief to rest. Thrall, Lor’themar Theron, Baine Bloodhoof, First Arcanist Thalyssra, and many other familiar faces rise to this new challenge. But the threats are numerous, and the distrust runs too deep.

When the council is derailed by a failed assassination attempt on Talanji - the Zandalari queen and a key ally - Thrall and the rest of the Horde leaders are forced into action. They empower the young troll shaman Zekhan, still grieving the loss of Varok Saurfang, with a critical mission to aid Talanji and help uncover the rising threat against her.

Meanwhile, Nathanos Blightcaller and Sira Moonwarden have been tasked by the Dark Lady with a terrifying gambit: to kill the troll loa of death himself, Bwonsamdi.

As Zekhan and Talanji work to save Bwonsamdi, their journey will be a key turning point in bolstering the Horde against the coming darkness and finding themselves along the way. Failure to save their allies and the trickster god will surely doom them - but through success, they may rediscover what makes the Horde strong.

©2020 Madeleine Roux (P)2020 Random House Audio

Unlistenable

I can't believe after all the drama that Blizzard has gone thru they approved this audiobook. It's so hard to get into the story b/c the narrator is so awful! WHY BLIZZARD?? It's like my sister is reading a book to me... Why didn't you use the last narrator or even Scott Brick? Seriously. I can't even listen to this for more than 30 mins before my skin crawls.

PLEASE re-record this... b/c I really want to like this story but this is just awful.

Good story, terrible narrating.

Sadly have to say that the story is pretty darn good, but pretty much ruined by the narrator.

Needs a better narrator

I don't think the narrator had a lot of time to record this as she constantly mixes up the voices of characters, uses voices that do not fit well-established characters (such as Lor'themar or Baine), and makes many of the male characters sound alike (they all sound like orcs, even some of the humans).
The only voice she does well is the voice of Queen Talanji, which isn't a surprise seeing as how she is that character's VA in the game. But any other voice she attempts is horribly mangled. Her version of Lilian Voss springs to mind, whose voice is akin to a chicken being bludgeoned with a sock full of nickels.
I sincerely hope this gets re-recorded with a different narrator; as the story itself was pretty darn good.

Worst voice actor I've ever heard

Had to stop at chapter 5 because of this ladies voice. Every character sounds exactly the same...

Voice Actor RUINED this Book! PLEASE RERECORD THIS

I wanted to get into the story but couldn't even because of the horrible narrating, she could not pull off the male characters and the female ones all sounded the same and were annoying and screechy. I do not know who thought it would be a good idea. Please bring back Scott Brick or a legit voice actor like Graham Malcom of Illidan. PLEASE RECORD THIS!

Needs a Narrator!

I listened twice. The first listen I wasn't a fan, especially due to the narration. The second listen was much more enjoyable though, there are still a few parts that I feel struggle a bit, but overall I really like this new author to the series.

Disappointing

I swear those 4-5 star reviews are bots. The narration was so bad and the storyline was meh. The voice acting is just not up to par when compared to other wow books. I literally own all wow audiobooks and have listened to them multiple times, but this one is definitely a refund. Don’t even want it in my library. I preordered this audiobook like 2 months ago and was so excited when it finally released, but it was such a disappointment..

Annoying

Cuts half of the first word in every other sentence mak es it horrible to listen

Worst voice actor choice ever!

Ok what the hell - was really looking forward to this.
A London girl is a terrible fit for Warcraft - it just doesn't work.
Immersion factor zero.

Interesting

The narration by Susan Wokoma isn't great, and it is really difficult listening to her trying to do male voices because there isn't a lot of differentiation or consistency (especially with Shaw, Ji, Thrall, and Baine) with those voices. I have seen a lot of other reviews saying more or less the same thing so I won't harp on it anymore here.