The Binding Stone

Eberron: The Dragon Below, Book 1

By: Don Bassingthwaite

Narrated by: Adam Epstein

Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

The first book in a series of dark tales and high adventure in the Eberron™ campaign setting. The Binding Stone features the brand-new races that were created specifically for the Eberron campaign setting. It's also the first Eberron novel to take its listeners on an exploration of many uncharted territories in the setting.

©2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Adam gets a lot better throughout the series.

I had trouble slogging through this at first, because I felt the narrator wasn’t engaging. He gets better towards the end of the three books, and by the end he’s one of the best narrators I’ve listened to.

So, if you feel like I did on this, push through. It’s worth it.

Epic story, horrible narrator.

I'm not one to write a review often. But I felt I had to this time, because there are people out there that may never get past the mediocre/frustrating narrator, in order to truly enjoy the story being told.
I read these series of novel years ago, and hungrily devoured every word contained within the pages. This trilogy is what sparked my love for the world of Eberron.
Recently I was excited to see that there was an audio book version of the books I remembered so fondly. So I immediately spent my credit to pick up this audio book, and couldn't wait to listen to it.
After three hours of listening to this audio book, I had to stop because the narrator kept pulling me out of the story. Here are the reasons why:
1. The narrator had no sense of urgency, and just plodded along, even in action sequences.
2. The narrator did not pronounce the names of things correctly. This was most prevalent in his choice on how to pronounce the name of one of the main character's name - Singe. He pronounced it "sing", like "to sing a song". The proper pronunciation is "singe", like "if you stand too close to the fire, you might singe your pants". The character throws fire constantly, and has a ring that absorbs fire, so him being named Singe (a distinctly fire based moniker) makes sense. You would think that this is a minor gripe, but think about how many times you here a character's name in a story told in the third person. Every single time the narrator said "Sing" (instead of Singe), I was immediately pulled out of the story.
3. The last thing that ruined this listen, is that I absolutely detest the voice the narrator decided to give one of the main characters - Geth. This is one of my favorite character's in the story, because of his haunted past, and his gruff demeanor. Kind of like a Wolverine type personality, as he's dangerous, fiercely loyal, but always trying to do the right thing. He's a shifter, meaning he is descended from a race of lycanthopes, and has a beastial and sometimes feral look about him. The narrator, for some reason, decided that the perfect way to portray him, was as a slow, dim witted person. The slow pace of the narrator, grinds down further every time Geth has any lines. To the point that I feel the narrator thinks that Geth is learning disabled, or speaking through the verbal equivalent of molasses.

I'm one to give a story every chance, but I cannot in good conscience recommend this "audio book" to anyone. But if you have the time, I highly recommend you read the Kindle or paperback version, as this is quite the epic tale.

Shatner

the other comment is right I feel like I'm listening to an old episode of star trek

Not that... Good.

Played on 1.3 speed and the narration wasn't horrible. He took a page. Out of the. William shatner school. Of talking.

Great book

While I admire many of the performers people who are reading these books. I think that maybe they should learn sometimes to pronounce basic words the character's name is not saying it's sinch it's in it's finish it's a pretty basic thing it's a real word even. Other than that everything was really good.

Grest Story Overcomes Poor Narration Direction

I blame the director, not Adam Epstein for the goofy narration! It was his job to rein Adam's acting and over-acting in! All the other reviews have said all that can be said about the narration, but I have a problem with the pronunciation of a main characters name that is like nails on a blackboard EVERYTIME it is said(which is A hell-of-a-lot!)! THE NAME IS SINGE, NOT "SING" The name SINGE rhymes with HINGE NOT DING! His favorite powers are FIRE RELATED, therefore the moniker of SINGE makes whole lot of sense, correct!?

Bad narration

Like Will Shatner taught lessons and said YES,... I Want... More... Toughed through it at 1.6 speed because I wanted to know more about the setting. Producers dropped the ball on this one.

Great book, poor narration

Good book, but it felt like the narrator just did one take or didn't take it seriously? Geth's voice sounds like a drunk Stallone impression, the narrator keeps calling one of the main characters Singe "sing" and just a bunch of other blunders. Just really makes for an unpleasant listening experience for something that's a clear good read

worst narrator I have ever heard.

The narrator seems to have no concept of the mood of the scene. I get the impression he might do well with children's books but this is definitely not his genre. Unfortunately I will not be finishing this book as I can not stomach any more of his narration and I will stay clear of any of his books in the future.

Poor Performance Distracts from Great Story

First off, the story is fantastic. The narrator, however, has terrible pronunciation and talks so slowly and with such erratic cadence that I had to speed up the audio to tolerate it. It's a shame he does all the books in the series, as I'll have to suffer through it to hear the amazing story!