The Wrath of N'Kai (Dramatized Adaptation)

Arkham Horror, Book 1

By: Josh Reynolds

Narrated by: Andy Brownstein, Chris Davenport, Chris Genebach, Evan Casey, Ken Jackson, Kimberly Gilbert, Lawrence Redmond, Michael Glenn, Adrian Garcia, Earl Fisher, Valentine Vinci

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

The first in a new range of dramatized audiobooks of eldritch adventure from the wildly popular Arkham Horror; an international thief of esoteric artifacts stumbles onto a nightmarish cult in 1920s New England.

Countess Alessandra Zorzi, international adventurer and thief, arrives in Arkham pursuing an ancient body freshly exhumed from a mound in Oklahoma, of curious provenance and peculiar characteristics. But before she can steal it, another party beats her to it. During the resulting gunfight at the Miskatonic Museum, the countess makes eye contact with the petrified corpse and begins an adventure of discovery outside her wildest experiences. Now, caught between her mysterious client, the police, and a society of necrophagic connoisseurs, she finds herself on the trail of a resurrected mummy as well as the star-born terror gestating within it.

Performed by Ken Jackson, Valentin Vinci, Kimberly Gilbert, Michael Glenn, Adrian Garcia, Lawrence Redmond, Chris Genebach, Chris Davenport, Earl Fisher, Andy Brownstein, Evan Casey, Christopher Walker, Andy Clemence, Terence Aselford, Jon Vertullo, Michael John Casey, Danny Gavigan, Tanja Milojevic, Richard Rohan, Nanette Savard, Bradley Foster Smith, Scott McCormick, Nick DePinto, Matthew Schleigh.

©2020 Asmodee Entertainment Limited (P)2022 Graphic Audio LLC

Thrilling

I listen to many audio books and podcasts, but none has held my attention more than this dramatization. zIbpickef this up on a whim and I don't regret it. I honestly felt like I was reading a story with each character's voice in my mind. Listen to this, you will not be disappointed.

Fantastic story and Pulpy feel

WRATH OF N'KAI by Josh Reynolds is a licensed game tie-in novel, specifically for Arkham Horror. I don't play Arkham Horror but a friend of mine does and it basically seems to be a boardgame version of Chaosiums' Call of Cthulhu, except published by Fantasy Flight Games. I have an interesting relationship with game tie-in fiction. Basically, it's what made me the reader I am today.

I was a fanatical consumer of Dungeons and Dragons fiction from around thirteen to nineteen with perhaps two hundred or so books under my belt. All of them five-dollar paperbacks from my local Waldenbooks: Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and so on. Technically, my love of the Star Wars Expanded Universe was the same as I devoured the books chiefly because of my love of Star Wars D6 by West End Games. Later, I'd read a large chunk of Dan Abnett and William King's work in Warhammer and Warhammer 40K.

Even as a teenager, I felt they were essentially like fast food. They were filling, what I wanted, and not at all "good" for me. Some of them were things that stayed with me for decades, though, like Dragonlance Legends by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I always felt Chaosium missed the boat by not churning out Call of Cthulhu books the same way TSR did. Perhaps it was a fear that they would dilute the brand by having investigators fighting against the Mythos versus going insane or dying horribly as the stereotype of Lovecraft protagonists was.

Which is a very long winded introduction into saying that Wrath of N'Kai is book I wish I'd read twenty years ago and was a trilogy rather than a standalone. It's exactly what I want from a Cthulhu Mythos themed adventure novel and a Pulpy throwback that hits the spot perfectly. No one will ever accuse me of having refined tastes but I read a lot (350 Goodreads ratings last year) and this is on track to being my favorite read of 2023. There's a beauty to sincere use of adventure and classic horror movie tropes that jumps off the page.

The premise is a beautiful female cat burglar, Countess Alessandra Zorzi, has been hired to steal a mummy found by archaeologists working in Oklahoma. Existing in the world of Call of Cthulhu/Arkham Horror, a lot of her clients are occultist weirdos so this doesn't strike her as too strange. Befriending a young cabbie named Pepper who becomes her sidekick, stalked by an insurance investigator PI out to see her jailed, and dealing with old enemies who want to see her dead--she would be an interesting protagonist even without the Cthulhu Mythos elements.

But the use of Cthulhu Mythos elements are well done and Arkham is brought to life in a rich not-entirely-realistic way that makes me feel the city is a Waterdeep or Mos Eisley I'd love to visit. I admit part of the fun is picking out all the references I get. The Order of the Silver Twilght? I remember those guys! They were the villains of The Shadows of Yog Sothoth! Is that a reference to HP Lovecraft's The Mound? Why, yes, it is.

The Countess is really the best reason to enjoy this book, though, as she has a kind of Phryne Fisher 1920s style free spirited energy and enjoyment factor that makes her a tremendous read. She's not a real countess, she drove an ambulance in WW1, and keeps a pistol for dealing with disgruntled clients as well as victims both. It says what I think best needs to be said about this book that I really wish I had more books about her and Pepper robbing evil wizards across Europe or the Americas. Kudos also to the cover artist for successfully evoking what sort of book this is by the art style.

The 1st of many I hope!

This was really solid, a bit below Dark Adventure Radio Theatre but I loved this story and the performances by the various narrators! Highly recommended!

Period pulp adventure in the Lovecraft vein

After devouring all of the Dark Adventure Radio Theater Lovecraft adaptations I was looking hungrily for some other audio drama pulp story similar to their work. Graphic Audio does some of the best fully voiced works out there and I was not disappointed with this outing. I hope they do more. As for the story, it could have been better but I enjoyed it none the less. Please give it a shot if you enjoy pulpy little adventures.

Excellent storytelling

The cast of people to play the different characters made the story so much better

Slow, dull, and dumb

The plot takes several agonizing hours to get going, and when it does you won't like any of the characters enough to care. The main character is a Mary Sue who can do no wrong. She can outsmart anyone, physically overpower even the toughest opponent, and she's a crack shot to boot. In short, she is damn annoying and I spent most of the book hoping in vain that she would get a moment of comeuppance that never came.

The story also fails to in any way feel like a Lovecraft story, except in the most superficial ways. It's in the 20s, in Arkham, and... There are monsters, I guess? But it has none of the style, themes, or science fiction elements that are core to HPL stories.

if nothing else, this will really make you appreciate how good the HPL Historical Societies output is. If you want to see this concept done right, I recommend Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Not a play

“Full cast” doesn’t make it an audio play. Granted, I gave up a couple hours in but this is a second rate novel with minimal sound effects and multiple people reading the dialogue. Not worth it.