These Savage Shores (Dramatized Adaptation)

Vault Comics

By: Ram V, Vittorio Astone, Aditya Bidikar

Narrated by: full cast, Nazia Chaudhry, Shawn K Jain, Neha Gargava, Khawaja Aziz, Eric Messner, Ian Russell, Peter Holdway, Shravan Amin, Wyn Delano, Grace Srinivasan, Kenyatta Rogers

Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

GraphicAudio and Vault Comics are proud to present These Savage Shores! 

Adapted directly from the graphic novel and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects, and cinematic music.  

In 1766, an insatiable vampire sails from London to the Malabar Coast, aboard an East India Company ship. But along the shores of the Indus lurk darker and more ancient powers, and a war is brewing in the night.  

Along these savage shores, where the days are scorched and the nights are full of teeth.

Two centuries after the first European ship sailed to the Malabar Coast and made landfall at Calicut, The East India Company seeks to secure its future along the lucrative Silk Route, in the year 1766. An old evil now sails aboard a company ship, hoping to make a home in this new found land. But he will soon find that the ground along the Indus is an ancient one with daemons and legends far older than himself.  

Performed by Nazia Chaudhry, Shawn K Jain, Neha Gargava, Khawaja Aziz, Eric Messner, Ian Russell, Peter Holdway, Shravan Amin, Wyn Delano, Grace Srinivasan, Kenyatta Rogers, Andy Brownstein, Bradley Foster Smith, John Kielty, Kay Eluvian, Laura C Harris, Lynette Rathnam, Mark Harrietha, Nick DePinto, Nora Achrati, Pooja Chawla, Rayner Gabriel, Scott McCormick, Shanta Parasuraman, Terence Aselford, Tyler Hyrchuck and Tony Nam. 

©2019 Ram V.; Sumit Kumar (P)2021 Graphic Audio

i WANTED to rate this better

Reading the description on this story, i was down. Knowing it was an adaptation of a graphic novel gave an added bit of curiosity to see if they could translate it well. A full cast also give me a little giddy joy to essentially have a play going on in my head where i dont have to imagine all the various character voices and accents. That's what brought me to the audiobook.

Right off the bat, i was worried. All the voice actors performed their roles well. That part was great but the narrator was so dry and bland, i was imagining how the story would work with just the background noises and dialog. Or, if it would be better suited by having the performers take turns narrating when the scenes were from a given perspective. The reading was just that, a reading. Almost as if they weren't telling a story, just reading a grocery list.

Another problem i had was the adaptation. The story underneath was probably pretty solid, i'm curious about the graphic novel now. Unfortunately, the adaptation to audio format played out at times like the narrator was reading a screenplay, describing what the actors would be doing and seeing rather than telling listeners what's happening. Other times, you can clearly tell the visuals were NEEDED. The term "turned into their FULL VAMPIRE FORM" was meant to be impressive but without a description of said form, it means nothing to a listener. The adaptation writer may as well have added "you'd have been really amazed if you SAW it".

I could rant longer but in the end, this version of the story ebbed and flowed for me. Scenes where it was mostly dialog and characters interacting with each other were interesting and oft times moving with some beautiful things spoken... then the narrator kicked in and i was taken out.... then i'd be justifying what the narrator was doing as the adaptation (what she was given to read) was as good as it could get and she was just doing her job).... then i'd .... oh, as a final note, whomever opted to muddle dialog & narration by raising the volume of the action & soundeffects made a poor decision.