Poor reader detracts from a good story.

Dreadful narrator is the worst I have experienced since joining Audible. No more from him please

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Wake up Michael

Same swift plot as the rest of the books in the series but delivered in a monotonous tone. Narrator manages to make even the most thrilling parts dull. Do not play this while driving!

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Why oh why do they change narrator's

Five books in the series and three different narrators who progressively get worse. Shame as the story series is so well written. It's common in all withe Last Kingdom and Conqueror series both of which are equally as good have the issues with the narrators changing .

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Terrible narration

What did you like best about EMPEROR: The Blood of Gods, Book 5 (Unabridged)? What did you like least?

The story was good. terrible narration, felt like pulling teeth

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator

Was EMPEROR: The Blood of Gods, Book 5 (Unabridged) worth the listening time?

No, read the book instead

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27 people found this helpful

Poor Narration

The narration of this last book in the Emperor series, by Michael Healy, is poor. True, it is better than that of Paul Blake in the previous two books: I gave up on book three after less than an hour and was not prepared to start book four.

Several hours into this book Michael Healy's narration does pick-up just a little as he begins to enter into the spirit of the novel, but throughout, for whatever reason, I felt that the reading left a lot to be desired.

Phrasing is poor: for example, an unnatural slight pause between words sometimes introduces an unintended change of emphasis; at other times it just detracts from the flow.

Inflection, too, is not well-considered: sometimes the effect is only clumsy, at at other times changes in pitch or tone introduce emphasis where none appears to be intended by the author; in the worst cases, though, this clouds the meaning such that I have had to re-play a section. Finally, an irritation: the extraordinarii are mentioned so frequently in the text that they deserve all seven syllables; we hear six (and sometimes only five).

In short, this narrator is put to shame by the masterful performance of Robert Glenister, the narrator of the first two books.

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book 5

wanted desperately to finnish the series, but the narrator nearly beat me down. No feeling or natural flow!!

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Great story, odd narration

As always with Conn Iggulden, the story is a belter; with new characters, the familiar Roman world the author has painted in previous versions comes to life again. However, for me this is spoiled somewhat by the narration. Healy's languid style and lack of expression mean you can easily tune out, and some key moments aren't given the gravity they deserve. Moreover, you get the feeling he's just reading the book (possibly for the first time), rather than truly narrating it. I don't think he's well suited to this type of writing.

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Great Story

Great book. well read.Thanks. Had to leave it a while after the fall of king's book as struggled to make Octavian a Julius bit glad I went back to it!

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Well written as always but disappointing delivery

Narration was poor in comparison to the previous books in the series, the story finished off the series well though

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Vast Colour Delivered in Monotone

If you have invested yourself in Rome and its characters from the previous books then this is definitely a story worth hearing. This book was an afterthought with a logical conclusion of the series having occurred in the fourth novel. However I fully agree with the author that this story is just as compelling and in some ways even more interesting. The naval battle scenes and the story behind the innovation that shaped them were particularly fascinating. Of course, all of the usual senate and society intrigue that we expect from this series is there plus of course the gritty reality of going to war with the legions. By the end you are left with a sense of wonder at how Rome became so great given the in-fighting.

So the story is worth hearing. The question is whether or not you want to hear it on Audible or read it for yourself. I can only recommend you listen to the audio sample. There is once again a change in narrator, coupled with significant changes to the way names and other words are pronounced, mostly reverting to the style of the earlier books. In addition I am afraid that Michael Healy is probably never going to win many awards for his narration. To me he just didn’t have the voice for these characters or the variation in tone that makes listening for extended periods as enjoyable as it could be. To each their own but I can’t recommend this personally and if I had my time again would opt for the Kindle edition.

I do wonder if Iggulden will ever be tempted to write a sixth book. From his excellent historical note it would actually be very fitting for the series title and who could resist Anthony and Cleopatra? If he does then I hope he reverts to one of the previous narrators.

As a series though this has been massively satisfying and even a little educational. The narration problems will definitely put some off but to overlook this series as a result would be a mistake in my book.

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6 people found this helpful