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  • The Orc King

  • Transitions, Book I
  • By: R. A. Salvatore
  • Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
  • Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (177 ratings)
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The Orc King cover art

The Orc King

By: R. A. Salvatore
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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Summary

Drizzt is back, and facing a world changed forever!

An uneasy peace between the dwarves of Mithral Hall and the orcs of the newly established Kingdom of Many-Arrows can't last long. The orc tribes united under Obould begin to fight each other, and Bruenor is determined to finish the war that nearly killed him and almost destroyed everything he's worked to build.

But it will take more than swords and axes to bring a lasting peace to the Spine of the World. Powerful individuals on both sides may have to change the way they see each other. They may have to start to talk. And it won't be easy.

This book wasn't just the next installment in the long-running saga of the famous dark elf, but the beginning of a bold new trilogy that will help change the face of the Forgotten Realms world forever.

TM & ©2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC

Don't forget to listen to more adventures of the Forgotten Realms.
©2008 R. A. Salvatore (P)2009 Random House

What listeners say about The Orc King

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Alright

Don’t have much to say about the story; like other entries in the Drizzt series it’s nothing that will blow you away, but is a solid enjoyable outing nonetheless. It is (or at least this version) however hampered by the narrator.

Bramhall isn’t a bad narrator as such, but various points detract from his performance:
1) the change from Victor Bevine who has narrated up to this point is an abrupt one and is distracting, most notably because they don’t use the same voices for the characters (which in fairness isn’t much of a surprise as it’d require a very skilled voice artist to replicate the voices of another). Now everyone is entitled to their own take on the characters, but the effect is like if in say season 4 of a tv series every single character was recast, which would break emersion; and as it looks like Bevine is back for the next arc in the series, to extend the analogy it’d be as if all the original cast was brought back in season 5.
2) early on Bramhall sounds a bit bored, or as if he’s phoning it in. As things go on he gets a bit more lively and into the role, so hopefully this problem won’t be present in the next book in this trilogy.
3) he over enunciates some words. Regular words in the English language he’s okay with, but various names and the like he puts a lot more stress on than needed; the best analogy I can think of is like in a dub of an anime where the voice artists speak normally when speaking English, but put on a strong Japanese accent for the odd word of Japanese (such as names) that’s still present which sounds abrupt and forced.
4) inconsistent pronunciation. This is partly a mix of 1 and 3 as some words he pronounces differently from Bevine. Again, this isn’t an issue with regular English words but with fictional names/words (eg Menzoberranzan). A handful he’s even inconsistent with himself (eg ‘Wulfgar’ is pronounced as ‘Wolf-gar’ half the time and as ‘Woof-gar’ the other half).
5) some times when he uses the letter ‘s’ it sounds as if he’s spitting all over the script. I’m unsure if he has a slight lisp or if it’s an issue with the recording equipment, but either way it can be distracting some times.

Overall he’s not a bad narrator, but all these issues together snowball to detract from the performance. If this was the only Drizzt book I’d listened to/planned on listening to I’d probably have rated the performance higher and if he was narrating a stand alone book or a different series from the beginning they wouldn’t stop me from listening.



Overall I’d rate this audiobook a 3-3.5 out of 5 and I’d probably bump it to a 3.5-4 if it were to be re-recorded with Bevine for sake of consistency.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • BB
  • 23-12-16

Narration

Didn't recognise some of the characters due to changed pronunciation. Very distracting. Spoilt the book.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Why a different narrator?

I’ve worked my way through the entire Drizt series, really enjoyed most of it, but am truly disappointed that I no longer recognise the characters by the reading. I am probably going to skip the rest of the series. Hey ho!

Gave story 1 star because the narration is so distracting.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

bring back Victor Bevine

after so many books with Victor narrating I just can't get immersed in this book. Mark's voice just kills it for me. so much so I've bought the paper backs just to move past his contribution to the series.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awful narrator

Whoever have this narrator his job needs to lose their own. Good story though.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful story - shocking narration

More great adventures from the Drizzt saga, but the narration is painful and difficult to listen to.

You will barely recognise names you’re used to hearing from countless other Drizzt novels as they’re nearly all pronounced so profoundly different it is very confusing as you decipher who is meant to be who.

The majority of the narration is monotonous with little of the energy added by Victor Bevin.

It is also difficult to tell who is meant to be speaking as many of the characters are performed in the same voice.

If it wasn’t an essential part of the story arc I would skip altogether.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The new narrator did a bad job

The story is very good as always.

But it is a BIG issue, the narrator changed the pronunciation of many of the characters names.

He is a good narrator no doubt. BUT someone should have told him NOT to change the way the names a pronounced.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The reader is unbearable

The reader is unbearable after listening to earlier books read by Victor Bevin. :(
Non-continous reading, bad declamation, monotonous tone. Like an undergraduate kid learning how to read...

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narration is lacking

It is hard to follow the story as this voice actor seems to have a hard time maintaining different voices, so I have a hard time connecting with which character says what. Also, couldn't he have tried to maintain the previous narrator's pronunciaton of character names so I'd know which character is which, or to at least maintain familiarity?

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

took time

story was good as always it was shock of different reader pronunciation was all wrong

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1 person found this helpful