Age of Legend [Dramatized Adaptation]

The Legends of the First Empire, Book 4

By: Michael J. Sullivan

Narrated by: Amanda Forstrom, Bradley Smith, Chris Stinson, Colleen Delany, Jacob Yeh, Joe Mallon, Nora Achrati, Terence Aselford, Todd Scofield, Tracy Olivera

Each culture has its own myths and legends, but only one is shared, and it is feared by all. With Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and New York Times best-selling Age of War, fantasy master Michael J. Sullivan riveted listeners with a tale of unlikely heroes locked in a desperate battle to save mankind.

After years of warfare, humanity has gained the upper hand and has pushed the Fhrey to the edge of their homeland but no farther. Now comes the pivotal moment. Persephone’s plan to use the stalemate to seek peace is destroyed by an unexpected betrayal that threatens to hand victory to the Fhrey and leaves a loved one in peril.

Humanity’s only hope lies in the legend of a witch, a forgotten song, and a simple garden door.

©2019 Riyria Enterprises, LLC (P)2019 Graphic Audio

Great book! Bad pronunciations

Switching accidentally to this performed version. Many of the pronunciations are inconsistent to the normally read audiobooks. I didn’t like that.

Exciting narration with potential for improvement

Positive:
- FAST narration allowing for 1.0x listening speed (vs. my usual 1.5x). This was absolutely crucial because 1.5x would ruin the sound effects.
- Excellent background sound effects and music.
- One narrator per character

Negative:
- Narration ignored precedents from previous books:
- Malcom's voice was the total opposite of authoritative and fitting of a "god". Also the total opposite of the previous narrators take on him.
- Calling the wolf "minnnna" and not "miiiina"...
- In some segments (<30min total), the background sounds were too loud compared to narration, forcing an uncomfortable listening volume.

A commercial in the middle?!?

I accidentally bought the “graphic version” which I think lowers the quality but I thought “it will be fine for one book”. However, halfway through there was a 10 minute preview of another book and a commercial for graphic audio productions. WTH?! This isn’t the internet. I don’t want an add in the middle of something I purchased. I hope I never accidentally choose “graphic audio” again. Not only was it completely jarring- I thought the book had ended and only when I saw that I had 5 hours left did I stop to inspect, but I had no idea wtf was happening. A different story, with different voices, and at a different VOLUME (I was drifting off to sleep) was just stuffed in the middle. And now that I’m pissed at the company, I’ll also add their sound balance is off. Sometimes it’s hard to heard the reader over all the fake crickets and rain noises. They should probably get that right before they focus on commercials.

Poor story writing meets worse production

I’ve listen to most of the Age of Legend books as well as all of the Ryera series, most in graphic audio. This is BY FAR the worst.

First the actual worry witting. The first half of this book attempts to move the story forward but does so by skipping MAJOR developments for just about every character. These are the things they’ve struggled with or strived for the entire series and this book goes, “oh yeah, that thing they were striving for happened last year”. It completely disconnects you from the characters and makes you not care what happens. I’ve come to expect much better from Mr Sullivan.

Then the graphic audio production. I don’t know who they put on this one but it is not up to their standards. First, swapping talent; Nyphron appears to be played by another actor who sounds NOTHING like the prior one. For a race that isn’t supposed to age quickly, he somehow went from sounding Noble to sounding the the love-child of Hagrid and a dwarf who worked on a shrimping boat his whole life, all in the course of a couple of years. I get that you can’t always get the same talent back but they should at least attempt to sound similar.

Next the music. What distracting garbage. Fight scenes have this terrible music that sounds campy when the characters are supposed to be scared or tense. Then in scenes where the character is having a major emotional breakdown they inject 80’s movie love scene music. I hope whoever did the music and production for this one had moved on.

Lastly, we don’t need a 10 minute ad for graphic audio 3 times per book. It’s grating enough that I think I’m done with Graphic Audio after this book. Stick with the other version and you’ll be much happier.

Ad?

Putting a ad in my audiobook I paid for is unacceptable especially when it is in the middle of my audiobook.