Drowned in Silence

Fifteen Shipwrecks that Shocked the World

By: James Calloway

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Beneath the waves lie stories the world was never meant to forget.
From the doomed voyage of the Titanic to the eerie silence of the Mary Celeste, Drowned in Silence dives deep into fifteen of the most chilling, mysterious, and tragic sea disasters ever recorded. Author James Calloway brings each tale to life with immersive, emotional storytelling that will haunt readers long after the final page.
Survival. Mystery. Loss. The sea remembers everything.

Gripping and haunting stories

I love shipwreck books. I find that these days they scare me more than most horror films. The stories here are haunting and that is what I mean by scary. The fact they are true stories just add to that feeling. For the life of me I can't remember individual tales but that is down to a poor memory at the moment. The reason I wanted to write a review is that this is the first Virtual Voice book I've listened to and I was amazed to find that I could not tell it was not narrated by a human voice. So from expecting the narrative to sound something like a Dalek to discovering just what a pleasure it was, was a revelation. There are a number of narrators in Audible that are tough to listen to and some that couldn't yet be done in Virtual Voice - R.C. Bray for one, but what they are able to do right now is very impressive. So, I advise anyone uncertain to listen to a sample of VV books for yourself. I gave VV a 4 star rating as I felt it was excellent but not yet in the R.C. Bray or Joe Barrett class.

Back to 'Drowned in Silence'. I would absolutely recommend this title to anyone with a fascination for shipwrecks

Probably a great book to read, but the AI narration is laughable

The stories are interesting and well written, but the countless errors in pronunciation, cadence, and structure make it a challenge to listen. In a group of tales about maritime disasters, teach your robot to pronounce “triage”!! Amusingly he says it differently every time *and* wrong every time, an incredible feat of failure. Is it really that cost prohibitive to just hire a human to read? I’d do it free of charge to spare the rest of you from cringing when the AL voice says “one-thousand eight-hundred and forty-seven” to refer to the year 1847, then says “1848” normally.
If you like shipwreck stories, read the book, it contains several i’d never heard of and has some interesting facts. If you like the automated slaughter of spoken English, go ahead and give it a listen.

Unbearable Computer Narrator

Who ever decided that it would be OK to have a computer voice read audible books instead of a human? It would have to be someone who doesn't give a damn about books or consumers listening to them. This narration is AWFUL!!!! Mispronounced words, misplaced inflections, monotone voice as though there is no punctuation or paragraphs or chapters in the book. This book itself is just a rehashing of extremely basic information from sea catastrophies, like cliff notes. It is impossible to evaluate the contents of the book as the excruciating horrible narration cannot be separated from the contents.

AI Voice AND Authored

Not only is this an AI voice, but it’s AI generated as well, as evidenced by the two chapters that begin with the voice reading, “Here’s your 2,000 words on the sinking of the…”