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As per the poll question.

Big fan of all of the ones Ive listened to so far. Like I said in the BL thread, Im not a big fan of the SM voices, but the overall quality (music, sound effects etc.) has been well worth the money.

Regarding Talos's voice: it is booming and snarly but I think that's appropriate for Astartes. Sergeant Kale's reedy voice in Heart of Rage is simply awful. Pinch your nose and say something about doing your duty and you'll get the picture.

Agree about Kale's voice, but I liked Nord's. Had a nice quality to it that I liked listening to.

ETA: Also, sorry about spamming the wrong thread, the Curse of the Dreaded n00b.

Talos' voice is really overwrought and melodramatic, to me.

I realize it might be hard to get an Astartes voice 'right', but that attempt is more 'laughable' than 'menacing', which is what I think they were going for...

How do they sound in Thunder from Fenris?

I haven't given it a listen yet - but I'll post when I can!

(A couple of days away at the most!)

There were some funny attempts at making Astartes sound different from one another in the Lightning Tower / Dark King feats. Ah yes, captain Shang and the huscarl of Rogal Dorn.

One of the Space Wolves in Thunder From Fenris sounds worryingly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Which made me sad.

Pyroriffic wrote:One of the Space Wolves in Thunder From Fenris sounds worryingly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Which made me sad.

Yeah, that doesn't bode well, does it?

Now I'm interested.

Alpharius wrote:

Pyroriffic wrote:One of the Space Wolves in Thunder From Fenris sounds worryingly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Which made me sad.

Yeah, that doesn't bode well, does it?

Maybe not, but the story was awesome, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

So far, got Slayer of the Storm God and Aenarion under my belt.

Slayer is pretty awesome. Aeanorian is enjoyable enough.

I considered looking into these. Is there gun sound effects and screaming sergeants?

More or less! Fantasy ones have plenty of decent FX on them to help set the scene.

The 40k audio books use an awful lot of Dawn of War sound effects and music, especially the heavy bolter rattle.

A Black Ram wrote:I considered looking into these. Is there gun sound effects and screaming sergeants?

Damn straight!

You can even hear the baldness too!

Manchu wrote:How do they sound in Thunder from Fenris?

Hilarious.
As far as i can tell it's mainly 1 guy doing variations on an Arnie impression.
funny as

Personally, it comes down to the selection of narrator... if the accent is wrong or the chosen individual lacks the emotion or ability to convey the script, BL only have themselves to blame.

AvatarForm wrote:Personally, it comes down to the selection of narrator... if the accent is wrong or the chosen individual lacks the emotion or ability to convey the script, BL only have themselves to blame.

Agreed. The quality of the narrator can really make or break an otherwise great book.
Since I own quite a hefty bunch of Star Wars audiobooks, Ill refer to those again: The old audiobooks (like the X-Wing series) have great sound effects, but the narrator is just sooo monotone to listen to. Good thing those are abridged and only 1-1.5 hours each.

The the new fate of the Jedi series is narrated by Marc Thompson and he does an incredible job voicing all the different characters, species, genders, all of it. Add in awesome sound effects and you got one hell of a 14-hour audiobook.

Kudos to BL though for adding in a female voice actres. I really enjoy Octavia for example.

I very much enjoy listening to Toby Longworth, who's done the majority of the BL audios so far. At the moment, and this is me speaking honestly, you understand, I remain to be convinced by the guy doing the audio drama readings. Having listened to the freebie of Horus Rising... I wasn't convinced.

He's not bad, but he's not great, either.

Perhaps he's one of those people who grows on you.

Yes - I liked the addition of the female voice in Throne of Lies. The story called for it an the call was met. Wasn't so sure on the overly Helena Bonham-Carter nature of Octavia, but what can you do?

I've not listened to the freebie portion of A Thousand Sons as the book is on my shelf waiting to be read. As for the other audio dramas, I have enjoyed them a lot. I was already aware of Big Finish through their Doctor Who and 200 AD audio dramas. That gave me a grounding with Toby Longworth who does the voice of Judge Dredd for them. While I like the Space Marine dramas they all blend into one-another after a while as there's only so many ways you can voice a grim gruff Space Marine. Thunder form Fenris was an exception with the Scandinavian accents that are definitely over the top, but then the whole story in that one is ham ham and more ham. Don't misunderstand me, I play Space Wolves in 40K and I do like the story but as with all the other audio dramas the Space Marines all have their CAPS LOCK on. I enjoyed Throne of Lies in terms of the interpretation and audio quality. Talos sounded just as I imagined him from Soul Hunter. Space Marines and Traitor Marines are by their nature generic, so I expect them all to read like a cross between Batman, Wolverine and Dirty Harry at least in my head they do. As with illustrations of 40k, audio productions are always going to challenge the listener to someone else's version of the text. Some readers do well other's not so much.

Regarding the specific titles; Heart of Rage had two very different Marines and they had to sound distinct to show that one was a Standard Marine and the other was a Librarian. My only issue with that story is having listened to Doctor Who audio dramas the voice of Magos Xeren sounded too much like Davros. Waiting Death, the IG story featuring Straken is a bit too Rambo for me but I dont really know the character so it was good for a generic soldiers in the jungle story. Fireborn was ok but I'm getting tired of Space Marines who are always just on the edge of going berserk. The Dark King and the Lightning Tower were a little dull, they are nice background pieces but neither was very compelling. Raven's flight focuses on a great battle but it's overly emotional at the end, crying Primarchs aren't endearing to me. I think that Throne of Lies suffers from that in that Talos seems overly preoccupied with the assassins that killed their Primarch but not in a full on rage of butt kicking so it goes out with a wimper. On the woefully thin fantasy side I loved the Gotrek and Felix story. It's a fun romp and the voices are done well. Aenarion was a disappointment as I enjoyed what there was of it but the lack of conclusion within the drama was rather deflating.

Taken for what they are, all the stories are amusing diversions and good to listen to while painting. Just don't expect them to be particularly intellectual

P.S. If they do another Night Lords book with Talos they should have him use his body rupturing / destroying scream.

Bloodwin wrote:Space Marines and Traitor Marines are by their nature generic, so I expect them all to read like a cross between Batman, Wolverine and Dirty Harry at least in my head they do.

Oh, good grief. Now all the Silver Skulls in my story are demanding that I finish every sentence they utter with 'bub'. Curse you! 'I'm a Silver Skulls Space Marine. Go ahead. Make my day, bub.'

Bloodwin wrote:The Dark King and the Lightning Tower were a little dull, they are nice background pieces but neither was very compelling.

I quite enjoyed both of those for the very reason you state - they are nice background pieces. Of the two, I liked The Lightning Tower more and actually found myself really liking Rogal Dorn by the end of it.

Bloodwin wrote:Raven's flight focuses on a great battle but it's overly emotional at the end, crying Primarchs aren't endearing to me.

Ah, yes. Corax and his single, perfect tear of emo man pain. I think that it was appropriate for the moment. I very much enjoyed the battle of wills between the Praefector and the Adeptus Astartes part of the story, but found by the end of it that it felt cut short. I wanted more. Which is probably a good thing.

I must buy the fantasy ones, actually. Maybe Saturday.

I would read the current state of the poll to mean that BL could make much more money off of audio titles if they had a better distribution process. I hope the current dalliance with digital proves to be a longterm strategy.

I've enjoyed them all, some more than others. "Slayer of the Storm God" stands above the others by a lot for me, I suspect perhaps due to Mr. Long's background as a screen writer.

I think I have all of them and have enjoyed all of them for what they are.

reds8n wrote: I've enjoyed them all, some more than others. "Slayer of the Storm God" stands above the others by a lot for me, I suspect perhaps due to Mr. Long's background as a screen writer.

I was actually thinking of this title when I asnwered the poll and posted my previous response. I am in disagreement with you there. I think Long has ruined King's series.

meh, King did that when he made it obvious he didn't want to write or finish Giantslayer, Mr. Long has, IMO so YMMV here, saved the series and actually moved the characters on wonderfully.