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  • Dreams of Steel

  • The Fifth Chronicle of the Black Company
  • By: Glen Cook
  • Narrated by: Rachel Butera
  • Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (117 ratings)
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Dreams of Steel cover art

Dreams of Steel

By: Glen Cook
Narrated by: Rachel Butera
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Summary

Croaker has fallen and, following the Company's disastrous defeat at Dejagore, Lady is one of the few survivors - determined to avenge the Company and herself against the Shadowmasters, no matter what the cost. But in assembling a new fighting force from the dregs and rabble of Taglios, she finds herself offered help by a mysterious, ancient cult of murder--competent, reliable, and apparently committed to her goals.

Meanwhile, far away, Shadowmasters conspire against one another and the world, weaving dark spells that reach into the heart of Taglios. And in a hidden grove, a familiar figure slowly awakens to find himself the captive of an animated, headless corpse. Mercilessly cutting through Taglian intrigues, Lady appears to be growing stronger every day. All that disturbs her are the dreams which afflict her by night--dreams of carnage, of destruction, of universal death, unceasing....

©1990 Glen Cook (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Dreams of Steel

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

A shame about the change of narrator


Story - 4/5

A great conclusion to the Books of the South. There wasn't as much action as in previous books, which has been one of this series' biggest assets, but what you get instead is a fantastic game of power, where Lady brutally plays the politicians, religious heads and faction leaders to re-establish the Black Company's power, and gain revenge on those who destroyed it.

I enjoyed the change of viewpoint in this story. We got so used to Croaker having a heart and caring for his men that having a cold and (almost) emotionless protagonist lead the company was quite refreshing.

The big discovery near the end didn't come as big of a shock to me as I think it was supposed to (although this may be different for others), but I loved it all the same, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series to see what comes of it. If you have enjoyed the books thus far, you are sure to love this one too.


Performance - 3/5

Although I understand the change of narrator for this audio book (the change of main character viewpoint from a man to a woman), I wasn’t a huge fan. Lady’s voice was dominant in the story, but we already had a good voice from Marc Vietor for this character, which I would have preferred them to continue using

Rachel Butera was good at reading the story; describing scenes and helping to build up the dark atmosphere, but some of her character voices were quite bad at times. Not all of them were awful, but some male characters were particularly bad, and it did detract from the story a little.


Overall - 3.5/5

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

Changed reader

Changing the reader from a gruff man voice to a sexy woman somehow flattens the mood to listen to a book about an all-men mercenary company.

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1 person found this helpful

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

Decent story but poor narration

Awful narrator but story continues well. Really struggled with the reading but the book was ok

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

New narrator

Was worried about a new narrator as I’ve really enjoyed Marc Vietor up until now, but having a. Woman narrate when the majority of this book is from Lady’s perspective was something I enjoyed a lot

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

Terrible narrator

Love these books. The change of narrator is very disappointing. Good idea to have a female voice but the chosen narrator read badly and is not good at male character voices.

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

do not buy the audio book.

Honestly, I really have minimal grounds to write this review. I haven't completed the book (and don't intend to) and did not catch the change in narrator before buying, so thats on me.

The narration is so jarring, with bad accents and inflections not natural to flow of speech. I cannot take in what is being said as I'm too annoyed at the quality of this, I have no idea who produced this and editing but it's near as bad as the narration itself. Sloppy production with poor narration led to me not being able to do what I love; chill out to another great book in the series.

Take my review with a pinch of salt, listen to the sample first maybe. As for Audible Frontiers, get it together.

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