Unexpected and Amazing

I grew up in the 80s and 90s listening to the Jeff Wayne musical of War of the World on vinyl as my dad was a fan of it from the very beginning. WotW has been a part of my life practically since I was born, and it is important to me as something I shared with my dad who passed away about 12 years ago. I found out about this shortly after waking up this morning, and I had purchased it before I even had time to realize what I was doing. I do not regret this decision. The story is great (even with the deviations from the original, which I actually quite enjoyed.) The acting is great. The music is great. I just wish my dad was still alive so he could listen to this.

14 of 14 people found this review helpful

Wonderful production paired with a classic story.

I've loved Jeff Wayne's rendition of 'The War of the Worlds' ever since I was a kid. So once I heard of this audiobook I immediately had to get it. After listening to it in practically a single sitting I was not disappointed and was impressed with how this turned out

If you're thinking about getting this, please understand this is not an unabridged telling of H.G. Wells' classic, nor is this a complete recreation of Jeff Wayne's musical; It is it's own thing. While the story beats are identical, with just extremely minor changes to help make the audiobook flow better. The narrative here is classic and well put together, as to be expected judging from the source material.

As you can tell by the credits, there are a good deal of narrators, each playing individual characters from the novel, and each one does a spectacular performance. Michael Sheen does a jaw dropping job playing the main character (dubbed George in this rendition). You can feel the despair and loss as the story continues through his delivery. I was especially surprised with Anna-Marie Wayne's performance as George's wife. I wasn't familiar with her previous works but she blew it out of the water here. Everyone did a spectacular performance, and all the different characters were fun and interesting to listen to. Kudos all around.

Now, we get to Jeff Wayne himself. His music from the Next Generation version of the musical is used all throughout the book. Individual music queues, sound effects and references are used in the appropriate time in the story to add the appropriate atmosphere. When the main character is at Horsell Common and you've heard Jeff Wayne's musical before; you already know what is being played in the background. However this isn't a complete copy and paste from the musical. There is some original or remixed pieces of music created for this, and that variation did actually keep me more interested. Also there is no singing in the audiobook, which means no Spirit of Man, Thunder Child, Eve of the War or Forever Autumn. There are call backs to it, but... we don't get to hear Justin Hayward singing about how the winter winds will be much colder in this rendition.

I could go on about the sound design, and production quality, but this review is getting long enough as it is (I didn't mean to write an essay. Haha). If you can't tell, I absolutely adore this audiobook. It captures the fantastic story about an empire's fall that helped defined a genre, paired with the music we've loved so well. If you're a fan of the classic H.G. Wells' novel and have yet to listened to Jeff Wayne's musical, or if you're a fan of both. Do yourself a favor and pick this up. You won't be disappointed.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

HG Wells meets Jeff Wayne

A more or less full cast production of the novel set against the backdrop of Jeff Wayne's wonderful musical score. I have the original version of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds Musical Drama, and at first I missed Richard Burton as the Voice of the Narrator, but Michael Sheen did a wonderful job, as did the rest of the cast. I felt I was there in several spots. Very well done, very much enjoyed, very highly recommended if you're looking for a one sitting listen. And even if you're not.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Interesting adaptation

I thought this was an interesting adaptation of The War of the Worlds. I thought the narration was very good. I really liked Michael sheen’s narration and loved Theo James as the parson. While I enjoyed the music, I thought there were quite a few times where it went on for too long and it was much louder than the narration which was a bit annoying because I had to constantly adjust the volume. Overall, I did enjoy it though.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Updated War of the Worlds

A very interesting remix. I have long been a fan of Jeff Wayne’s musical and having his additions on music to the book was striking. Michael Sheen as the journalist was fantastic as was Taron Edgerton.

My biggest complaint was that the songs weren’t in this version, just the background and symphonic stuff. I kept breaking out into song when I expected the music to lead that way.

Weird to see the heat ray shifted away from the Ulla that I am familiar with, but I understand the change.

All told, well done!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Beautifully Done

First, I have been a huge fan of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds since the original came out in 1978. I have collected nearly every version and format released since then, including the computer game.

This version is amazing. It focuses more on the drama instead of the music, but the music is still there and sounds as great as it ever did. This is a good thing as this is a drama and the music is the focus on all of the previous albums and concerts.

The performances are all top-notch.

This version really adds some great new elements to the story, as well as keeping of the best parts of the original.

As a huge fan of the original I absolutely loved this. If you have not ever heard the original, I would suggest that you should listen to it first. I believe that you might enjoy this more if you did. This is just a suggestion though; I think you will love this either way.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fantastic Artistry

What a delight to find this production. I stumbled across it accidentally and immediately had my curiosity piqued. I liked Wayne's original production, although it hasn't aged especially well, so I wondered how this version would sound. The update is magnificent. The production quality, sound effects, and narration are all top-notch, and the music feels urgent and contemporary. It's as though Wayne has spent the intervening years considering all the things he could do to perfect his original vision, and he took full advantage of the opportunity. I'm so pleased and impressed.

Best audio adaptation of the War of the Worlds

This is great. It has very much gone back to an adaptation closer to the book. Most Radio and audio dramatizations are very short being an hour or two long, this one is not overly shortened. The music, sound effects and acting is excellent. As for a Welsh actor, well, Richard Burton did OK in the original album and he was Welsh. Sheen is brilliant in this. Easily the best audio dramatization of this story ever, and I have them all. Multiple excellent BBC radio adaptations, independent radio, great audiobooks and even “the coming of the martians” with Colin Morgan funded on Kickstarter. This adaptation blows them all away, made better with the music we have known an loved since 1978. If you like War of the Worlds, and/or Jeff Wayne’s music, you will love this.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Just heard the original two weeks ago!

This was great to listen to, especially after hearing the original one. It was great hearing a more detailed version but at the same time knowing the full songs from the original. Thoroughly enjoyable!

It's different...

Less music and more story make for something different with plenty of callbacks. Still great.