Great story but...

Enjoyed the story as I am a fan of the books , however the narration was poor with terrible pronunciation. Shame they didn't use the same narrator as the other necroscope books.

8 people found this helpful

Why

A great book, ruined in large part by poor voice acting and inability of the narrator to read the words put in front of him Both narrator and producer should hang their heads in shame

8 people found this helpful

Oh Dear, what have they done!

As a long-term fan of Brian Lumley, I really felt I needed to write a review for this one.

Firstly, the good: This is another great story, the whole series of Necroscope books are truly exceptional and well worth a read, or listen (in the case of the prior 3 books).

The bad: This is the 4th in the series and brings in a new publisher and with it a new narrator. It's never good when narrator changes part way through a series, but in this case, it is a total disaster. I quite like Michael Troughton as an actor, but his voice is completely wrong for a book as dark as this. The whole tone of voice, inflection etc really just doesn't fit. At times I thought I was listening to the narration of a famous 5 book. Trust me, Necroscope books are not Famous 5! If this was a lighter book or a “youth fiction” book he’d be great.

Pronunciation: The narrator really has some issues here, I get it for some things but when you are mispronouncing the name of the main protagonists (Wamphyri) of the book you have a problem (surely you would check with the author). 5 minutes on the Brian Lumley web site would show how it is pronounced (it is in the FAQ!), and it certainly isn’t “wamfry”, which sounds (and was pronounced) more like something you’d call your cute pet goat, rather than the most evil, blood thirsty race in creation!

Voices: Some truly horrible ones here, which really don’t fit the book (probably partly down to the narrator’s tone of voice). Starts on a low with some gypsy women which sound like bad Yoda impressions. Most of the ‘female’ voices end up as the worst ‘comedy old lady’ you’ve heard, and the main vampire (remember, evil blood sucking demons) sounding more like a kindly Gandalf.

Sound effects: Wow, were these overused. Less annoying that the above issues, but again they didn’t fit or where of poor quality. Wolf calls that sound like someone shouting “owwwwww” into a tin can, echo on some things being "thought" (but not all!), the list goes on.

I hope the publisher takes this, and other reviews on board and switches narrator for the future books in the series (and re-record this one… PLEASE!). They have some good narrators reading other Brian Lumley books (such as Simon Vance), so why not use one of those, at least they’ll be familiar which the style.

I can’t see myself purchasing others if they don’t.

7 people found this helpful

Having a hard time with this one!

Firt of all I should say it's not because of the story because thats great! As other reviews have said, the new narrotor is totally unsuitable for this title, the voices are all wrong and the pronounciation of many words such as Wamphyri is completley wrong which really distracts you from the story. The original narrator for the series was a 1000 times better, please audible suggest to the publishers that they bring him back for the remaining titles or at least get someone more suited, as another reviwer sugested Simon Vance would be good I think.

Heres a little tip for Michael Toughton: HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE WAMPHYRI?

"Vam" as in vampire – "phyr" as in fear – and "i" as in eek! Vam-fear-ee, with a hissed, slightly extended emphasis on the fear bit!

6 people found this helpful

Why !!

The narration has changed from the previous books. This has a big impact on what are already established characters. There is also added effects that are completely unnecessary,I feel like it's been done due to the lack of depth In the voice actor. On current form I doubt I will move forward with the next book/books..

6 people found this helpful

Great story however the narration let's it down.

If you can put up with ancient evil vampires sounding like Father Christmas then this books for you!!

4 people found this helpful

At this point not sure I’ll finish

I read this book long ago so I know the story is as great as the previous however the narrator is so bad along with the awful sound effects that has been added at this point I’m not sure I’ll finish this book and I’m only on chapter 2!

3 people found this helpful

Disappointing

I have been following the Necroscope saga on audible and loving every book. Unfortunately, I was left very disappointed after finishing this one. My disappointed started in the first chapter and it's all due to the narrator.

This is an excellent story that is exceptionally well written (though someone should point out to Brian Lumley that Bram Stoker was Irish not English!). The story is, however, let down by poor narration.

I know that it is difficult for any narrator to take over half way through a project when characters have already been developed. I do think that Michael Troughton had a tough job taking over from the amazing work James Langdon has done with this series. So, I may excuse him for getting Harry's mother's accent wrong and a few other inconsistencies but getting key words wrong in the narrative that form part of the bedrock of the author's world is inexcusable.

Who on earth are the Wam-Free??? It's Vam-Fear-E. I know it is spelt with a "w" but there is a ton of sources that clearly point out it's pronounced as a "v" - as in Vampire. And even if the narrator was excused for pronouncing it with a "w" why on earth has he changed the rest of the word from "phyri" (fear-e) to "phri" (free)?

The mispronunciation of what are, arguably, the most important characters in the series is unbelievable. It is such a glaring and annoying error that it distracts the listener from the story every time it is said.

Michael Troughton is a truly excellent actor, I doubt anyone would debate that. However, he has failed to do even the smallest amount of research into this book series before embarking on this project - very unprofessional in my opinion. I doubt if he would be so lackadaisical with a character he was portraying on tv.

Asking a few simple questions before starting this project, going online for just 10 minutes or simply listening to a previous audio would have given the narrator all the information he needed to complete this project successfully.

I should also add that his portrayal of many of the characters is simply not dark enough. Rather than a wamphyri (Vam-Fear-E) talking it sounds like a "baddie" from a kid's program.

Unfortunately, this book has left me considering whether I want to continue with the series or not as I did not get to enjoy the story as much as I should have due to the irritating narration. I won't even go into the totally unnecessary sound effects.

This book needs recorded again with a different narrator more suited to dark nature of the story. Or, maybe it is simply time to switch to paper format.

2 people found this helpful

Great book but horrible Narrator

I love the entire Necroscope series (and all of Lumley's work for that matter) and I was looking forward to listening to the Audio books, The first 3 books were Narrated amazingly by James Langton but the Narration by Michael Troughton is just awful. The accents are terrible and the performance is just shockingly bad

Necroscope IV

Excellent story and well narrated. I highly recommend it it anyone interested in vampire stories.