EMPEROR: The Blood of Gods, Book 5 (Unabridged)

By: Conn Iggulden

Narrated by: Michael Healy

Julius Caesar has been assassinated. A nation is in mourning. Revenge will be bloody... Rome's great hero has been brutally murdered by his most trusted allies. While these self-appointed Liberatores seek refuge in the senate, they have underestimated one man: Caesar's adopted son Octavian, a man whose name will echo through history as Augustus Caesar.

Uniting with his great rival Mark Antony, Octavian will stop at nothing to seek retribution and avenge his father's death. His greatest hatred is reserved for Brutus, Caesar's childhood friend and greatest ally, now leader of the conspirators. As the people take to the streets of Rome, the Liberatores must face their fate. Some flee the city; others will not escape mob justice. Not a single one will die a natural death. And the reckoning will come for Brutus on the sweeping battlefield at Philippi.

The epic fifth novel in Conn Iggulden's bestselling 'Emperor' series.

©2013 Conn Iggulden (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Terrible narrator made me wince

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I'd recommend it to anyone who had read the previous books, or anyone wanting to jump in (as the death of Caesar makes a good starting point). However, I would NOT recommend this Audible version, as the narrator ruins the book completely.

What didn’t you like about Michael Healy’s performance?

Everything. It was terrible. But let me try to list my main objections:

- Healy has a strange lilt to his voice that is either an accent or terrible reading skills. The upshot is that every full stop, he lifts his voice the way you sometimes do when reading to young children.

- His reading pace hardly ever changes, meaning even in tense, action-packed moments, it's as if he's reading "My dog Spot" to a room of 5-year-olds.

- He doesn't differentiate between characters as far as I could tell, meaning that when one character interrupts another, it gets reeeeally confusing.

- I don't think he's read the book beforehand; Imagine how you'd say the sentence "I think I'd quite like a sandwich and a nice cup of tea". Now imagine Healy saying, in the exact same way "You're a disgrace to Rome!..." (the exclamation point silent), and then continuing, completely obliviously (and still just as ploddingly) "...shouted Octavian and slammed his fist into the table." The disconnect between how Iggulden claimed Octavian said it and how Healy reads it would be funny, if it wasn't ruining my book.

Any additional comments?

I had to finish this book in hard-copy. Worst narration I've experienced since "Rendezvous with Rama".

why change the narrator?

this is the last book of the series...and with a new narrator? with a worst narrator...almost couldnt finish the book....but the story is great

Get a narrator who knows a little history

What a wooden narration! Made worse by an obvious complete lack of knowledge of the subject matter which led to annoying miss-pronunciation of names & places. Please, Mr Iggulden - a good narrator is almost as important as you! Try Humphrey Bower to see how it is really done.

Terrible Narration

It was an absolute struggle to listen. What a dreadful narration. Wooden delivery and constant rising inflection at the end of sentences. It was like listening to a list, A list with numerous mispronunciations of common English words.

Not Bad

weakest of Iggulden's books on the period, but satisfactory wrap up to the series. Worth listening too