The Silver Horn Echoes: A Song of Roland

By: Michael Eging, Steve Arnold

Narrated by: Julian Pearson

The Dark Ages - a time of great turmoil and the collision of empires! As the Frank kingdom prepares for war, Roland, young heir to the Breton March, has been relegated to guard duty until a foreign emissary entrusts him with vital word of a new threat to the kingdom.

Now Roland must embark on a risky journey to save all he loves from swift destruction. And yet while facing down merciless enemies, he must also reveal the hand of a murderer who even now stalks the halls of power and threatens to pull apart a kingdom reborn under the greatest of medieval kings, the remarkable Charlemagne.

For Roland to become the champion his kingdom needs, he must survive war, intrigue and betrayal. The Silver Horn Echoes pays homage to La Chanson de Roland by revisiting an age of intrigue and honor, and a fateful decision in the shadows of a lonely mountain pass - Roncevaux!

©2017 Michael Eging and Steve Arnold (P)2019 Michael Eging and Steve Arnold

Wonderful Rendition of a Literal Classic

I absolutely LOVED this imaginative telling of the people and events leading up to the classic epic poem "La Chanson de Roland". I found the characters, their motivations and actions all quite realistic and relatable once said motivations were understood. The narration was excellently done, with distinct voices and accents appropriate to the characters. While the timeline and some aspects of geography were altered to allow for a smoother flow of the narrative (one of several points the authors address in the Author's Note chapters after the conclusion of the story), the average reader/listener is likely not to notice the changes because the authors did a fantastic job of maintaining consistency in the alterations. I would absolutely LOVE to see a good studio follow through on a GOOD screen adaptation of this version of the story, preferably as a limited series run rather than a movie so that more detail can be retained. The story has apparently been optioned, so I hold out hope that reviews like this will help get this past the "We have a fully developed script, but no studio has decided to actually make it yet" limbo whither all too many projects languish. Overall I cannot recommend this particular book enough to fans of history, historical fiction, general fantasy, classics or just a really well told dramatic tale.

Disclaimer: I am a little bit of a history geek, particularly of European history from the rise of Rome through the Elizabethan era. I met my wife through our mutual participation in the Society for Creative Anachronism, so this sort of tale is especially right up my alley.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. While my review here is particularly glowing, if you check my profile you will see that I am known to leave neutral and even negative reviews of books I have similarly received for free. I just really loved this one.

The Story of Roland.....Will he save the Day?

Roland is Heir to the Breton March and this story takes place during the Darkest days of the Dark Ages. The Story is about Roland who is part of the Frankish Kingdom. Roland must travel on a Risky Journey to take word back concerning War and Murder. On the journey he fights and runs and has all kinds of problems in his intentions to Save the Day. The story is well written and the Narrator does a good job of keeping your interest alive. I received this Audio Book for Free in exchange for an unbiased Review.
If you want to listen to a good Action related Story about the Dark Ages.....spend the Credit!!

too slow

this story was just a little too slow for my liking to hold my interest.

A nice piece of historic fiction

The Silver Horn Echoes is an expanded take on the old French Song of Roland. Contrary to the medieval version however, the author Michael Eging and his collaborator, Steve Arnold, do not content themselves with the mere retelling of Roland's epic stand at the battle of Roncevaux. Instead, they weave a tale of grand proportion where court intrigues and diplomacy go hand in hand with warfare. The novel was originally intended as a screenplay and that aspect really shows in the shifting narrative foci of the tale. One word of caution, however: The reader would do well not to go into this novel expecting cover-to-cover tales of battle, nor total historical accucary. The author knowingly bends certain historical facts for the sake of narrative tension and storytelling. One could not go into details without spoiling the story; suffice to say that these slight violations to historical facts are not the result of lax research but an expected element of the 'historical fiction' genre. Julian Pearson's voice lends itself well to the story at hand. As a native French speaker, I would say that the narrator's accent mostly does honour to the original pronunciations. Some choices on what to pronounce in French or not, however, annoyed me a little, but at this point it's mostly a matter of personal taste. All in all, The Silver Horn Echoes is an enjoyable listening experience with a very cinematic payoff that pays homage to one of the most gripping tales of medieval heroism.

A fine adventure for historical fiction fans.

This was one of those ones that lingers on my TBF for ages. Then theauthor offeredme a free copy in exchange for an honest review, and that's always a good way to skip the queue.
Amyway, this is a retelling of the Song of Roland (translation), a champion of the Franks, and his adventures around Europe as he tries to solidiy Charlemagne's empire. But not only must he win over his many foes, but his allies too if he is to be successful in his mission.
Let's start with the criticism - it's a bit slow of pace, and the formality of speech and so forth, while accurate, can seem plodding to the modern reader/listener. Don't let that put you of fthough. The story reeks of authenticity, and one can tell this was a labour of love for the author(s). There's lot of bloody battles, political intrigue, a murder-mystery, and all the posturing one would imagine from mefieval knights.
The narrator did a solid job, with a variety accents - at least as we would imagine them today, languages and characters.
I'd give this one something along the lines of 3.75/5