This has come up several times on Twitter today already, and I am sure I’ll read it a few dozen more times in the Amazon reviews, so I am going to explain the situation one more time in order to have something to link whenever this pops up in the future.
Book 1, AFTERSHOCKS, was narrated by Luke Daniels.
In 2019, I finished two novels, one for each series, and I managed to outpace Luke, who has a very busy narration schedule for Audible because he is awesome and in very high demand. We had to either find a new narrator or delay the audiobook release for a year or more (not a realistic option.) So we chose a new narrator for the Palladium Wars series, Angelo DiLoreto.
Unfortunately, Angelo passed away unexpectedly after he had recorded book 2, BALLISTIC.
Now we needed a new narrator, both for Frontlines book 7 (which also couldn’t be worked into Luke Daniels’ schedule) and Palladium Wars book 3, CITADEL.
I had input on the available narrators under consideration, and I requested that the two series be narrated by two different artists. Since we had to choose new narrators anyway, I wanted each series to have its own voice, to make sure they didn’t sound the same. So Frontlines went to Eric G. Dove, who narrated book 7, ORDERS OF BATTLE, and will to the best of my knowledge also narrate future Frontlines books. I requested Eric because he was the closest to Luke Daniels’ original cadence and voice, and I thought this would help with continuity. I think he did an excellent job carrying on Frontlines, and a lot of listeners seem to agree.
Palladium Wars went to Korey Jackson, whose voice I absolutely love, and who doesn’t sound anything like Eric or Luke. He narrated CITADEL and will (again, to the best of my knowledge) continue to narrate the series.
I understand that people who like to listen to audiobooks like to have continuity when it comes to narrators because it usually feels jarring when you have to get used to familiar characters speaking in a new voice. I feel the same way. But I hope the above explanation will make folks understand why the switch happened, and that it wasn’t arbitrary or somehow related to money or what-have-you.
(I’m sure this reply won’t get posted, or stay up for long given the censorship on every purchasing platform under the guise of “community guidelines”)
The story itself was amazing. Best in the series so far.
You say it’s not about the money… but it’s probably about the money. Not necessarily for you or Luke Daniels though. I refuse to believe that an author and publisher can drop the ball so badly that they are unable to schedule narrators a year plus in advance, even more so for Frontlines (which *was* my favourite series) also “coincidentally” affected. My guess is Amazon are front loading top tier narrators for new series’. But I refuse to reward authors and publishers who change narrators mid series (though I do understand the change from Di Loreto who did an admirable job. RIP).
Unfortunately the experience was ruined by the voice acting and I’m sad to see he will be continuing given the almost unanimously bad feedback – don’t forget even with all of the “bad” reviews that slip by, Audible still curates the reviews making them useless.
Jackson was not the right pick for this style of book. He struggled with the content, was unable to adequately differentiate between all of the characters (in fact it sounded like they barely tried), and worst of all he read the story in a chipper robotic style and the upbeat narration changed the entire tone of the book that was so carefully curated by the author and picked up on by Luke Daniels in book 1, and was continued by Di Loreto in book 2.
If I wanted such a poor experience I would have read it out loud myself.
Book Returned. And I will continue to do so until authors and publishers quit pulling this nonsense.
I’ve just finished listening to Citadel on Audible. That’s all three in four days. Loved them all, excellent story and narration. I’m ready for book four now.
Eric Dove was a great replacement for Luke D.
Maybe a bit too geeky, but if you adjust the playback speed in the Audible app and slow it down just slightly, Dove’s voice will sound more like Daniel’s.
You’re definitely doing the best you can with the hand you’ve been dealt in regards to finding narrators for your books! I think the new narrator is interesting and I’m curious to see how he shapes up as the story progresses.
I’m enjoying Citadel on Audible right now. Korey Jackson is narrating with aplomb!
Eric Dove did an excellent job on Orders of Battle. And did sound like Daniels portrayal of Grayson. I started with the audiobook series, My son would listen to it while in the car with me. So he had me order the books for him to read, which I did. Then he started loaning them to my Father, we all love the series.