A Kiss of Death and Rebirth

By: M. Owens, Mr. Brogath

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

For a necromancer, death is a central part of life... but what's a girl to do when her own early death is fast approaching? In creating a golem to help her with basic tasks in her final days, her memories of a past love throw off the spell. What results is a strange, beautiful woman, with free will and feelings of her own. Now, with her new companion supporting her, Celeste wants to make up for her enormous past mistakes in aiding her kingdom's bloody conquests. But... will there be enough time?

a fun look at AI voice acting

I enjoyed listening to this AI voice acting; it is on par with high-end amateur voice acting you might find today, or even professional voice acting from a decade ago. I have come across many poor voice acting performances in the past that are inferior to this one. Even at 2x speed, this voice did quite well. And at speeds above 2x, it has an edge over human voice actors, in my opinion, due to its very smooth and even delivery.

I am pleased to have experienced one of the first instances of AI technology in an audiobook production, and I am hopeful that this will lead to opportunities for smaller works or works targeting a more niche audience.

The story is so-so (the last half was 'endured' at 2x speed), perhaps it just isn't for me?

Even the Sad Moments were Sweet

This was really well done. The storyline was interesting and made sense. Some how the cruel moments didn't anger me as much as others would have (likely because the virtual voice is not up to portraying emotions that well). Still, everything tied in perfectly. I even thought the virtual voice was alright. WLW romance is my favorite. So I will definitely gice this author another go! Well done, thank you!