EMPEROR: The Field of Swords, Book 3 (Unabridged)

By: Conn Iggulden

Narrated by: Paul Blake

Julius Caesar has taken his legions north into mighty battles with the Gallic tribes. But as his successes mount, overwhelming ambition and new alliances begin to threaten his friendship with Marcus Brutus, brother-in-arms and fellow warrior. Although the conquest of Gaul has made Caesar a hero all over again, his victories on the battlefield cause still more rivalries at home. And ultimately Caesar and Brutus will have to choose whether to cross the Rubicon - together or singly - and to take the fight to Rome itself.©2005 Conn Iggulden (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Fine centerpiece of the sequel damaged by narratio

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Had the narrator of the first two books read it. I wouldn't have spent hours wondering who 2 of the main characters were. Carto and Serwilia? Just pronounce them as written, please.

What did you like best about this story?

The character of Caesar is so visceral, he is truly sympathetic. Iggulden was able to do this with Ghengis as well, to his great credit.

Would you be willing to try another one of Paul Blake’s performances?

I have to, to continue the series.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from EMPEROR: The Field of Swords, Book 3 (Unabridged)?

Some of the politics while Caesar is offstage can be tedious, but it is necessary knowledge to understand just what is going on in Rome.

Any additional comments?

Iggulden has quickly become one of my favorite authors.

Takes a dip here

I really wish they would have stayed with the original narrator in this series. The change here was difficult to get used to. I might not even do the next book in the series. I've seen other people complain of the poor history in these books. I can tolerate that in a historical novel. Unforutnely, the characters even changed a lot in this book from the previous books in the series.

Diff reader than the first two. NOT an upgrade.

Another great story by a great author. The reader of the first two was incredible, bringing each page to life. The one, however, is just bad. The mispronunciations, the strange pauses between words where no pause should be. Honestly made me want to stop listening. The story is good enough to pull you through, though.

Different take on both history, and pronunciations.

Not a fan of the pronunciations of some names by this narrator. I've listened to the previous books in this series and this performance is hard to follow when familiar names sound almost completely different.

Poor Narration, Rambling Story

This story isn't as concise as Iggulden's other books in the series, it rambles and feels disjointed and jumps around too much. the characters aren't as relatable as they were in the first two books. And the story isn't pretty inaccurate historically. Julius was older than Servilia, and didn't grow up with Brutus, who was much younger than him. So pivotal points of the story just never happened, which kind of ruins it for me. Also Paul Blake's narration isn't nearly as good as the guy who narrated the first two books. And he pronounces the names very strangely, they're all different from the previous books so it's confusing and annoying. Good story overall, but by the end I was glad to be finished, and I won't be getting the next book.

different narrator

hard to get used to the new narrator for the books but well done nonetheless

great story, frustrating performance by narrator

first things first, this is a great story and series and the performance by the narrator of the first two books was outstanding. The characters are well developed and you care what happens to them. However, like other reviews have said, for some reason they change narrators at book three and the new narrator seems bound and determined to aggravate as many listeners as possible. It's not that he gives a bad performance. It's actually a good performance except for the narrator's insistence on mispronouncing as many names as possible. I think he wants us to believe that it's just his accent and natural annunciation of these names, but it seems obvious to me that it is intentional. I don't remember hearing anyone else in my life pronounce Ciro, as keyro, or Cicero, as kickaro. These are well known names to most people who read or study history. Every time I hear him say, Octawian or Serwillia, instead of Octavian or Servillia, it's like nails dragging across a chalkboard. There's many times he reads other words with the letter V in them and doesn't say hawe for have or sawe for save. countless times he says Julius, and pronounces it as it should be, yet when he talks about the Temple of Jupiter, he tortures my ears and says youpiter. Youpiter, really?! Similarly, the narrator has no problem pronouncing Caesar, or Cleopatra, but insists on saying kickaro or telling how the soldiers sent orders by blowing their corkneekins and not cornicans. The story is so good that I bought the next book and enjoyed them both for the most part. Just be warned, you will be aggravated at times. I would love to hear more by Conn Iggulden, but I will not start another series if this narrator is part of it.

Midstream Narrator Change (Annoying). Pronounced Lack of Continuity with Previous Narrator (Unacceptable, and Distracting)! SMH!

I just wanted to echo Nicholas Smith’s review (see above), and express my disappointment concerning the change of narrator (the first two books in the series has a different narrator). But the narrator change itself (while annoying) is not my main problem (I’m sure they had a good reason).

My problem is the sloppiness of the transition from one narrator to the next, and the lack of continuity. It’s obvious the new narrator made no effort to approximate the previous narrator’s tone and presentation of the characters. Id be surprised if he listened to any of the first two books. This seems like a lack of care on both the narrator’s part, and on the part of the audiobook producer. I’m sure the narrator is generally good, but his performance of this is so different from the previous narrator (especially tone) that it distracts from the story.

Great book, terrible narrator

The narrator made it difficult to listen to, I had to slow down the story and google "Aria Ristus" to get the name of Caesar's enemy in Gaul, and had to repeat the process a few times to try and get the correct names/places.
However, im a big fan of Iggulden, and I will be buying the next book in the Emperor series regardless of the same narrator.

Wonderful story - Narrator unfamiliar w historic characters

Love those series the excellent writing, but good grief, perhaps make sure the narrator understands the pronunciations of the ancient names. Octavian, Servilia, Vercingetorix - any basic student of history will be distracted by the narrators new pronunciations. Annoying mistake in a brilliant series.