The Great Game

Praetorian, Book 1

By: SJA Turney

Narrated by: Piers Hampton

Promoted to the elite Praetorian Guard in the thick of battle, a young legionary is thrust into a seedy world of imperial politics and corruption. Tasked with uncovering a plot against the newly crowned Emperor Commodus, his mission takes him from the cold Danubian border all the way to the heart of Rome, the villa of the Emperor’s scheming sister, and the great Colosseum.

What seems a straightforward if terrifying assignment soon descends into Machiavellian treachery and peril as everything in which young Rufinus trusts and believes is called into question, and he faces warring commanders, Sarmatian cannibals, vicious dogs, mercenary killers and even a clandestine Imperial agent. In a race against time to save the Emperor, Rufinus will be introduced, willing or not, to the great game.

©2015 SJA Turney (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

Fantastic first entry in a promising series

I enjoyed the story immensely, and the characters were rich and well developed. Turney does a masterful job of blending action and drama, as well as laying out the political landscape in a truly compelling way.

My only gripe is with the narrator. He has a great voice, and he does the myriad voices of the characters quite well, but he speaks very quietly at times and I had to keep adjusting the volume to keep up with the changes

The constant volume changes can drive you away

Why producers do not ensure a consistent volume boggles the mind. The reader is constantly moving from a quiet voice to an almost shout. He seems to vary from sentence to sentence. Often he begins the sentence loudly then fades to almost a whisper. It made listening to excellent writing and an interesting story difficult. Constantly changing the volume control to either spare my ears or to hear the story distracts from this exciting story.

EXCELLENT!

Loved it! S.J.A. Turney has done it again, can not wait to continue the series. Turney is one of the absolute Best!

I love this book!

Great to see a parallel story to thr movie "Gladiator" that was completely different? refreshing and exciting

Narration is superb

I have listened to the nearly ended Mariu's Mules series, which also had a superb narrator. In this Praetorian series, however, with the private musings of a guardsman making up much of the book, the narrator here was more appropriate, softer and more intimate. I look forward to the rest of the series.

Good Story

It’s a good story. My main issue is with the performance. The performers whispering is interrupted by eruptions of shouting. It makes the experience almost intolerable. It makes no difference when listening on speakers or AirPods.

its really good

all sixteen books are great ,was sorry for it to end ,very entertaining , if you like Rome story's you will like this

COULDN'T KEEP MY INTEREST

This seemed to begin well if lamely with the centurion and the slave girl and the emperor and his enemies plotting and cross plotting dum de dum de dum; a bit Cornwellian in over the top descriptions of gore and wounds and blood but with a couple of original flashes here and there, enough to give hope that better things were ahead. But then it continued treading water in this predictable vein with wholly implausible plot twists and paste-in musings about the willowy but unapproachable slave girl and the boring events of the previous chapter etc etc. Nothing ever really seemed to move forward. It would be great to read something written just because it was a fine story as opposed to a story treatment that necessarily included blood, gore, love interest, blood gore love interest tied together with wearying coincidences and goofy confrontations intended to inject some dramatic energy. The author can write very well and should pick a tale that is worthy of his skill. My thoughts.

Makes history even more interesting

I never thought I would enjoy 200 years after Caesar as much as I have this offering from the author who gave me a good idea of how Roman legions actually worked. The politics after Marcus Aurelius were just as mean spirited, convoluted and downright nasty as we have even now we haven’t learned anything from History.

wonderfully written, horrible narration

First book of this author for me, and the writing and story are EXCEPTIONAL! The narrator, he needs to learn how to STOP whispering the last words of EVERY sentence! Literally. Other than "action" sentences, he whispers the rest of the time, up goes the volume. Action happens, blares your ears as you TRY to LOWER the volume, only the next INSTANCE to have to turn it back up!
The narrator has a WONDERFUL voice. Smooth, natural, and even a bit seductive (as a woman, I like it, HeHe). He needs to read at a CONSISTENT moderate volume for the WHOLE sentence.
I will be avoiding any audio books he narrates.