The Tyranny of the Night

The Instrumentalities of the Night, Book 1

By: Glen Cook

Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt

Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the world's center, in the Holy Land where two great religions were born, are the Wells of Ihrain, the source of the greatest magics.

Over the last century the Patriarchs of the West have demanded crusades to claim the Wells from the Pramans, the followers of the Written. Now an uneasy truce extends between the Pramans and the West, waiting for a spark to start the conflict anew.Then, on a mission in the Holy Land, the young Praman warrior Else is attacked by a creature of the Dark - in effect, a minor god. Too ignorant to know that he can never prevail over such a thing, he fights it and wins, and in so doing, sets the terrors of the night against him.As a reward for his success, Else is sent as a spy to the heart of the Patriarchy to direct their attention away from further ventures into the Holy Lands.

Dogged by hidden enemies and faithless allies, Else witnesses senseless butchery and surprising acts of faith as he penetrates to the very heart of the Patriarchy and rides alongside their armies in a new crusade against his own people. But the Night rides with him, too, sending two of its once-human agents from the far north to assassinate him.Submerged in his role, he begins to doubt his faith, his country, even his family. As his mission careens out of control, he faces unanswerable questions about his future. It is said that God will know his own, but can one who has slain gods ever know forgiveness?

©2005 Glen Cook (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Only made it an hour in

What did you like best about The Tyranny of the Night? What did you like least?

I will give this story the benefit of a doubt because I couldn't get farther than an hour into it. The narrator is just terrible. I never "read" a book I didn't like from Glen Cook. Was hoping getting one of his series on audible would give me more time to chip away at his vast library.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This narrator has two voices and both of them sound shallow and snobbish. You can't casually listen to this because you will never know when he switches between characters. If I made it far enough to know the plot I doubt I would have been able to attach myself to any of the characters since the narrator's voice makes them all hateable.

Was The Tyranny of the Night worth the listening time?

Listening? No, but I would be willing to give the book a chance.

Any additional comments?

There are a lot of audiobooks that have bad reviews for the narrator that I have learned to like after getting through the first chapter or so. Shadowmarch and A Feast for Crows are two examples where I stuck with them and after a while I forgot why I detested the reader so much. This is not one of those books. There is nothing about this narrator that leads me to believe he will eventually voice characters any different than the first 10.

Great story! Classic Glen Cook! Narration is meh!

This is classic Glen Cook. He crafts a world and drops you in it. The world has depth, history, and a timeline that extended out behind it like a massive wave of bloody iron. The worlds he crafts have deep histories that even the residents of it have forgotten, much like our own world. As such you feel like you're playing catch up at first, trying to learn the lay of the land and find your footing desperately, much like the characters are in the story. This creates a gritty realism that helps sell the story and the characters in it. Before you know it you're deeply invested and can't stop reading or in this case , listening. In the Instrumentality of the Night you're thrust into a reimagining of our own world where magic and the gods are very real indeed, and there is a historical turning point that is reached that sets the stage for the turning of tables throughout the world. One man stumbles upon a secret that can change the world, and is hunted for it. It's a story where something that might seem innocuous to us today helps remind us how much the world changed in just a few hundred years. The times of the 1200 or 1500's and how people lived then are an alien and incomprehensible world to us now, but a few small changes in each of those times then gave birth to a modern era, what would it have been like to have lived in the advent of a new age. That's what this story explores; the changes to the world from dark ages to new ages.

That said, the narrator was not good. it'd have been a great piece if they'd gotten Stephen Hoye to narrate it like he did for the dread empire series.

War Mixed With Politics

Set in an unknown time in a world not to different than our own. There is lots of different characters involved in War and Politics.

Narrator is horrible

The book may be good, I couldn't get past the horrible narration to listen to the entire book. since the same narrator is on all the books I will not waste my time or money on the rest.

so very boring

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

none ... the reader is average and the story yawn inspiring

Any additional comments?

a shame the book wasn't good as the blurb made it sound it was very dull don't waste your credit on this dud

Great Author, Terrible Narrator

What disappointed you about The Tyranny of the Night?

The narration was horrible. Stilted cadence, most sentences seem to end as a question. and the character voice variation is almost non-existent.

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator.

Any additional comments?

I liked the idea of the story, but couldn't continue to listen after 2 hours. I'll have to go for the print version on this one.

I bought all three based on what I've read and listened to by Glen Cook. I wish I could get those credits back because I'm not going to listen to this version of the books.

Reader :-(

My rating on the story was only so that I could leave a review. I don't know the story yet. I'll have to read it in print because the reader just does NOT work for me. I cannot absorb what he is saying. I don't specifically know why. He sounds like a bad robot to me. I'm sorry, reader, I'm sure it's hard work and probably most folks are fine with your reading, but I need a different reader.

Horrendous narration

What disappointed you about The Tyranny of the Night?

I am sure the rest of the story would have been good but I will never know until I get some time to actually read it. This narration was horrible. The stilted and strange cadence of the reader completely distracted me from the story until I had to give up in frustration.

AVOID.

Would you be willing to try another one of Eric Synnestvedt???s performances?

No way.

Lacked drama. Over explained world building.

The readers voice lacks flavor and the book depends more time describing World politics than focusing on story.