Time of the Twins

Dragonlance: Legends, Book 1

By: Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman

Narrated by: Ax Norman

Sequestered in the blackness of the dreaded Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas, surrounded by nameless creatures of evil, Raistlin Majere weaves a plan to conquer the darkness - to bring it under his control.

Crysania, a beautiful and devoted cleric of Paladine, tries to use her faith to lead Raistlin from the darkness. She is blind to his shadowed designs, and he draws her slowly into his neatly woven trap.

Made aware of Raistlin’s plan, a distraught Caramon travels back in time to the doomed city of Istar in the days before the Cataclysm. There, together with the ever-present kender Tasslehoff, Caramon will make his stand to save Raistlin’s soul.

Or so he believes.

©1986 TSR, Inc., 2000 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Great Story - Middling Narration

I have been reading Dragonlance books for about 18 years now and this is one of the stronger series. The story told about Caramon, Raistlin, Tas, and Crysania is fantastic while setting the stage for the next two books. The story is nearly flawless and holds up very well over time.

The narration is done fairly well with two exceptions. The way some names are spoken is painful and is obvious no research was done. The names are also sometimes inconsistent which compounds the problem. Paladine is not said as Paladin. There is one point in the narration where he correctly states the name Paladine but it is only a single time. When he references Sturm Brightblade he says Strum. Little things like that can very negatively affect the flow of the book. He also needs to not yell silently. If he is yelling in exclamation then just do it. H

Ax "butcher" Norman

Ax's performance stands out as the worst I've ever heard on Audible. He mispronounces at least half of the characters names and places. Some defy logic. He pronounced Tasslehoff correctly, then Tas as Toss. Others change back and forth, Raistlin in particular. His voice is to high pitched, and raspy, making listening painful at times. His pace and cadence is both irregular, but then the same when multiple people are speaking. His character voices might be the worst however. It's readily apparent he has no idea what the characters should sound like, and he only does two or three distinct voices, making dialog impossible to follow. HOW did this abomination make it past recording?!

Ax Norman....why??

If you could sum up Time of the Twins in three words, what would they be?
Great Story, Horrible Narration

What was one of the most memorable moments of Time of the Twins?
Can't pin it down to just one, the book was just great.

Would you be willing to try another one of Ax Norman’s performances?
Sadly, I listened to all three of the Twins books and Ax Norman's performance is quite literally the worst performance I've ever heard. He doesn't pronounce any of the names right, (E.G. he can't decide how to say Tass, or Toss, Paladin or Paladine, shudder...) If I EVER listen to this book again it would be by another narrator, as I will never listen to this man read a book again.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The ending of all three of this series are incredible. Loved the endings.

Narrator not the best

The narrator says a lot of the names wrong, but also sometimes says them right. And the way he does shouting is annoying to me.
In the end it’s still a Dragonlance book so I can’t complain there, just not a huge fan of the way it’s narrated.

Fantastic story, narration was weak

One of my favorite stories from when I read the books many years ago. I struggled with the narration. He reminded me allot of my teacher reading to us in elementary school. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't just listened to the previous trilogy. The narration there made that one of the most captivating stories, in comparison this left much to be desired. It seemed very weak without much effort bring made. The story still manages to shine through.

Great story, passionless narration

The story is great, complete with everything that I love about the Dragonlance Series.

That being said, the narration of this audiobook lacks any passion or depth. The lack of total lack of distinction between character voices is a major drawback. The narrative of a battle has the same tone as the description of city.

Very disappointed in this narrator, and likely will avoid him in the future.

Skip the narration- read the series

I have loved the Dragonlance series since I was a teen and was looking forward to hearing another great performance of my favorite stories, but this narration really failed to impress. This is possibly because I started this audiobook right after finishing Brothers in Arms, another Raistlin tale, which was narrated by the wonderful Chris Sorensen. I loved the distinction he put between voices, and even did a convincing impression of female voices. Ax Norman, on the other hand, puts almost zero distinction between kender, man, and woman voices, making it really difficult for me to tell who is talking. I will definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy as opposed to listening to it.

Great Story, bad Narrator

It was tough getting past the mispronounced names and lack of acting ability. Every character had the same voice, and when he tried to speak with emotion it came out very poorly. I am probably spoiled after Chronicles that was narrated by Paul Boehmer, but other narrators at least have tried to give voices to the characters... even if they still mispronounced the names.

great book poor reader

I'm supprised publishing released this poor performance. When you pronounce names in different ways through a read it's time for some editing.

great book, meh narrator.

the narrator wasn't that bad but clearly not into the story as the others meh