Viking Kingdom

Dragonheart, Book 4

By: Griff Hosker

Narrated by: Marston York

Jarl Dragon Heart leaves the Isle of Man to go raiding. Beset by enemies both Viking and Saxon, he has to rely on the Ulfheonar and his own skills to see him through the crisis. A harsh winter in the land of Rheged brings him face-to-face with his old enemy, the Wolf. All the while, he is learning about his own ancestor, the Warlord of Rheged. The treachery of other Vikings who try to carve out kingdoms has Dragon Heart caught in the middle of their machinations.

The audiobook concludes with a thrilling raid into the heart of Mercia, where treachery nearly ends the life of the enigmatic Dragon Heart.

©2014 Griff Hosker (P)2022 W F Howes Ltd

loved the story

i liked what i heard and just hope they add the rest i looked it up and theres much more thats not on audible

I burn through these so fast. 😀

Good story that is exciting throughout. It is easy to picture the descriptions of the settlements and ships. Narration is pretty decent in my opinion and I think some of the other reviews were a bit harsh unnecessarily. Keep these coming!

Unintelligible voice inflections

I struggled through this book with the narration. Jarl Dragon Heart lives with his clan on the Isle of Man, tells us that he’s born a Saxon, is Norse through his mother, is a former slave, and as such has the benefit of his experiences and it is through his eyes that the saga is told. The narrator gives him a clear, understandable, almost aristocratic British accent. However, Marston York’s voice inflections for the Jarl’s raiders is what ruined it for me. For some reason Mr. York thought it would sound authentic to give them all – including the Jarl’s son - thick, unintelligible Norse accents in a higher range than the Jarl which to me made them come across as primitive barbarians that have been unaffected by their experiences or interactions with the British monks and villagers they brought back as slaves. And we are told that many of the raiders were also former Saxon slaves. Oh, and the Jarl’s wife is inexplicably given a Scottish accent. Really? The Jarl and his wife are the only ones in the clan who have sophisticated speech? At first it was frustrating trying to understand the conversations, but it soon became just irritating and I missed many parts of the story and resigned myself to an abbreviated listening experience as told through the Jarl. It becomes tiring when the narration goes from understandable to …..something, something…escaped….something, something… over the hill…. something, something… back to the shore…. ok, understandable again. Overall, the book was a pretty good read thanks to the Jarl’s story telling and I felt we get a lot of detail about Viking life and raiding adventures. This is unfortunately not one I would read again and again like other books I keep in my library. Unless you have a better ear than mine, I can’t recommend you share the frustration