Impressions: Garro Oath Of The Moment

Hello all, yesterday I downloaded James Swallow's "Garro:Oath of the moment" in audiobook format from Black Library's website. The price of the audiobooks are roughly $3AUS more than the printed books but this title has not been released yet and so I went with the audiobook this time.

I was a little skeptical of the audiobook since the level of enjoyment for me depended entirely on the quality of narration. Thankfully the website offers a rather long extract from the audiobook and after hearing it I must say that I was thoroughly impressed. The narrator's name is Toby Longworth and he has a very polished voice that suits the archaic nature of the 30k universe. He also manages to speak in multiple accents that help the listener to distinguish between the different characters. I think my favourite accent was that of Malcador the Sigillite, who sounded like a more cunning version of Yoda. The speed of narration is well-paced - it picks up during the battles and slows down when characters are, for example, in contemplation.

I felt that the story could have been a little longer but this partly due to the fact that the audiobooks are abridged and provide a shorter (not necessarily less entertaining) version of the printed material. It is also due to the fact that I enjoyed this format of the book immensely and wanted it continue further than 72 minutes.

As far as the content of the book is concerned, this book provides a base for the development of Garro's character. The storyline seems to be running in parallel to the main events of the Horus Heresy and is similar to Nemesis (also by James Swallow) in that way. The author has given a number of hints as to what Garro's future may lead to with the words "grey" and "ghost" used extensively. Since this is the first book in the "Garro series" there are very few hints as to what the other missions could be and it creates a lot of questions in the listener's mind. This is a good thing because it makes me want to read/listen to the next installment about Nathaniel Garro even more!

The audiobook is in mp3 format and around 163MB in size. Since it is an audiobook I don't care that it is not a lossless format like FLAC. It is a clean recording and the listener can hear the subtle sound effects of battles and weapon discharges quiet clearly. I would recommend that you listen to the extract before purchasing the audiobook as you may decide against the narrator's voice. The other thing to consider is that the printed version of this book is rumoured to be released in April. If you can wait that long and like to collect the printed books instead then I would suggest that you do that instead.