The Broken Empire

If you want some seriously good fantasy (extremely gritty, grimdark fantasy), The Broken Empire Books are some of the best out there (the books top our Top 25 Best Fantasy Books list and make quite a few of our other lists. Those phenomenal books become even BETTER when you listen to the audiobook version by British narrator James Clamp who manages to nail down exactly what you expect the characters to sound like in the story.Indeed, once in a while you listen to an audiobook and the narrator BECOMES the characters so utterly that you canât pull apart the story from the voiced narration. This is one of those examples, and it's an audiobook that MUST be listened to if you can get your hands on itJames Clamp does a stand out performance here; his performance of Lawrenceâs Prince Jorg is pitch perfect perfection itself, embodying exactly how the character would be. The broken story of troubled Prince Jorg of Ancraft is stripped from the dry pages of the book and raised to life through Clamps powerful and compelling narrative powers. It's a story and voiced narration that you feel deep into your bones with Clamp's handling Jorg's gentle introspective soliloquies about the nature of man to his cocky and brash confidence as a leader hell bent on revenge in absolute perfect voice and style. It's a rather philosophical reading of the character and the overall feeling is one of an introspective character observing the character around him but never connecting to it on a personal level, which is exactly the character of Jorg himself.Clamp's style has a melancholy note to it and is often dry and reserved rather than enthusiastic. Little weight is given to voice acting inflections, which is usually a negative point on part of the narrator. But in this rare case, such lack of inflection and acting on the narrator's part fits perfectly the character of Jorg perfectly.Note that the sequel trilogy is narrated by Tim Curry, who also does a stand up job (albeit with a more voice-acting style suitable for the character of the conniving rogue Jalan).Listen to a sample Joe Clamp's voice