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  • Road of the Patriarch

  • Forgotten Realms: The Sellswords, Book 3
  • Written by: R. A. Salvatore
  • Narrated by: David Colacci
  • Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (123 ratings)

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Road of the Patriarch

Written by: R. A. Salvatore
Narrated by: David Colacci
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Publisher's Summary

THE ASSASSIN: A cold and emotionless killer for whom every soul has a price, even his own, embarks on a path to find out just how high that price can be.

THE MERCENARY: A dark elf of limitless guile dares to challenge a king and carve for himself a place in the inhospitable World Above.

ILNEZHARATA and TAZMIKELLA: Ancient dragons of great power, accustomed to easily manipulating the humans around them. But not all humans are so easily led. When they pushed Entreri and Jarlaxle into the heart of the Bloodstone Lands, not even they could have imagined the strength of the human assassin's resolve, or the limitless expanse of the mercenary's ambition.

©2006 R. A. Salvatore (P)2006 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What the critics say

David Colacci is admirable in his narration of this epic fantasy, which is Tolkienesque in its dwarves and elves and magic and quests.... Road of the Patriarch is a bit more adult than the usual fare from this author. This is a gritty and bloody book, with a bit of sex as well." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about Road of the Patriarch

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    5 out of 5 stars

TERRIBLE NARRATION

David, the narrator of this book, did a heavy British accent for all the characters. He obviously did not spend any time whatsoever listening to the voice performance by Victor Bevine to understand how to make some continuity between Victor's performance and his so that it would be easier for readers to make the adjustment between one narrator to the next. Unlike Victor, David does not spend any time at all understanding how to give any energy to the characters' voices based on certain situations. He doesn't give any life to the reactions, he simply reads their dialogue and the story. I don't feel like there's any heart or passion put into his performances. I will not buy another book without Victor Bevine as the narrator. End of story.

11 people found this helpful

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horrible narrator

the worst narration I have heard by far. i almost don't want to finish it. please return victor bevine because he at least delivered the lines like a human being and not an alien.

3 people found this helpful

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Great story. Bad narration.

Great story as usual for the series and after listening for awhile I've changed my initial thoughts on the narration. they're decent enough but still do not hold up to Victor's from the previous books.

2 people found this helpful

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Great story, narration meh

As always R A Salvatore delivers a great story. Well written battle scenes move fluidly and gracefully. Favorite characters fleshed out more as the story and series continues. Why they changed the narrator to David Colacci after 15 books from Victor Bevine is beyond me. Audible or whomever should step up and have this book in the epic series redone for at least continuity. Colacci does not come close to Bevine in character acting nor can he pronounce key names properly. Ie “Sharron’s claw??” Many times I almost stopped listening forgoing the adventure altogether as it was a struggle to get through. Thankfully if you persevere, Bevine is back in “The Thousand Orcs” and the story can resume properly with him at the helm.

1 person found this helpful

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Great story, terrible narration.

I'm not sure why they chose this David guy over Victor, but he is emotionless and tonedeaf. Dwarves apparently have an Irish/English accent now, in contrast to almost every other voice acting in existence.

1 person found this helpful

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Amazing story, different narration

I miss Victor Bevine who narrated the previous Forgotten Realms novels - some weird accents for characters in this one

1 person found this helpful

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trash, skip this one.

I can forgive mispronouncing names and places, but doing so in 3 or 4 different ways in the span of a single chapter is complete disrespect. If that was not enough then reading as if (, and .) are ! wtf is this, pretending to be Shatner adding nothing to sound like every word is epic and daunting?
Nearly every attempt at voicing is the same so you cant even tell the difference to an established male character to a new female voice. Thrilling events are done more mono tone, and monologue is read in epic flailing.
Then where is this atrocious flaunting would be 'epic' music comming from. this book is not the end of a tale or a massive epic and that takes away from it entirely.

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Not buying another

I love the series and stories from Salvatore but I won't buy another audible book unless Victor Bevine is reading them. He brings the characters to life and you've made a mistake by not using him any longer. Sad and unfortunate.

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A great ending to an even greater trilogy of books

Jarlaxle has always been my favorite character in the Drizz't series. I'm soo happy he, Artemis and Athrogate were all well played in these books. I wish there were more including him, but that might just ruin the air of mystery that makes him soo intriguing. It was these books that made Artemis all the more interesting and grew him from a villain to quite possibly an anti-hero. Great books and great audio books. You cant go wrong if you enjoy RA Salvatores work, or if you simply enjoy medieval fantasy.

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Bad narration.

I don't like to bash anyone, so I'll be as delicate as possible.

we have really come to love Victor's narration. we can tell which character part he is reading just by his tone. this narrator clearly has not read or listened to any of the previous books, as he doesn't pronounce many of the names correctly. I felt like shutting it off when hearing him say bruenor's name, Jarlaxle, and Artemis sword. I would not want to hear him narrate any more of the books we love so much.

WE WANT VICTOR BACK. Looking ahead, I'm glad he will be. the book was good if you're able to get past the massive change in narration.

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  • Dusty
  • 2014-06-10

Wont buy any more of these books with out VictorB

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Nothing against the narrator but to have a single narrator do 90% of the books I have bought and then this, I could not get past the differences. Its almost like they were different characters. Victor Bevine is one hell of an narrator and I didn't realize it at first but now after a few books without him I cant buy any more of the books with out him.

159 people found this helpful

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  • Jerrod Volkmar
  • 2015-01-31

Narration Needs Udating

Any additional comments?

Narration needs updating since books 1 and 2 were recorded after book 3. It doesn't flow very well when listening to the whole series together.

74 people found this helpful

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  • dan
  • 2016-02-06

JUST STCK WITH VICTOR BEVINE!! SERIOUSLY

Great book but whoever keeps throwing these bs narrators (orc/witch/ghost king books too) instead of just sticking with victor bevine should be slapped..or fired.. or both! :)

60 people found this helpful

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  • Ryan Baines
  • 2015-09-21

I will not buy another book not narrated by Victor

they changed narrators and I will not buy another by this narrator. stupid stupid stupid

55 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2017-06-06

Effects of a new narrator

I've been in R. A. Salvatore fan since the Crystal Shards Series. Originally I read the first three series. But I found a new love for them with the narration of Victor Bevine. He may have been mispronouncing the names but he established what we got use to hearing. I own most of these books. I bought the audio books because of the narration. To be able to live the adventures again while in stuck in traffic. This book series changed the actor in the middle of the trilogy. Movies don't do this, if they can avoid it, and in my humble opinion, neither should audio books. I take nothing from David Colacci he is good. But many of his characters sound same. Victor is a master at make me see a different person in my mind. I hope he is in the next series. I really missed him.

41 people found this helpful

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  • Sean
  • 2016-06-29

The Narrator is not good for these charactors

What would have made Road of the Patriarch better?

Victor Bevine would make this better. He knows the charactors, where David does not. Half the time I can't tell whos talking the voices are all the same or near enough.

38 people found this helpful

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  • Neal Wolf
  • 2015-03-14

Good story well ended

No one other than Victor Bevine should've narrated this. Very good tale, very bad narrator

36 people found this helpful

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  • Don
  • 2017-08-10

meh

A narrator mispronouncd almost every character name and place. Victor bevine is by far the best narrator for these books. I'm not quite sure why they switched to David Colacci anyway. I can't wait to get to the next book so I could listen to Victor again, by far the definitive Drizzt. He even mispronounced DRIZZT name, he called it DRITZT! made me cringe every time he called him that.... it's like, spend an hour and research the pronunciation for your JOB... -_- the source material was amazing though... thousand orcs will be amazing no doubt. Victor Bevine is back!

27 people found this helpful

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  • Brett Conoly
  • 2017-07-08

Where is Victor Bevine?

Rough listening to the series and then having the narrator change it...please re-record this with the original narrator.

24 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • J. Diaz
  • 2014-04-18

Great Book!!! Only one disapointment

Would you listen to Road of the Patriarch again? Why?

Sure, eventually. Great Story and characters

What did you like best about this story?

Character development and past history

What three words best describe David Colacci’s voice?

Good but a bit of a lack of range. Victor Bavine was better in this regard. He is a good narrator though

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

The first 2 books were Victor Bavine. Why change for the 3rd. The change in style was a bit jarring. Other than that it was a great book.

23 people found this helpful