A Deadly Wit cover art

A Deadly Wit

Heirs of the Laughing God: Warhammer 40,000

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A Deadly Wit

By: Gav Thorpe
Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong, Matthew Hunt, Emma Gregory, Tim Bruce
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About this listen

Monster king, monster king, where are you?
Your house is burning down.
Monster king, monster king, won't you play?
The Red Swan wants your crown.

The charismatic Great Harlequin, Duruthiel, leads his troupe on a daring raid of an ork settlement. Urging them forth with bold eccentricity, the Red Swan proclaims fate as the guiding hand for the Masque of the Fading Dawn. But as Skyweaver jetbikes invade the night skies, his attempts to overthrow the great warlord become increasingly reckless. It soon becomes apparent that this is more than just another performance for Duruthiel but a battle for honour and freedom.

©2017 Games Workshop Limited (P)2017 Games Workshop Limited Science Fiction

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All stars
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Nice performance, but bit of a simple story. In anyway very short for 1 credit, would have been fair to have this in a bundle.

Nice but very short for 1 credit

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A thoroughly enjoyable audio drama with an excellently chosen cast. I've only started getting into the Warhammer audio books but I think I chose a good one to start on. The overly dramatic speech of the Harlequins was fantastic and I look forward to the next one.

Positively splendid

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I was wondering if a dramatisation of a story was something for me, I quickly changed my mind after hearing the actors involved.

A lot better than I could ever imagine!

Pleasantly surprised!

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A short story well told, lacked a little depth maybe but you can only do so much with just over an hour. Passed the time nicely on the way home from work would recommend.

Too short

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Great short story that made me start my mixed aeldari force into the tabletop ;) Good pick for some late night painting.

Fun to be aeldari

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An average short story held together by the performance. The story just lacked what seemed like a point so a struggled with it.

The performance is excellent and did make me laugh at times.

An average short story held together by the performance

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Describing an assault on an Ork encampment, Gav Thorpe has captured the playful banter and haughty demeanour of this Harlequin masque. While I would prefer to have full length Eldar and Necron stories this was definitely a fun skirmish.

The only thing that irked me was the haphazard way the masque fought. Lore wise we're told that the Harlequins fight as if they're putting on a production. Every twist, blow and dodge forms part of the Web. Unfortunately I don't get that rehearsed over decades feel from the Masque itself.

***UPDATE - If you're planning to use a free credit to get this then consider getting "The Traitor and the Alien" Short Story compendium as it has all three parts to the story along with a bunch of other Xeno stories, from Tau to Ork and more!***

We definitely need more Aeldari content like this.

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The quality and performance of these audiobooks (with aid of ambience and background noise) do add a lot to these listening experiences and their immersion. There is good sound mixing/balance here, an issue I have had before with other 40k 'performance titles' whether voices too low or ambience too loud however that was not a problem here. The ambience provides enough to immerse yourself in the wild ork assault.

My issue as always is the length of these titles. The story within them are very concise with little depth but given over an hour it gives a substantial bit of action. The content doesn't leave much of a impact and I doubt I will revisit this title like I have the Horus Heresy, Eisenhorn or The Beast Arises series'. Perhaps an unfair comparison due to the lengths but its how I feel about these short titles. The descriptions and attitudes of the harlequins are some of the best here, save for the main character being referred to as "grand" almost every sentence. Though small gripes aside I found it an enjoyable listen and worth a credit if you want something a little more thematic from your usual audiobook experience.

Pros
Immersive
Compelling harlequin performances

Cons
Too Short
Less of a story and more of a raid

Short but sweet

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amazing story, top voice acting, and hilarious at times! highly recommended to all interested people!

amazing!

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Amazing story, excellent voice actors, didn't realise until it suddenly stopped after about an hour that that was all there was.

Great story, far too short, sadly (about an hour!)

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