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  • Ahriman: Exile

  • Ahriman: Warhammer 40,000, Book 1
  • By: John French
  • Narrated by: Mark Elstob
  • Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (388 ratings)

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Ahriman: Exile cover art

Ahriman: Exile

By: John French
Narrated by: Mark Elstob
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Summary

Book one in the Ahriman series.

Cast out of his Legion, the sorcerer Ahriman, who condemned the Thousand Sons to an eternity of damnation, plots his return to power and the destruction of his foes. 

Listen to it because: experience the beginning of an epic, time-twisting saga of revenge, betrayal and attempted atonement. John French takes the Ahriman you know and love from the Horus Heresy in new and interesting directions, making him both deeply sympathetic and thoroughly evil.  

The story: all is dust.... Spurned by his former brothers and his father, Magnus the Red, Ahriman is a wanderer, a sorcerer of Tzeentch whose actions condemned an entire Legion to an eternity of damnation. Once a vaunted servant of the Thousand Sons, he is now an outcast, a renegade who resides in the Eye of Terror. Ever scheming, he plots his return to power and the destruction of his enemies, an architect of fate and master of the warp.   

Written by John French. Narrated by Mark Elstob.

©2020 John French (P)2020 Games Workshop Limited

What listeners say about Ahriman: Exile

Average customer ratings
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  • Al
  • 16-08-20

AH-RI-MAN ! AH-RI-MAN ! How good was this!

Never been a fan of the Thousand Sons but this was quality from start to finish. Never been a fan of leaving reviews but for this I make an exception. Ahriman's elevated himself to a place much higher in my imaginative estimation, so high in fact that only one stands above him in my eyes, Fabius Bile, aka pater mutatis,manflayer,primogenitor and clonelord.
All said and done though, this was good, really good, better than all the previous Thousand Sons books and lore. Strongly suggest listening to this, you will not be disappointed. I may even listen to it a second time,right now.

6 people found this helpful

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Not that great

It's a bit rubbish to be honest, the story is boring and the performance is even worse, Marks Elstob voice just doesn't sound right for this type of title, I was really looking forward to the audio book, but it just didn't work for me and will not be rushing back for a second listen to soon, it a 3 out 5 book at best.

5 people found this helpful

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A Gem

This book is awesome!
Not only does it give a rare look into what life is like for those who have fallen to chaos (it’s not fun) but it also follows one of the most interesting anti-heroes in the 40k universe. There is a good mix of action, sorcery and betrayal. If you loved the thousand sons novels and wondered what happened next, look no further. This book is so, so good.

A note about the narrator:
Audiobooks can live or die on the strength of their narrators.

I’ve listened to almost all the 30k/40k audio books now and I have to say that Mark Elstob ranks up there with veterans like Toby Longworth and Johnathan Keeble. I really enjoyed his character voices - he’s got the chaos sorcerers and the fallen space marines to a T. I am looking forward to his reading of the rest of this series!!

4 people found this helpful

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I hate this man's voice.

from the annoying what seems to be throat tapping "mechanical" voice, to the lip clapping sound swallowing demon voice. I'm not saying that you won't like his voice I'm just saying that this man's voice made this book unbearable for me to listen to. I love the lore of the Warhammer 40k universe but I can't stand this Inquisitor level torture.

2 people found this helpful

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Great introduction to Ahriman

Shows Ahriman as more than a two dimensional character, explaining his contradictions and his desires.

2 people found this helpful

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oooh Friend! 👍

Overall, a great introduction to Ahriman. Showing his weakness and ultimately, his strength.

The story narration was very good, but some character voices were so bad that I nearly gave up on it. Like Jay from the Inbetweeners.

Stick it out, I'm glad I didn't as the story itself was good.

1 person found this helpful

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Ahriman

Story was ok and pretty interesting to see the inner conflict ahriman faced after turning his brothers into dust golems at the start though he seems a bit out of character going into stage 5 depression but overall i liked to book mainly because im a thousand sons fan. I would recommend getting it if you are as well if not the eshinhorn series is great and so is gaunts ghosts.

1 person found this helpful

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Terrible voices

Honestly the story is brilliant.
The voice acting is sub par for the main characters and borderline absurd for others making it difficult to want to pay attention and not skip parts.

1 person found this helpful

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slow to start, but good

bit slow to start but it's a good in the end, if your a sons fan defo worth the listen

1 person found this helpful

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Awful performance from Mark Elstob.

i have read and loved this book and was really excited to listen to them at work. but i dont think this kind of story suits Mark Elstob. his voice and acting just ruined the characters for me.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 15-08-20

A woman has a deeper voice than Ahriman

I'm honestly just confused as to why Ahriman sounds like a sweaty congested nerd. Why'd you do my boy like that man? It detracts from his persona, makes situations feel less intense, and the story less enjoyable as a whole. Also, why does the chaos Warlord sound like the tootsie pop Owl?

17 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • C.O.
  • 12-08-20

decent story, bizarre narration

The story is great but the reading is a hugely mixed bag. It's fantastic until he gets to certain characters voices and man they REALLY take you out of it. A lot of high pitched bizarre whiney and none of the bass you'd expect from astartes.

15 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Rurik
  • 05-01-21

Very, very bad narrator!

The narration is so bad that I couldn't enjoy the story. The standard of narration of Warhammer audiobooks is usually very high, which makes this horrible performance even worse. Ahriman deserves better! And so does John French! And, of cpurse, all the fans of both.

11 people found this helpful

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  • Russ
  • 10-12-20

Beautiful rendered story with strange narration.

I feel John French did an excellent job with the story. It is colorful, descriptive, and captivating. Unfortunately, Mark Elstobs's narration didn't mesh well with my own vision of the characters. I have always pictured Space Marines with deep and resonant voices. Very few, if any fit this bill. Especially Ahriman, who you hear from the most has a nasal and, oftentimes, whiney voice. Not what I was hoping for from the brilliant and insanely powerful sorcerer. Then there's the daemon that sounds high pitched and hooty. Every time it showed up I felt like turning the book off. Was very distracting and it just wasn't for me. On the plus side, Elstob put the effort in to give every character a unique voice that was distinctive and consistent throughout the story. A lot of narrators don't go this far and you can tell Elstob takes his job seriously. I look forward to more books from French and wish Elstob all the luck with his future narrations (put a little more bass in though brother).

PS: Audible, you have misspelled the title of the book here. It is Ahri(MAN), not Ahri(HAM).

9 people found this helpful

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  • Orca
  • 12-11-20

Elstob

He's a bit better in this book, unlike that mess that was Avenging Son, but also adds nothing to it. An entertaining read with a somewhat off the mark narrator.

6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Zero
  • 04-09-20

Excellent in every way

I read this book when it first came out and it’s even better on Audible. For a novel about Chaos marines I’d put it up there with the Night Lord books.

I’ve seen a few reviews complaining about Mark Elstob’s narration. If you’re a big fan of John Banks’ mediocre abilities and Shatner-esque delivery then you probably aren’t going to like Mark Elstob, who actually sounds like a professional voice actor that gives each character a unique sound. I very much enjoyed the narration and I’m hopeful that Elstob will narrate more 40k books.

4 people found this helpful

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  • Kenneth Anthony Lull
  • 18-04-21

Narrator ruined it for me

The story is nice and I love John French’s work, and this is one of my favorite characters... but the narrator— I’m sure he’s talented—made some terrible choices for the books and It just pulled me out of the immersion and became physically uncomfortable to listen to at parts. Seriously. While I get that you usually have the same narrator throughout a series, I was hoping Black Library, after having to re-record Avenging Son, Dawn of Fire, that they would have not brought this guy back. I’m quite disappointed to see the sequel I bought is done by this same narrator again. It’s a great story!! But if you can’t bear this at least try the hard copy .

2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Fan
  • 26-01-21

You misspelled Ahriman twice in a row!

What's up with mispelling Ahriman, yo? A few months ago it shows "Ahriham", now it says "Ahriam".

The main character counted on having plot armor too much. It's one thing to act reasonably and be saved by plot armor, another thing if the characters actually counts on having plot armor to make his plans. Otherwise the story was great.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 15-10-20

Excellent Tzeentch-y fun

This book probably will not mean a ton to the average reader, but for fans of the Thousand Sons it was a delight.
My only real complaint was the silly voices used for the most afflicted if Chaos characters - but even then the delivery of the performer was quite good. The "how" was skillful; the "what" was a bit of a "why?!" 2 stars for direction, + 2 stars for performance skill.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Zach Mercer
  • 24-09-21

This is the worst narration I've ever heard

The story is fine, but for some reason the narrator decided to make everyone sound like muppets. I honestly cannot get through the book, it's that terrible.

1 person found this helpful