Today, Audible sent a notification that the date had changed for the release of Dark Age. We already knew the release of Red Rising Book 5 had been pushed to July 30, so no surprise there. The audiobook will drop on the same day, which is great news. What did catch my eye is that the “narrated by” section has been updated from “TBD” to five names, three of which are new. Two of the narrators from Iron Gold are not listed.
According to Audible, the narrators for Dark Age are Tim Gerard Reynolds, John Curless, Moira Quirk, James Langton and Rendah Heywood.
Just How Official Is This?
I’m basing this information entirely off of Audible’s listing for Dark Age. If the listing showed the four Iron Gold narrators plus once new narrator, I wouldn’t even question it. But since I wasn’t expecting to see more than one new name on this list, and I’m still very skeptical of the listed length (13 hours and 15 minutes seems way too short for a book Pierce Brown recently described as the largest he’s ever written), I’m posing this topic as a question, if only to leave some wiggle room for further updates or confirmation.
Still, the list of narrators is definitely recently-added information, possibly added when the date was updated. Based on what it shows, it looks like we’re getting a few new narrators.
Who’s Returning…
If you’ve listened to past Red Rising audiobooks, Tim Gerard Reynolds’ voice is likely to be the most familiar. He has been voicing Darrow’s POV since the first book. Reynolds is listed first among Dark Age‘s narrators. Huge relief.
John Curless joined the Red Rising audioverse in Iron Gold, voicing Ephraim’s POV. It looks like he’ll be back to keep us filled in on Ephraim’s plight (and likely the plights of Elektra and Pax). I like him. He has sort of a Michael Caine quality to his voice that I think works nicely for the character.
By Audible’s listing, Reynolds and Curless are the only two Iron Gold narrators who appear to be returning for Dark Age.
Three New Narrators…
Left off the list are Iron Gold narrators Julian Elfer (Lysander) and Aedin Moloney (Lyria). As the description for Dark Age strongly suggests that Lyria and Lysander will return as POVs, it would appear the narrators for their chapters have been swapped out with two of the three newcomers.
It’s probably safe to assume James Langton will be taking over Lysander’s POV. And then Moira Quirk and Rendah Heywood will presumably voice the POV of either Lyria or Mustang. I tried listening to some of their samples to see if I could guess who was voicing who, but I don’t want to guess wrong, so I’m not going to try. They both sound lovely.
Assuming this is the finalized list of narrators, it’s an interesting and unexpected update. If Audible’s listing had left Tim Gerard Reynolds off of the “narrated by” list, I would not be ok. As far as I’m concerned, Reynolds is the voice of Darrow. I’ve listened to the original trilogy too many times for that not to be the case. I can’t imagine hearing the Reaper’s POV any other way.
I can’t say that I’ve bonded enough with Lysander or Lyria — or listened to Iron Gold enough times — to feel especially attached to their narrators’ voices just yet. So I’m more curious about the decision — again, assuming it’s official — to change narrators than anything else. I’m also excited to hear these new voices when the Dark Age audiobook arrives.
Dark Age (print and audiobook) arrives July 30, 2019.
Howler Life 
Lyria and Lysander were the two most problematic POVs in Iron Gold. A number of fans complained. It appears that Random House and Audible listened.
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I absolutely love the red rising series, I’ve listened to the trilogy several times and iron gold at least twice in anticipation of dark age! That being said I’m left broken hearted that they have switched lysanders’ narrator, to this flat toned new man in Dark age… He might be a good voice in other circumstances, but directly following the outstanding performance in Iron gold of Lysanders’ narrator, I had to stop several times when lysanders part came on and am actually still trying to push through his speaking even now… It simply is not the same level of voice actor as the previous book and makes Dark age a very jarring experience. I sincerely hope that they re-record with the original actors and give us a chance to download that version!! Hail libertas and hail reaper!
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I agree that the Lysander character change is unpleasant. I am biased since I got to know the Iron Gold Lysander, this one in Dark Age doesn’t sound young or “Gold”. There are pros and cons for both narrators, but I am a strong believer that if you should keep the same actors through a series. I haven’t gotten to Lyra yet, but I’m a little nervous considering my reaction to the first change.
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I prefer the old Lyria voice, with the heavy Irish country accent. The new voice sounds like too much like Mustang’s voice, which doesn’t make sense. They come from different classes of society.
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