Ray Porter is the reason this series works in audio and everyone involved knows it. Dozens of Bobs who are all technically the same person and audibly not, an in joke rate that would sink a lesser narrator, and ten years of consistency across six entries. Audible put him in their Narrator Hall of Fame this year, which is about as close to official as that gets. The flip side of the arrangement is worth stating plainly: this is an Audible Original, so there is no alternative edition and no other narrator anywhere. You take it in this form or not at all.

The scope Taylor lays out is the largest the series has attempted, which makes the runtime the interesting number. Eight and a half hours to open the wormhole network, crack a faster than light drive and deal with a galaxy killing black hole is a lot of load on a small frame. With a seventh book announced, my read is that this is the first half of a move rather than the whole of one, and that the questions get opened here and answered later. That is an inference from the shape of it, not something the publisher has said.

On reception I have nothing to give you, and I would rather say so than pad it. It came out today, and being Audible exclusive it had no earlier release gathering opinions ahead of the audio, so there is no aggregate score and no body of listener reviews to summarize. What is knowable is the track record: five previous entries, a following that has stayed put for a decade, and an author who has been reliable about landing the ideas he sets up. Come back in a fortnight if you want a verdict from people who have finished it.

For everyone else, the practical advice is the usual one with this series. Do not start here. We Are Legion is where Bob wakes up and where you find out within twenty minutes whether the voice is for you, because the humour is the whole personality and it does not change later. If you are returning after a gap, Not Till We Are Lost is the one immediately behind this and worth a refresher before you start.