Star Wars (33 BBY): DARTH MAUL - SABOTEUR (Unabridged & Original AUDIOBOOK)

[@Morbidoner]

Bro you a real one for these. I've been starved for Darth Maul audiobooks for way too long

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

End Game plus a full length one are coming... with a few more on the way in December

[@Morbidoner]

@@TheArchivistPublishing You have done an amazing job, thanks man

[@nicholastiffany7098]

Same

[@darrk_matter]

Indeed. Bro is a real OG for this

[@stephengarrett8076]

Absolutely blown away! Thank you for this 👍

[@PaulTanner-pc1nj]

Thank u for sharing this, iv read it once a long time ago but never heard it via audio book...looking forward to this as James Luceno is my favourite Star wars writer. Honestly impossible to know how many times iv read Darth Plagueis, my copy no longer has a cover but always stays on my nightstand as i just can start anywhere at random and still enjoy it. Bane trilogy is another smasher.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Thank you for the kind words! This is the first (and I think only) audiobook version! Expect Maul: End Game following Black Fleet Crisis Vol. 2 - Part Two! Hopefully, you will notice a vast improvement in Maul's A.I. in End Game (which I believe is our best and most trained to date!)

[@zelkarr7016]

My guy the fact that this is all AI narration Is insane this is a game changer, excellent work.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Thank you for the kind words! Just wait until Maul: End Game is released next week! 😊

[@youMatterItDoesGetBetter]

Voice Actors be on life support.

[@guy9136]

But it is a terrible read…software is not there yet

[@ace360]

Yes!!!! Thank you for uploading this I have yet to find these anywhere else you rock man 🤘🎇

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Thank you for that! There is now a huge back log yo be published... expect many in the upcoming days!

[@ace360]

@@TheArchivistPublishing I can't wait for them im pretty good at knowing Legends and Eu but I had no idea there was a Darth Maul Trilogy🤯 So I feel like im respecting myself but Thank You so much 🙏

[@LukasSchopper]

​@@TheArchivistPublishinghow the hell do you do this, this is soooo awsome.

[@gargoylestories]

I really enjoyed this story. I think it's out of print in most paperbacks. I remember trying to find an older Darth Maul novel, because the newest ones didn't have this story included anymore. So I'm glad you added it here. Thanks for the great work.

[@storytime6263]

I thought this was done by a real person but its A.I. this is incredible.

[@jermainewinder3203]

Unbelievably good! You'd never know this was AI! You are a master of your craft. Thank you and I look forward to more!

[@josiahthibodeaux]

Indeed he is.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Wow, thank you! More is coming... including more MAUL!

[@bigbird2240]

Honestly this is indistinguishable from a professional narrator!! Better even!

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Thank you for that! The prologue is entirely the new A.I. ... and, yes, I am amazed how natural it sounds (the rest of this one is a mix of v2 and v3 - generally, when I wasn't happy with the v2 result). Wait until you hear End Game - it is ENTIRELY made using v3 A.I.''s!

[@swfcocs1]

​@The.Archivist. it's pretty cool how you manage it, most of the AI style book narrations can be really jarring, on yours you can rarely tell at all, I mean on this one the only time I can recall is on the word Coruscant, and even then its only the old pronunciation , one word in a whole story is pretty amazing

[@josephnotoempire2949]

@@swfcocs1 The voice actor's lyrical variations in pronunciation are a part of speech that is almost subconscious. Still massive contextual information is contained in a tone of voice and metered word selection. No?

[@c4edusgaming...C]

I could listen to these all day 😆

[@rebeldropper607]

This is great I love the Luceno can tun 1 of Mauls missions B4 TPM in to an awesome short story.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Glad you enjoyed it! I hope you have listened to all three of Luceno's stories before TPM... Maul : Restraint Maul : Saboteur Maul : End Game There are more coming soon - I love Maul 😇

[@rebeldropper607]

​​@@TheArchivistPublishing my favorite J Luceno novel is Plagueis . What an incredible book. I just met Ray Park today in NJ at a convention..super nervous/star struck

[@Mr.PepeSilvia]

You're the best thank you!

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Thank you for the kind words... 🤗

[@StrappedSnowMexican]

"CorisCONT" keeps pulling me out of it lmao

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Yes... that annoyed me enough that the AI has been retrained to not come out with "CorusCant" intermittently 😵‍💫

[@Empty00Eyes]

If you played the original TIE fighter, the Imperial briefing officer would pronounce it that way as well. Other books also mention outer rim accents that were noticeable and looked down on by core-worlders. I've sort of imagined it as a fairly common in-universe mispronunciation in case that's helpful for immersion for anyone else.

[@A_Warriors_Wisdom]

Not perfect but pretty damn good! This is great and i really enjoyed it! Thank you for your work

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Thank you for your kind words!

[@tonysmith5878]

DARTH MAUL IS MY MOTIVATION...THE APPRENTICE.

[@lws9417]

Yes yes yes and more yes

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I am glad to hear it! 😂😂😂

[@jamesburrelljr.8561]

" A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I hope you checked out our latest release, Maul: End Game! 🤗

[@ricdukes6976]

This was great at 1.5 speed! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@Morbidoner]

You’re right, it’s much more fluid at 1.5

[@shanebauman6555]

This is amazing. The s-es are laid on thick by the narrator but besides that it sounds great!

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

You are right about the "sss's"... in fact, we took a 1 week pause and rebuilt the A. I. for that reason... it is now silky & smooth (listen to the Prologue tone versus most of the rest of the story... we replaced the A. I. in some parts - where it was most needed - on this one. ALL future Maul releases will be with v3 of the A. I. ... Maul : End Game is 100% using the new A. I. and will be released in the next 2 weeks)

[@shadowknife333]

God, I love this Makes me wish that book 3 of the trilogy was narrated by AI Sam. The initial narrative used for parts 1 and 2 in book 3 are good, but it doesn't really draw me in, like with Book 1 and 2. Not trying to be negative or anything but figured that I'd share my opinion 😅

[@richardloganpowelliii4850]

This is Sam Witwer’s performance from Shadow Hunter re-purposed?

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

No, not really. I have created an A. I. that has a similar tone and tempo to his voice (so it is familiar)

[@richardloganpowelliii4850]

@@TheArchivistPublishing Very impressive-I’m grateful for your releases!

[@phorz85]

Good u r back, but didn't u want to continue black fleet? Kinda exited for that.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

The entire book is complete - I will be starting to check it chapter by chapter following this premiere. Expect it in its entirety THIS WEEK.

[@bigbird2240]

@@TheArchivistPublishingthanks! You really brought those books to life!

[@bigbird2240]

I went from not caring for black fleet to loving them since they came out on here ! They are so good !!!

[@phorz85]

@@bigbird2240 lando's part as space indy was just phantastic. Also i love the writing of the author n that's his only star wars series. I never even heared about it for a long time but loved it as well, as soon i was through.

[@CartersRemasters]

Can you do the ‘78 solo book using this a.i?

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

You are in luck - the Junior Archivists are working on the 6 Solo novels as we speak! 🤗

[@CartersRemasters]

@@TheArchivistPublishing Great!

[@pascalhicks4376]

1:38:28 I don't like how you add Kylo Ren Lightsaber sound. What about the classic Darth Maul sith Lightsaber hum!?!?

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Originally, I was doing just that, but in the context of an audiobook it becomes difficult to differentiate between light side and dark side wielders... the "corrupted" Kyli Ren sabre sound is the only one not shared with Jedi... But you are correct... I need to adapt the standard saber sounds to represent the dark side sabers (either due to synthetic kyber crystals or kyber crystals that have "bleed" red)... I will update the startup sounds for Maul: End Game. Good feedback!

[@basslvck]

I hate AI but this is Awesome !

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I do know what you mean... But we get Maul - as Maul should be! If you have listened to all three of my Maul releases, you may notice a consistent improvement from Restraint --> Saboteur --> End Game. This AI has really come into its own now!

[@toxicmanbaby1069]

Awkward pauses in sentences, but still really cool and you get used to it. Very good work.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Yes... just a few awkward pauses. With the v2 A. I., I am manually removing them. This audiobook is a mix of v2 & v3 A. I. Listen to just the Prologue... it is entirely v3 A.I. ... it is getting close to perfect 😌

[@GhostVapeKIlla]

It seems none of these Audibooks are every completed? Or I just can't locate the remainder? But yeah, a bunch of SW Audiobooks are uploaded with an AI reading but never a complete book.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Which audiobooks are not complete? There should be a large number completed (the exception being Black Fleet Crisis Vol 2, which is in process). Please check out the play lists

[@paulgillespie542]

Not true

[@greadion4]

The author knows how to write

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Yes... agreed! I believe we have done 4 James Luceno works to date (more to follow) 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@guscadle5378]

What program do you use for your AI narration?

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I use 5 or 6 different ones, tbh. It depends on if I want a steady narration voice, an expressive voice, or an altered (alien voice).

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Check out Elevenlabs for the expressive voices - but, there is an art to having the voice raised, showing emphasis, and/or emotion (the tool doesn't have built in controls to do so, yet)

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I am planning to release a "how to" video so that anyone creating audiobooks can do so more easily (and with better quality)

[@NateHardman]

25:46

[@josephnotoempire2949]

Like a Boss. I love the sound design. The Gaffer's name? Crunch Celery, drop thud. Monumental. Re : Ai The voice actor's lyrical variations in pronunciation are a part of speech that is almost subconscious. Still massive contextual information is contained in a tone of voice and metered word selection. I would recommend listening to the cinematic voice acting in Jordan Peterson's, 'Nope'. These are people who likwise know what they are doing. See if you can count how many Easter Eggs there are to other horror films in that thing? Note the sound design engineer.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I will do this over the weekend... and I know exactly what you are referring to... this should be a GREAT help. Thank you for the assist!

[@bigbird2240]

Question- if you want to get the pronunciation exactly right on certain words can you change the spelling to force the ai to say then how you want ??

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Absolutely! In simple terms, you need to create your own "dictionary" (just like you can add words, spelling, etc. on your phone). Each tool retains this "pronunciation dictionary", so quickly only becomes necessary for Proper Nouns. I will go into detail when I release my "how to" video in November... If you take a story, you need to turn it into a script which is numbered per paragraph or dialogue (so you know which A. I. voice to use). The next step MUST be to update spelling to force pronunciation (otherwise you are stuck editing & replacing words after recording - a nightmare!). As a example, let's look at 2 words: First, "grimace"... In Word, I search replace with "grimiss" to enforce the pronunciation. Second, "reading"... this requires understanding the context to make the changes. For this type of word, I change it to either "redding" or "reeding". In Saboteur, I used " - " to force the pronunciation of Bruit (as "Bru-it") and Arrant (as "Ar-rant")

[@bigbird2240]

Awesome that’s how I imagined it ! If only Star Wars had a downloadable dictionary with the pronunciation you could upload for all the names and words! Maybe wookiepedia?

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

​@@bigbird2240The planet, species, and character names... actually I am surprised there isn't one! 😅

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

​@@bigbird2240I forgot to mention the other tools to force correct pronunciation : International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) : an alphabet developed to accurately represent the pronunciation of languages (the strange characters you see next to words in the dictionary to show pronunciation... which are in MS Word, fortunately). Diacritics : marks placed above or below (or sometimes next to) a letter in a word to indicate a particular pronunciation-in regard to accent, tone, or stress ( e.g., however /haʊˈɛvə/ ).

[@theperfectthermal3343]

So Maul lands on a planet walks into the first pub he sees, gets him self a water and then hears some guys talking about all the stuff he needs to know and the person he is looking for. Oh yup 👍🏼 perfect plot timing…

[@42fern]

The force works in mysterious ways.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Hahaha... yeah, the world inside of short stories is very focused - no time wasted sitting around, nursing his water at the bar! 😂🤣😂

[@OkIPullUp2915]

🔥🔥

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Thank you! 🤗 😁🤗

[@fantappstic3488]

Book 2 when? :o

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Well... we cannot publish Vol. 2 as it was released already (now owned by Disney)... but, the quality is very good - I am not sure any improvements could be made, tbh

[@azimuddin1890]

Is there a physical version of this story?

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I had to look around a bit to check on this... Amazon has the "Kindle" version, there is an eBook version online... and it was printed in the Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter book released in 2001 (I don't think it is in the Essential Legends Edition)

[@azimuddin1890]

@@TheArchivistPublishing I just looked at my Shadow Hunter book, I can’t believe this small book had Saboteur in it. Amazing, thanks for telling me, I haven’t even read it yet.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

My pleasure... I know what you mean... several times as I searched around for short stories I discovered them in novels... but didn't remember reading them (years ago) 🤣

[@azimuddin1890]

@@TheArchivistPublishing Yee!

[@azimuddin1890]

@@TheArchivistPublishing I don’t know much about books really. My “journey” is to somewhat explore the Star Wars’ Original Expanded Universe and get to know the kind of universe so I’m able to make my own established head-canon and make a fan-fic Knights of the Old Republic 3, based on what Obsidian Entertainment were originally going to make. Now why a head-canon?, well, I can’t read EVERY single thing from the Original E.U, that’s an unrealistic goal. And you may ask “why you writing a fan-fic continuation of an r.p.g that is a sequel?, well I didn’t like that Prodigal Knight Revan was in S.W.T.O.R M.M.O, and The Jedi Exile was killed off, so I want to rewrite/make a new story that gives a satisfying ending to those stories. Chris Avellone (a writer for K.O.T.O.R.2) did his research on the Original Expanded Universe (at that time) before writing K.O.T.O.R.2 (I think?) and I want to do the same. Now I wasn’t sure where I should stop at 2008 where The Clone Wars (2008) series had rectified so much and the Original E.U had to work around the messiness of working with that cartoons continuity. However, there were some stories I heard that I liked. So now, I decided that I can still get Original E.U media, besides T.C.W (2008) tie-ins. And when I get them, I could recognized the retcons, and head-canon around them, or retconning them. As for my “journey”, technically I started with Clone Wars (2003) series, loved that. Played the K.O.T.O.R Duology games, loved those too. Bought the two Jedi Knight games, plus Pod-Racer and Republic Commando for Switch. I heard from a KZbinr, Manda-LORE about there being books based on the Republic Commandos which I’m planning on buying at some point. Now as for games, we’ll, I’m not sure. I can buy the Force Unleashed Duology games and think of a fan-fic sequel to the sequel once I played that, same with Republic Commando, and I guess BattleFront 3, well or just think that unreleased game as part of my head-canon? But my true start of this “journey” was with Tales of the Jedi comics. Literally I bought the two Freedon Nadd comics, thinking they were novels about a history of the Jedi Order, until I got them and found out they were comics. Was not disappointed in the slightest, in fact, I got the entire series by December, Ulic & the Beast Riders (I think?), Nomi Saga, Dark Lords, Sith War, Redemption, Golden Age and Fall of the Sith Empire, and was liking the series. Despite not setting in the same time period as with Anakin and or Luke, I just liked the characters and the stories that were happening. I already played K.O.T.O.R, so it enchanted my appreciation for those games. Speaking of that duology, I like the games, especially the second one. The gameplay was fun, loved the characters, stories, and wished for a FITTING end to those games. However, I have not continued my, I guess?, journey throughout the Original E.U. So yee, recently, I’ve bought the three novelization of Star Wars: episodes 1-3 cause they had E.U references, Darth Plagueis the Wise Guy novel, Labyrinth of Evil, Rise of Darth Vader, Darth Maul Shadow Hunter which you know, includes Saboteur. I found out that my Revenge of the Sith book was a paperback but for the others, they were hardcovers which were annoying to read with because they kept sliding off. My solution was taping them, and why not take them off you may ask?, well I like my covers on. I even chose Chibi Anakin for the Phantom Menace, and Anakin & Padmé for the Attack of the Clones novelization. When I got T.P.M novel, I was confused at how it started because it starts with Anakin’s failed pod-racing. I went through each paged, and found out that the novelization is based off the film, it’s just, of course, different and had additions. Didn’t know there could be major additions like that. So…yee :)

[@michaelatlas5745]

where's the rest of the story?

[@BRIANONEALSINGLETON]

This can't be AI read, it's too good. I've AI read before, which is flat and emotionless. If this AI, their algorithm is perfect.😊

[@dahlialightwood563]

Why is there violin music in the background for a sci-fi story? This totally does NOT go with this genre and is irritating. Please, STOP adding excess background noise and just read the story.

[@skyhlgh]

Shut up get outta here and read a book then

[@Joeshoki]

Good AI reading but the pronunciation of "Coruscant" is kinda throwing me off lol

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

Hahaha... I was waiting for someone to spot that one. Also the pronunciation of "Arrant" is a few places! You don't know how many times we ran the A. I. to remove these (well, most anyway 😂🤣😂)... If only these was a control to lock specific pronunciations... currently, they are all context based only. 🙈

[@Kevin-w8d2g]

Violin is a bit much. Try ditching it.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

I know what you mean... "Maul + violins"? We chose to make the melancholic moments with a "melancholic violin background" (which suits the tone)... and also because we could not find good melancholic / heavy guitar music (which would be more fitting for Maul) that didn't drown out the voices...

[@dahlialightwood563]

UGH! Why is there a sound effect for everything? This is annoying! I don't need keyboard tapping in the background. This is so irritating to people with hearing issues. It creates WAY too much background noise! Great story but thumbs down for the excessive and constant sound effects. If a scene doesn't need it, don't add it, please! Sorry, but thumbs down. I can hardly hear the narration because everything has a sound effect and some of them don't even go with the story or fit.

[@TheArchivistPublishing]

@@dahlialightwood563 We create audiobooks to be immersive... similar to a movie viewing, but with your eyes closed.