Stalingrad 1942-1943: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

Written by Stephen Walsh

Narrated by Edward Herrmann (Male Synthesized Voice)

This recording has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration.

The German invasion of Russia was Hitler’s biggest gamble in his quest for ‘Lebensraum’ in the East – and it was at Stalingrad that his gamble failed. Stalingrad is a comprehensive history of the greatest battle of World War II, a defining moment in the struggle on the Eastern Front, which has been called the Verdun of World War II. From an About.Com review of the illustrated print edition: "Anthony Beevor’s Stalingrad is wholly worthy of its fame. Fortunately for publishers, there are many ways to write history and Stephen Walsh's account of Stalingrad offers a strong alternative: a military history. Walsh may cover the same ground … but his is a narrative of logistics and tactical planning, an account of where troops moved and fought, why plans were conceived and what they meant militarily. There's a large overlap between Beevor and Walsh - both include the same basic detail - but Beevor's prose is more personal … while Walsh's text considers the limits of German national power and the nature of Vernichtungschlacht warfare. Where Beevor discusses the difficulty of providing exact figures Walsh just gives them and where Beevor's writing is ceaselessly gripping Walsh is more sedate, educational and discursive. In short, these books are aimed at different audiences: anyone who likes reading will enjoy Beevor, but someone who wants the military specifics and contexts will benefit more from Walsh. Another bonus is a chapter on Army Group A and their campaign in the Caucasus, an event presumably omitted from Beevor's Stalingrad on grounds of relevance, but one which helps place the siege on context. Walsh's book is an excellent military history, but Beevor's is better suited to a broader audience: in terms of text, neither is more wrong nor right than the other, but Walsh feels like a documentary and Beevor like a feature film. It might seem unfair to constantly compare The Infernal Cauldron to Stalingrad, but I urge everyone who reads one to study the other too. No one should miss out on Beevor's style and treatment of both history and humanity, while The Infernal Cauldron is a superb, maybe even essential, companion to Stalingrad.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amber Books
• Release date: Apr 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781838861407

Reviews for Stalingrad 1942-1943

[Sybrina Heine Knorr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although a very good book, the desire to make money (?) drove these people to use a computer generated voice of Edward Hermann. It would’ve been great to hear Edward Herman perform this book. But the AI they used, although sounding almost like the real, Edward Hermann, is still Way off of what a real human voice and the reading of this text would be. A good amount of the sentences that would’ve ended with a period, were voiced as questions.

Also what gets me about these military audio books are humans not understanding the topic and pronunciation of certain words like corps ( core). This AI pronounced corps as corpse well over half the time. This word wasn’t a sole word that miss pronounced, and did an adequate job over all; but my main gripe with the reading of military books is the lack of knowledge of the topic. It doesn’t take a PhD to read these, but someone with a basic knowledge of military terms, and these campaigns would be quite nice And an unexpected pleasure to hear. This computer generated voice of Edward Hermann did not have that basic understanding. If you don’t mind marginal, computer generated voices, you should be able to suffer through this as I did.

[Lurvas Godfridson · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

All i know is that the Robot reader is awful. Could not listen