For an audiobook, this is a nightmare. How do you make a listener care about two beings who have no facial expressions, no breath, no heartbeat? How do you convey sarcasm from a metal skull? How do you make a time-loop exciting when the character feels no fear of death?
The plot is deceptively simple: Both Trazyn and Orikan want a McGuffin, the “Astrarium Mysterios.” But over the course of 12,000 years of in-universe time, this chase destroys worlds, rewrites history, gets both of them killed dozens of times (Necrons can upload their consciousness into new bodies), and culminates in a courtroom drama and a kaiju battle. The book’s genius is its tone. It is simultaneously hilarious (Trazyn’s obsession with museum curation, Orikan’s petty legal filings) and genuinely tragic (their isolation as the last conscious beings of a dead race). infinite and the divine audiobook
This exploration will dissect why the The Infinite and the Divine audiobook is considered a modern classic, examining its vocal performance, the unique challenges of adapting Necron “voices,” the narrative’s tonal tightrope walk, and how sound design elevates a story about beings who feel nothing. Before discussing the audio, one must understand the raw material. Robert Rath took two secondary characters from Necron lore—Trazyn the Infinite (a kleptomaniacal archivist who steals moments, not just objects) and Orikan the Diviner (a bitter, paranoid astromancer who can rewind time)—and gave them a buddy-cop rivalry for the ages. For an audiobook, this is a nightmare