Earlier this month we released the next audiobook in the Brigador universe - Brigador Killers: Pilgrim - and since then there's been plenty of chatter. This post will not be spoiling any details of the plot but we suggest refraining from reading if you want to go in blind. Before we get to some of the community's reactions...
A few notes about the production of the audiobook
The original text of Brigador Killers: Pilgrim was completed in September 2021. The voice recording sessions with Ryan Cooper started a month later in October. Twice a week, Ryan would head to his VO booth (you can see Ryan's setup here) in the evening for about an hour at a time to locally record the book.
Unlike the previous audiobook's production (which was less than ideal), this time around our editor and producer Benjamin was able to direct Ryan as he recorded. Since this was during the height of pandemic lockdown, there were a lot of free solutions available, but Skype was profoundly terrible at it due to its poor audio quality. Fortunately, we were able to use something called Zencastr, which allowed Benjamin to remotely hear Ryan clearly, but still chime in in real time to give direction where necessary. It wasn't exactly like an AV engineer overseeing a VO session, but it was close enough for our needs given the circumstances.
After Ryan sent over the raw audio between each recording session, Benjamin took it into Audacity to cut it all together as well as double checking for any parts that weren't caught during the live session in order to re-record them in the next session. This twice-weekly process went on until late January 2022, with a few minor additions like the intro and end credits recorded in March 2022. The audiobook was then shelved for about a year, before receiving its final touches (the addition of MAVS' music and an EQ pass) made by Grant. Two years after that brings us to today and the book is out.
Some character trivia
Josh Brolin's character in 2015's Sicario was a heavy influence on how Pilgrim team member Marco was performed - specifically his demeanor, not his accent.
The mispronouncing of Louis Valka's first name by Daarb is a reference to Frank Oz antagonizing Dan Akroyd in 1983's Trading Places.
Lastly, given who Tuno Vocc is within the fiction of the Brigador universe, we needed to pull from a personality of equal measure. Who better, then, than the late Oliver Reed? More specifically, this extract from the 1985 BBC documentary "In at the deep end".
Reactions on Discord
Our Discord server was the most active channel and several community members got through the book with somewhat worrying speed. In mostly chronological order:
Just finished up, that was one hell of a ride - Squared
200% respect absolute banger i will be thinking about this book on the toilet - CeriseCisilipp
Yeah it's fuckin' phenomenal - basedthunk
Good book - pommy
This picture of Bugs Bunny I think summarizes exactly how I felt when reading the last two chapters - ANIMAL MOTHER
>chapter 24 what the fuck man - miffledkrisp
On a lighter note, I fucking died laughing at "Oh fuck, did i pull the pin?" - the huanglong
Guh I have work [tomorrow] still but ended up finishing the epub in one sitting - hax
"Cartwheeled into a lifetime of therapy" is probably my favorite phrase out of the whole thing. - HomelessCylon101
Finished listening to it this morning, and holy crap! It was nice having a book that didn't hold anything back. I think four years of life experience and three years of the army has made me appreciate your writing a lot more now, I don't think stuff like "You know what I love about the army?" (especially the one about the cages/stores) and the armoured NCO in charge of a recce/special ops mission would have phased me nearly as hard without that. Your written dialogue is real in the best way, makes me feel like they're people, not book characters. - Boliervac
Great stuff, absolutely unrelenting by the final chapters. - heavilyaugmented
On Reddit & Youtube
Elsewhere on the internet, the r/brigador subreddit has seen a handful of reactions:
[Just] read it all in one sitting, really scratched an itch I didn't know I had. Hit me like a truck when I realized halfway through I was reading the exact paragraph describing the book cover. Absolutely worth the five bucks. - u/Ok-Spend-4503
It was fun - u/Nodbot
...While over on YouTube, the first half of the book is being uploaded one chapter at a time over the next few months, and has generated plenty of comments:
Can't express how happy I am to see the same author & VA return. Loved the first one in ways I can't describe. - westonshores9248
Oh yeah, I'm Brigadoring it - captainkarmine9014
Why is that mech so curvy? It's making me feel strange things 😂 But seriously, thank you guys for these, they are of amazing quality - MrBjanders
I've listened to the Brigador book DOZENS of times, looking forward to doing the same here - mossy3565
FAQ
Where can I get the book?
You can acquire the audiobook on Itch (and also listen to the first 15 chapters entirely for free). The epub & pdf version is sold separately and available on our merch store.
The Kindle version is available here. The Audible version is pending as of time of posting.
Will there be a physical version of the book?
If Brigador Killers (the game) does well, only then we will consider pursuing a physical release of the book.
On the book cover, is the photo on the helmet Aline Vocc?
You'll just have to read (or listen) to the novel to find out.
