The “Red Heart” Audiobook is Now Available

It’s finally here! After months of intensive work and then a long review process, Red Heart is now available as a full-cast audiobook.

My goal with this audiobook was to push AI narration to its limits and demonstrate just how “human” an artificial cast can sound. Throughout this process, I’ve been stunned at how far AI narration has come since I created the Crystal Society audiobooks back in 2023. If you listed to those and found them stiff or lacking, I encourage you to give the latest version a listen.

The voices, generated by ElevenLabs, will laugh, sigh, and express emotion like professional voice actors, bringing the book to life in a whole new fashion. Bai’s anger, Li Fang’s determination, and Yunna’s calm precision are now tangible elements of the story. I may be slightly biased, but I think it sounds pretty dang cool.

For those who have already read Red Heart, I think you’ll still enjoy the audio version. I hand-picked all the “voices” of the characters, and generated about six audiobooks worth of material in the process of directing them to match my vision. I adjusted timing, added music and occasional sound effects, and generally shaped it in a way that I feel lifts the characters off the page.

And, of course, there’s the uniquely spooky feeling of losing yourself in listening to people discussing the dangers of AI, only to remember that everything you're hearing was generated by a machine in order to trick your brain into thinking you're listening to real humans. 👀

Pick up a copy here:

Gumroad (DRM free!)

Spotify

iBooks

Google Play Audiobooks

Barnes and Noble

Stay tuned for a full blog post on the my method and the tricks I learned for using ElevenLabs to create this audiobook. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you enjoy the audiobook, please consider leaving a review, as it remains the most powerful way to help this book find new readers.

— Max

P.S.: You may notice Amazon isn’t on the list of vendors. This is not an oversight. Amazon will only sell AI-narrated audiobooks if the narration is done by their (vastly inferior) model. Ugh! Fingers crossed this changes in the future.