The audiobook of "The Bird That Drinks Blood," an epic fantasy by author Lee Yeong-do, sold more than 1,000 sets within three days of its release, publisher Golden Bough said on the 26th.
The audiobook features a record 58 popular voice actors and runs 143 hours. Recording began in 2024, with production and review taking two years. The production budget was 100 times that of a standard printed edition. The audiobook was released exclusively on the online bookstore Aladin on the 20th, priced at 200,000 won ($145) per set.
The audiobook of Lee's previous work, "The Bird That Drinks Tears," passed 800 million won in cumulative sales after six years, the highest ever recorded for a published audiobook. Attention is now on whether "The Bird That Drinks Blood," which topped 200 million won in cumulative sales within three days, will set a new sales record.
To recreate its sweeping large-scale battle scenes in audio, the audiobook employs a range of sound effects, music and direction. In particular, producers minimized the assignment of multiple roles to a single voice actor to vividly capture the original work's grand universe. The project was jointly produced and funded by Aladin and Golden Bough, the publishing imprint of Minumsa. It will be offered exclusively on Aladin for one year.
"The Bird That Drinks Blood" is the only sequel to "The Bird That Drinks Tears," the signature series by Lee Yeong-do, one of South Korea's leading fantasy authors. Through more than 100 characters caught up in the civil war of a fledgling empire, it depicts the fierce struggle born of human free will pitted against absolute power.
