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A Mark of Kings
- The Shattered Reigns, Book 1
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
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A Mark of Kings
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Summary
Despite his youth, Declan Idrys knows of the evils of the world. He knows of the bastards and brigands who plague the King's lands, of the monsters skulking in the wooded depths of the realm. Together with his companion, Ryn - a beast of rather peculiar talent - he has spent the last decade of his life beneath the bloody banners of a half-dozen mercenary guilds, hunting precisely such festering wickedness within the borders of Viridian.
Unfortunately, fate is quick to pull on the leash of its favorite children. When one particularly troubling contract goes sideways, Declan and Ryn find themselves thrust into a war thought legend and long-ended, a conflict so old it is synonymous with a time in which dragons still ruled the western skies. Now, as dead men rise from their graves and the terrible beasts of the northern ranges descend into the kingdom with an appetite for savagery and flesh, Declan is faced with a profane choice. He can turn, can flee an ancient rising horror that would see the realms of man left as shattered death and wind-blown ash.
Or, Declan can face this mounting threat, can come to terms with the fact that his oldest friend might just be more than he appears, and learn to wield an ageless power all his own.
Centuries pass, after all, but the Blood of Kings does not fade....
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Phantom Orange
- 15-08-19
Show, Don't Tell
Ive never been so annoyed about the lack of agency in a book. The "hero" of the book is constantly getting shocked by every thing he encounters without taking any significant initiative.
Half of what I've read so far is either info dumps or incredibly descriptive travelling information.
The only thing I've enjoyed about this book so far is Nick Podhel's Narration.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leigh Tottle
- 04-02-20
Thrilling and descriptive
Between the realness of the struggles and the descriptiveness of past history and magic it really got my attention. Main character wasn’t over powered from the start and the steady rise in power is believable.
Would recommend to anyone a fan of magic or dragons.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Maylil
- 03-09-19
One of the best I've recently read
I think i might shortly find this author on my hard to get on top lists. One less star only because some of the times the background expose was interrupted became a touch stillted and there was a lot of it. That said I still thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and feel it was giving nods to our favorites without being too obv or stealing (like some 'sword' books we might love/hate). I think it was just me noticing the freshness of a new author shining through, but if so, a damn good one.
Heartbroken the sequel isn't out, and looking forward to being really wowed
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- kian
- 18-08-19
Good setup
Good start, its setting up the scene and back story for the series, but I felt more should have happened instead it's lot of story telling of the past and travelling on the road, still I have faith it will get better in the next book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 16-08-23
Wish I started this instead of Wheel of Time!
Wasn't sure when I started, bought this pretty much entirely because of the narrator, but I was pleasantly surprised. I did come off the back of Wheel of Time which is the worst thing ever almost written but this was much more like it!
Good characters and a well set up story, the magic system is a little basic and not really gone into in great depth. Not as bad as The Wheel of Time though but maybe there will be more in the coming books.
World building was good too, again not the deepest but I'm pretty happy with it.
I really liked how it started, gave it a good foundation going forward and adding to it as characters were introduced.
Nick did a great job as usual, can't really fault anything with the narration, great variety of voices including the female ones and perfect pacing. I think I would buy anything he narrated... except WoT obviously.
I don't much like the 5 star system, I think this was worth a 7/10 but I can only give it 3 or 4 so I'm going for a 3 for story but it's more like 3.7.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 27-06-23
Not bad but nothing compared to wheel of time
I enjoyed this book but there were a few moments where I was thinking nothing was really happening. It was gripping but I guess after WOT this doesn’t compare
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 11-11-22
i cannot get into it at all
its just not clicking at all, i can not connect with the mc, hes a complete blank nothing there
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mark west
- 26-09-20
A good story
Enjoyed the story but couldn’t stand the performance or the narrator sorry. The story and characters were well written and believable so I persevered.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- viktor
- 10-01-20
The main character is a bit slow minded.
He always get shocked by everything or confused. It's really annoying when I can understand whats happening but the MC can't.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Tony G.
- 07-10-19
A difficult slog
I was very excited when I saw this book had been released, as I was a big fan of Bryce O'Connor's "Child Of The Daystar" series previously. That series was well crafted, full of believable, interesting characters driven by understandable motivations and the story line that never got dull. I found A Mark Of Kings to be the polar opposite.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
The book begins with a series of incredibly contrived, unlikely circumstances that force the four main characters together at exactly the precise time to begin their road to stopping the evil "Endless Queen" who has risen again after being vanquished hundreds of years prior. what proceeds immediately after the characters join together is hours and hours of boring historical exposition that could and should have been cut down by about 85% and would have still brought the reader enough of an understanding of current circumstances to continue the story. But I don't believe there is enough content without it to fill a normal-sized book.
Besides the endless exposition, my biggest complaint with this book is the main protagonist, Declan. He is introduced as a veteran mercenary who has joined nearly every mercenary company in the land over his career. He was also raised and trained by a 700+ year old shape shifting dragon to be a survivor. One would expect Declan not to be a complete dunce, but one would be wrong. Declan is constantly shocked into disbelief by "Revalations" every time he has a conversation with any other character. So much so that he typically tells the others that he needs to stop the conversation. This shock is used as a mechanism by the author to cut exposition short for the reader's sake, but it is used far too often.
One excuse that is used to explain how Declan hasn't figured any of this out so far is that Ryn has been blocking specific thoughts in his mind. But many things are never explained. Why is Declan shocked that magic is real after he was raised by a telepathic shape-shifting dragon who outlived both his parents and can magically sense things within a certain radius? Why wouldn't Ryn have told Declan that he can use fire magic? Why is Declan so shocked that Ryn is a dragon, but wasn't shocked when he thought Ryn was a magical shapeshifting creature unlike any known thing in the world? Why did Ryn not tell Declan he was a dragon? Why did Ryn hide anything from him actually? Everything is revealed at the most convenient time that it just comes off as poorly planned.
Besides all this, the romantic element feels forced, This could have been formed believably over the course of the book, but it just happens immediately after they meet.
Argh.. I could go on about my issues with this book, but I'll cut myself off there. I'm very disappointed with this book as a whole.
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135 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- JOmegaK
- 03-11-19
Bit of a mess...
This book starts very strong, which may be contributing to my overall disappointment, but I'd hazard to say this is one of the worst fantasy audio books I've listened to in years. I forced myself through to the end in hopes that it would get better, but honestly it doesn't. Not only that, but it ends without any sort of meaningful resolution. The only thing that kept me hanging in there to the end was Nick Podehl's performance, even though all of the characters have weird accents. (Sean Connery?)
What it gets right :
- Great prologue!
- Well-written action sequences
- At least one good character!
- There are some cute dogs towards the end?
What it gets wrong:
- Poor pacing
- Jarring tonal shifts (lighthearted romp to grotesque violence in the blink of an eye)
- Unnatural and sometimes cringe-inducing dialogue
- A forced YA romance
- The world feels pretty generic and derivative.
- Magic system is poorly defined and feels like it can do anything the plot requires.
- Underdeveloped characters
- What are these accents?
The main characters are underdeveloped, and with the exception of the old Mage, rather unlikeable. The female protagonist is especially poorly realized, and seems to exist only to satisfy the love interest for the main character, She's a cliche of a cliche instead of really having a believable identity of her own. The magic system not well explained. Often times characters will just know things "because they do," or even more often the same character will not know something they should "for reasons unexplained" even though they can seemingly do anything else in the world.
The story hits a brick wall about half way-through when the authors saw fit to explain the history of the world [to the main character] for what feels like a quarter of the book. This effectively destroys any momentum the story had, and brings the pacing to a crawl. When it finally does get on track the book ends without any resolution. I get that it's the first in a series, but come on. There wasn't even a defined story arch. I'm just ranting at this point, but I definitely would not recommend this book.
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66 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Lanfear
- 12-09-19
A Hero Who's Hard to Cheer For
This book started off with promise. It was dark, gritty and had elements of high fantasy mixed in. I was ready to fall in love. However, it quickly became clear that the main protagonist, Declan, is a bit dense. At first, you understand and sympathize with him but after every moment stuns and stupefies him, it starts to get old. It got to point where I found myself laughing, I started to feel bad for the poor kid, as I felt the authors turned against him. I know by the end of the book I sadly had.
For those who are looking for grim dark fantasy you may want to skip this one. Nick Podehl's narration is great but alas, couldn't save this book for me. Poor Declan.
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60 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Diffedge
- 21-08-19
Incessantly awed, shocked, & stunned into inaction
Plot 10/10
Characters 10/10. ( all but the main protagonist)
Narration 10/10
Wanted to love this story! The world is well developed and makes sense. Most of the characters are deep but not boringly so.
But then there is our hero, who is supposed to be a battle hardened mercenary, spends nearly whole book completely ignorant of what's going on because the writer is trying to build some unnecessary suspense. Not because the information isn't there but because his friends think he is to fragile to hear the truth. Which is probably right because he manages to find something in every battle to get shocked, awed, stunned, or overwhelmed into inaction and he just stands there while everyone else saves him. There is one battle he does himself at the beginning and that's it. seems like the side decides to search his feelings every time the Gore starts to fly.
I am in doubt if I will continue with the sequels.
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58 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Carlos T. Munson
- 13-12-19
Great...until
The book was moving along at a nice exciting pace "until" it all came to a screeching halt...when all the main characters spent most of the book sitting around and talking about all the historical and political happenings around the kingdom... YAWN!!!!
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37 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Melissa
- 24-08-19
Good Book, hope the next one is better.
i really enjoyed the overall story but believe that even in a series a book should be able to hold its own weight. This one was cliff hanger ending which I feel was unnecessary when we could've had 5 more pages to finish up what was there and lead into the next book.
TL;DR Great book, but unnecessary cliff hanger ending.
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29 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- John
- 26-08-19
I cannot connect with this on any level
You have to be on acid to come up with this concept. A horse that transforms into a wolf? One has hoofs and the other has paws - Right?. So - When Declan communicates with this animal "Telepathically" - He asks the horse to go get the plates for dinner. Ohhh I said that right. The horse goes into the pack and pulls out the plates. No explanation of how this happened.. The story starts off with a melodramatic scene we're are all supposed to connect with? I couldn't get into the opening screen and I was uncomfortable with the entire saga. I don't know what anyone is thinking.. I really tried - But I think the book will be going back.
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28 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Nathan Parker
- 22-08-19
Typical hero's journey story, but needs an editor
The fact that the author didn't bother with having anyone check his grammar drove me nuts. He seems to have never heard of the objective case, which includes "him, her, them, me". Instead, it's "he gave it to she and I". All through the book.
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James
- 27-08-19
This book is absolutely terrific.
One of the best things about reading fantasy novels is that every time you encounter a new magic system it's like an adaptation to physics this book has got a pretty good one.
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21 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- CPU Widow
- 03-12-19
Hero of Mediocrity
Suffers from repetitive detail that doesn’t add momentum to the story. Difficult to cheer for an addle -headed average joe who occasionally acts heroic. Doubt I’ll get book 2.
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18 people found this helpful