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Crystal Awakening

By: Andrew Rowe, Kayleigh Nicol
Narrated by: Travis Baldree, Emily Lawrence
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Summary

A team of adventurers enters an epic trial of wits, magic, and monsters in this thrilling new fantasy series set within the Arcane Ascension universe.

Parties attempting to claim the treasures of the Tortoise Spire of Dalenos are usually composed of six professional climbers. But following a near-disastrous climb, Team Guiding Star Legacy finds itself two challengers short. With Nieve as the frontline fighter, Sage as the strategist, Lani as the healer, and Emiko as the spellcaster, they need a couple powerful allies to round out the squad.

The first new recruit, Hane, is a fighting and stealth specialist, while the second, Aldis, has quite the talent for teleportation magic. Though their individual reasons for scaling the spire vary—wealth, fame, favor—the team’s shared goal is thus: fight, win, ascend, and repeat. All in the hopes of one day making it to the top, where the goddess awaits to grant them the objects of their deepest desires.

To achieve this goal, they must master escalating levels of fire and ice, dangerous creatures, and confounding illusions. Whether facing a threat to their bodies, their magic, or their minds, each of the climbers accepts the risks. And bending the rules is part of the challenge. Some call this cheating; others call it winning.

But no test is ever straightforward. Because Guiding Star Legacy is being judged, and their next contest is one they aren’t meant to survive. Ascend or fall, the quest is only just beginning.

©2022 Andrew Rowe (P)2022 Podium Audio
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Critic reviews

"Nicol’s fantasy novel offers a promising start to a new spinoff series, set in former role-playing game designer Rowe’s popular Arcane Ascension world...surprising elements and shocking twists [lead] to a harrowing final life-and-death battle and [set] up an intriguing premise for a continuing series....Fans of anime, RPGs, and the authors’ previous work will be eager to follow Guiding Star Legacy’s further adventures." —Kirkus Reviews

What listeners say about Crystal Awakening

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!! Great start to a new series.

I really hope there's a cross over with the Arcane Ascension series. Good narration and pace.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not the best.

While still an enjoyable story, especially if you are a fan of the overarching law and other series, this was the hardest audiobook to get through. A large part of this for me was the two narrator and the decision to shift back and forth between perspectives. It was very jarring and destroyed the emersion. Regarding the narrative this was generally okay, but a bit preachy at times.

Overall worth the credit if your a fan of Rowe, but not a place to start.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

female narrator ruins the experience.

i personally find annoying how much the female narrator intakes breath. and her voice dont change much when voicing two diffrent peopple.

Travis did good job, as always.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Crystal Awakening

i havent finished the book yet, but for what i have heard up to now its quite a good one

some lovely banter between the part of the team that have known each other for a long time.

its also nice to see a book that is focusing on other people than the main cast of the other books, it gives us an idea how a party would climb without having a realy powerfull person that is able to fight a visage with them or a simular powerfull entity like demigods etc. the book do not look like it strugeling between an adventure book or something more like the harry potter books like some of the other books was from time to time.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Two narrators makes this very difficult to listen

The story was good, I really enjoyed more from the world that Andrew created and am looking forward to more in this series.
Both narrators gave good performances and I enjoyed listening to them. However having two narrators read different chapters was a terrible listening experience, it was incredibly jarring, trying to understand what voice matched to what character each time the narrator swapped. This could have worked if each narrator had a set of characters to perform the voices of instead of each chapter.
Also a side note: it would have been nice to ensure the pronunciation of places and names were consistent with the other audiobooks from the other series

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent start to a new series in the universe

Happy to see a new series in this universe, an excellent start and a recommended listen

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good opening

Narration was good, would have been better if each took specific characters but overall a great start to a series. Not a great place to start in this world but a great cast of characters that I got invested with and punched in the gut by in the end. Hoping for more in this series

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

good book

story and voice acting were good, enjoyed the book and look forward to the next one.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, odd narration

The story is fantastic, the alternating narrators was quite jarring, both were great readers it was just odd to flip between voices for the characters.

Also, there was some quite significant changes to pronunciations of please and people - like the Goddess, or nations, for example, when compared to the other books.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Cracking Book - what was needed

oooft. well.

proper tower climb story that I've been looking forward too.

just go enjoy it.

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