Excellent entry into a new fantasy trilogy

The opening throws you into the action of the nation of Cadonia with marked carnage, leaving young Elyse the new queen. We are subsequently taken to 2 other story lines, those of Jonrell (a mercenary of highborn lineage, whose ancestry isn't revealed until later, so I won't divulge here) and the story of two warrior brothers (Tobin and Kaz) of the Blue Island Clan.

Overall, there is much action and good plotting especially with the Jonrell and Blue Island Clan story lines. I felt the political machinations in the Elyse storyline dragged a bit, but was more than compensated for in the action in the rest of the book.

The character development held few surprises (in classic epic fantasy fashion), but was well-handled and written, so was enjoyable, if a bit predictable. The characters were engaging (including one crusty female mercenary, aptly named Hag) and the alternating story lines well plotted without being confusing. I did find the ending surprising and look forward to the next volume of this series.

The narrator did a good job overall, especially with the various male characters and one of the female characters (Hag.) The other female voices sounded a bit cartoonish, but it must be difficult to do such a range of voices and accents. This volume would have benefited from the addition of a female narrator to voice the female characters.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

Narrator Trying Way Too Hard

I don't want to be universally down on this book. On the bright side, it has a nice title. The main characters are pretty well developed if a little simple. The story is... easy to follow, at least.

That's it; that's all i got. As to negatives:

This book feels like Simon was trying to write "The Black Company" or "Gardens of the Moon" (Cook and Erikson, respectively), but wanted to leave out innovations like good dialogue, interesting character interactions, humanesque emotion, or creative story lines.

The narrator is giving it his all (bless his heart). He overdoes in every case but a few. His female characters sound like he's a grown man trying to mock a four year old. His accents are all over the map and they migrate over the course of the reading. A brother and sister in the book that were raised together have drastically different accents. His "burly man" voice is cartoonish. He also pauses mid-sentence as if there is a comma every three words. It's very distracting.

There are also some editing flubs. It's as if they thought this book would win through on enthusiasm alone. I would not recommend this to a friend. I would recommend this to someone I am trying to discourage from reading fantasy.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

Lots of Action in this Fantasy!

Parents: PG13 to almost R mostly due to violence
Language: PG - the language was actually pretty clean - no f-bombs
Violence & Sexual Content: PG13-R - SO this is were I'm on the fence for age level. There are lots of battles and the reality of war isn't glazed over, the violence has some gore to it and there are lots of battles but it's not overly graphic. it also some of the more awful parts mentioned, brief visuals, and discussions of warriors raping the women and young girls in villages that they've taken before they kill them. There are also mentions of sexual encounters and scenes laying in bed after... so use your best judgement.

The wars and bloody battles start pretty much right away, and because of that you start out a little lost but quickly the gaps start filling in. It has so much action and intrigue that I got hooked pretty quickly and it wasn't easy to put down. This is part of a series and while it's not left on a dire cliffhanger there are some big twists and events that take place at the end that really do push you on to the next book.

The narrator (4🌟) did a good job with the differentiations and was fun to listen to. It was a bit slow for me but I usually listen at 1.25x speed, this one felt better to me at 1.35x speed.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Fantastic

This is a soap opera style book that goes between different people/places with multiple POV. I very much loved the writing, twists and turns, and the audio was well done. Top marks. My only complaint is HOW much Kas/Cas is brought up to be better than his brother - but that’s probably because I hate the “old” kas.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

nifty sword and sorcery...

Definitely a unique story. Violent and mature, pretty fun. I didn't have many problems with the maturity, but the jumping to different stories was sometimes jarring. Otherwise, great story and would recommend.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Did Not Finish

It is so very rare that I DNF a book that I really can't remember how many years ago it might have been. The book was not bad, but after several hours of listening I honestly could not tell you the name of a single character, who they were, what they were doing, or why they were doing it.

This book did not grab me as I floated away in the stream of my own thoughts. I like to read books to distract me from my own thoughts, not the opposite.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Needs better voice talent

honestly, the voice talent here is pretty terrible. the voice drone on and being at chapter, I dread going thru the rest of the 14 hours of this book. There are pauses every few words like there is a paragrah break every 3-5 words, super distracting and I just cant get into it. i may or may not finish this one, but if the last 2 have the same narrator I for sure will not continue further.

The storyline is fair, in written format I think this series could work pretty well, but the naration ruins it for me on the audio format

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A wonderful start to the series!

Joshua P. Simon did a great job with book 1 and the overall series. The characters are well developed, unique, and relatable. The overall story is well written and a good read. The plot moves at a good pace, a great amount of action mixed with appropriate dialog. I look forward to book 2! Audio Version: Jonathan Waters does a good job with the characters. You can see throughout book 1 he develops their sound further and more cohesively.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

What and adventure

A must read/listen in my books. The author had me questioning my judgment of each character several times.

Though tough to follow in the beginning, the narrative of each character was gripping and the story line exceptional. The fight scenes were well written and easy to follow.

Can't wait to listen to the rest of the series.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Good story!💜

This book has two major issues going on. The first, the hatred between 2 brothers and the rule of their father. The second, is WAR. I’m not a huge war fan but I found the story of the brothers was so engaging that it kept me wanting more.
The war going on had too many factions for me and so many characters that I admit at times I was a bit confused. Did I stop after book 1? Heck no. There was more storyline that I enjoyed than not. But mostly because I enjoyed the narration so much. Jon E Waters was new to me only a few months ago and now I can’t get enough. His voices are brilliant and especially his female voices. I love the way he performs so many different characters in one story. Fantastic. I recommend this book/series but remember sometimes in war good people die. This book is not a standalone and does not have an HEA. The entire trilogy is already published.

Sisters Spotlight 💜

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!