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The Dragon's Blade
- The Reborn King
- Narrated by: Dave Cruse
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
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Summary
Dragons once soared in the skies, but that was before the Transformation, before they took human form. Now, demonic forces stand to obliterate them. When left mortally wounded, Darnuir, the Prince of Dragons, can only be saved through a dangerous rebirthing spell. He is left as a babe in human hands.
Twenty years later, Darnuir is of age to wield the Dragon's Blade. As the last member of his bloodline, he is the only one who can. He is plunged into a role he is not prepared for, to lead a people he does not know. Shadowy demons ravage his new home and the alliance between humans, dragons and fairies has fractured.
Time is short, for new threats and deadlier enemies are emerging....
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What listeners say about The Dragon's Blade
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- MR
- 29-08-17
Great Story
Any additional comments?
I have really enjoyed this audio book, I have fallen out of love with this genre of story over the last year or so but both this and the Half-Orc Series have changed that.
The story itself was intriguing with a varied selection of characters, interesting dialogue and fast paced action. At times it did make me think of Lord of the rings with swords replacing rings and dragons and fairies in place of elves and dwarfs.
Even though I was provided this audio book free of charge to provide an unbiased review I can honestly say that this series is now on my wish list and I will be purchasing the next instalment when it is available. Seriously give it a go.
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4 people found this helpful
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- JPA
- 04-03-17
An intriguing take on dragons.
If the blurb didn't forewarn, I'd have expecting leathery wings and gargantuan reptiles. This series, however, puts a new spin on the beasts of legend. In human form for generations, the dragons and their human and fairy allies face demonic foes in a protracted war on all fronts.
The focus of the story revolves around the rebirth of a dragon Prince. I wasn't a fan of this character, due to his arrogance and attitude towards others, although it was clear this was the point of him, so it certainly did the trick. I'm happy to say that he does develop throughout the story and that development is set to continue on through the series, from what I can see, intriguing me more.
The narration was hesitant at times, but improved as the story was told. I look forward to seeing how the performance improves through the second book, which I will be listening to soon.
There's plenty of action and intrigue, twists and turns in this fantasy story. Magic and monsters, betrayals and alliances. A well rounded world building that promises more of the same in the following books.
I give the narration 3-4 (start to end), and the story a solid 4. Some of the supporting characters won me over, which led to some emotional lows as well as mirth filled highs.
Check this beginning to an epic tale out, and explore dragons in a more vulnerable form.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-11-19
Good book, but...
Loved the book, a good story and characters, however the narrator was somewhat lacking. If you can’t do a Scottish accent well, don’t bother!
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- Swords and Spectres
- 19-02-17
Great start to a promising series
Firstly, I would like to say how much I love the cover. Once in a while I come across a book, or audio book, where the cover is a work of art. The Dragon Blade has been detailed to an amazing extent and just looks absolutely fantastic for a piece of cover work. Very striking, I simply can’t speak highly enough for the art work.
The book itself is very well written. In fact, I class the writing to be of a very high standard and the storytelling skills of the author are right up there as well. I enjoyed the plotline and, even though you could see a few things coming, I don’t feel a total lack of surprise spoiled any of my enjoyment at all.
There are, as with any piece, negatives. For me, I just didn’t quite click with the narrator and I probably won’t seek out other books narrated by him. For the most part he was very good and had a very strong voice. My main concern was that, at the start, I just felt as though his vocal range was very limited. I struggled to differentiate between which characters were speaking as, for a couple of characters, they sounded very similar if not the same. This wasn’t just at the start but it was more prevalent as, for a new listener unfamiliar to his voice, it is far more noticeable than when you get used to it for a few hours. He does the action-packed moments very well, it’s just the more slower parts he seems to lose his strength on.
Another slight negative for me was the prologue. I just felt that absolutely nothing was gained by having it in and that, considering several other parts were done as ‘looking back in time’ style moments, I felt the prologue could have been done the same somewhere further along. It also (the prologue) had a ‘videogame tutorial’ feel to it which initially soured me to the piece. I did enjoy the book as a whole, so I am glad I pushed on from what I considered a shaky start into some solid writing and storytelling.
With ‘Dragon’s Blade: The Reborn King’ the author takes on a fairly unique way of dealing with the main character, Darnuir, Prince of Dragons. When mortally wounded, the risk of the royal line becoming extinct is all too real and, as such, a human wizard casts a dangerous rebirthing spell that essentially ‘resets the clock’, turning our prince back into a baby and curing him of the wounds that plague him. Darnuir is one of those characters that you can’t help but like as a character but, had you the chance to know him in real life, you would probably not care too much for him. This blend of love/hate makes him an interesting character to read/listen about. The supporting cast of characters are also very diverse and enjoyable aspects of the tale. They range from human hunters and wizards to fellow dragons (all dragons are in human form, might I add) and even frost trolls and blue-skinned fairies, the latter of which will differ greatly to what your pre-conceived notion of a fairy is.
Miller has a flair for the battle scene, and, with everyone that creeps up, the reader/listener can’t help but look forward to them. Unlike some books where you just know the characters will survive every encounter, Miller’s battles have a bit more uncertain realism to them and you are quite simply left wondering if the characters you have been getting attached to will make it through to the other side.
Continuing on with the battle aspect, another drawback, for me at least, was the villains. We are told that the demonic horde of the dark lord Rectar are the bad guys. This is good. Everybody knows that demons are a bad thing so it is a natural fit to have them as an evil entity in a fantasy work. My main drawback is that I quite simply didn’t care or feel very interested about the demonic side. In every book I read, I like to know about both sides of the coin, yet in this series, so far, I only know about the good guys and that they are fighting a dark lord who has a few disgruntled servants. I can see that Miller is trying to make me care about the jockeying for power going on in the evil camp, but there just wasn’t enough put into it to make me have more than a passing interest. Miller does give you more information on the demonic side than I am perhaps making it sound, but that information comes in roughly the last 5th of the book with minute smatterings before. This is purely a personal niggle of my own, but one that I have nonetheless.
I also don’t feel, when there is a fight on, any sense of wonder at the battles due to knowing very little about the horde. I enjoy the fast-paced action and writing style, but not the clash against good and evil as, at the end of the day, they are just a horde. If one hundred demons die, does it matter? If a thousand dies, does it matter? I know it’s hard to get a sense of feeling for an army of tens of thousands, but I just feel as though I would have enjoyed it more if I had a bit more sense of feeling. In Miller’s defence, he does do this with one aspect of the Demonic Horde. A certain red-clad entity does have me very intrigued but, and I feel bad for saying this, that is the only aspect of the demons that I have an interest in.
I feel Miller ends the book well and has me very curious as to where the next book in the series will go. I have already seen positive reviews within the blogging community regarding the sequel, so I have high hopes for it. If I was to hope for anything from the 2nd book it would be a fleshing out of the demonic side, which, considering that started to happen near the end, I would fully expect. I also look forward to seeing how Danuir handles the sword. Other aspects regarding the special blades seen in Dragon’s Blade: The Reborn King, have me rather excited
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- NBJ
- 05-11-20
Great start to the series!
At the beginning, I was going to drop it as there were so many names and it was confusing. I am glad I stuck to it. it is a great adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed the return of the Dragon King. Daniel is not someone who is perfect and who won't make any mistakes. That man/ dragon makes so many mistakes that it takes too many apologies for him to get through. However, he is fine Dragon King towards the end.
Recommended to fantasy and dragon lore lovers.
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- superstardrifter
- 12-02-17
Awesome listen!
Enter a world of fairies, humans and dragons (and wizards!!!) and their war against Rectar, the lord of the demons and his army of... well, demons. :D I know what some of you are thinking. Same ol' Good vs Evil fantasy book, right? Not so fast! While this story embraces the traditional good vs. evil trope, it breaks the mold. It does it differently. A couple of tropes common to fantasy fit here. Farmboy prince fits as well, but this one is implemented in such a way that it almost feels like Miller is saying 'yeah, but in his defense, he was the prince first.' It touches on the traditional, but is refreshingly different.
I love some humanoid dragons, or dragons that can become humanoid. It makes them a bit more relatable (and it opens things up for some sweet, sweet dragon/not dragon roooomance - I AM WITHOUT SHAME). Dragons in this particular case, seem to be mostly dicks to anyone who isn't also a dragon, despite the situation of sort of needing to team up against the greater enemy. Darnuir starts this story as the sort of pompous, arrogant, know-it-all heir to the king of the dragons (whose name is Draconis, because of course the king of the dragons is named Draconis). His father doesn't trust him to wield the Dragon's Blade, a very powerful flying sword that only the royal line of dragons can wield. He says that Darnuir isn't ready for it, which of course pisses off Darnuir because he thinks he is ready for it! He couldn't be more ready for it!
Darnuir is mortally wounded and the only thing that can save him is the dragon king's resident court wizard, Brackindon (I probably spelled that wrong. Audiobook.), who does the only thing that he can do to save Darnuir. He performs a rebirthing spell that more or less rewinds Darnuir's life and turns him into an infant, and then he leaves him in the care of a group of hunters, of which the more or less leader is a friend of his. 'I'll be back in six months!' he says. Fast forward to twenty years later, and Darnuir has come of age to wield the Blade, and while there have been many years of radio silence from them, the demons are now redoubling their efforts.
We get some of the early parts of Darnuir's new life from his point of view, which was actually pretty interestingly thought out. The entire growing up again montage is summed up well, doesn't seem intrusive on the overall flow of the story, and is yet informative on what sort of (second) childhood that he has. Darnuir is raised as a human the second time around. He has no idea what he is, but his abnormally brute strength is noticeable to more than one person in his life, including himself at least once. It's kind of a wonder that nobody figured it out sooner. This simple life humbles him, though. He comes from a more humble upbringing this time around and that is the key to wielding the Blade the way his father would have wanted. Brackindon comes back (20 years late, but as we all know, a wizard is never late but arrives precisely when he means to) with the Dragon's Blade in tow and all is revealed.
Darnuir is a cool character who I started off not liking because he wasn't very likable, but I ended up cheering for him, because when his old, arrogant personality starts to try and break through, he tries his very hardest to not be that person, and tries to restrain himself. Where Blaine and the other dragons tend to continue the tradition of being dicks to humans (and women of all races), Darnuir brings his human upbringing into play to smooth things out.
My favorite characters are more or less in the background though. First is Dukuna (am I close? This one was a tough guess on spelling ^_^), one of Rectar's underlings and the first character we get introduced to. A demon lord's underling who is in a position that he doesn't want to be in. We see some of the book from his POV. He hates Rectar and considers himself a prisoner. He even has other demons that he sympathizes with. It's pretty neat. I actually cheered for him the most. The second is Lyra, the lady dragon who isn't taking any of Blaine's crap about lady dragons not being allowed to be warriors. You go girl.
The action/battle scenes were well written and made it easy to imagine the action that was taking place. I was transported into the world of this book quite easily. The magic system is described as a cascade and I thought that was quite an interesting way to think of magic. Like a waterfall, kind of. The plot takes a couple of turns that you don't see coming, and it doesn't plod along. I thought it was quite well written and plotted out quite nicely. It wasn't overly complex, but it was complex enough that I was immersed quite thoroughly.
The narrator totally nailed it. Dave Cruse's narration of this book is more than slightly reminiscent of Simon Vance. Dave Cruse gave each character an appropriate voice and tone and told the story very well! Some pretty brilliant accents were peppered throughout, and I quite enjoyed the listen! My only criticism here is that when characters are having an inner monologue moment, which they do from time to time, a better way to differentiate that would be awesome. As it stands, it just seems like the same character speaks but... a little muffled. When they're inner monologuing in the middle of a spoken conversation, this can be confusing.
What a great debut! The best part was watching a character that I didn't really start out liking turn himself into a character that I liked rather a lot. I did really dig this story, and really enjoyed my time with this listen! I'm excited to read (or hopefully listen!) to the next book in the series!
I was given a free review copy of this audiobook by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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- Believer50
- 23-02-17
Very Long
I got this book via audiobook boom. The narrator was very good. the story had lots of twists and turns and sometimes just gave too much information. The description of the king took almost two minutes. Those are the things I am talking about. The story was developed and it was interesting how Daniur's character took over the story and made his way to being the one who could control the dragon blade. Nice fantasy just a little long for me.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-10-18
Fantastic dragons
A fantastic tale told by a fantastic narrator! Gotta love some dragons. get into it.
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- KD
- 26-09-18
Strong beginning
Book starts off rather slow with the protagonist being a nasty little shit. However eventuallly he grows to be more endearing.
It’s a strong start to a fantasy series and I hear the second book is much better
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- Talondc
- 23-08-17
Dragons Like They've Never Been Portrayed
I really enjoyed Miller's different take on dragons and his consistent adherence to their cultural attitudes. It provoked an immediate and continuing emotional response from me.
I got grabbed by the story in each of its segments, wanting to know more about the life of the protagonist in each of his life phases. A few early on mishaps to people surrounding him allowed me to feel real tension at the expendability of anybody on the cast and that allowed that tension to be repeatedly thrummed by Miller.
Cruse did an excellent job with the narration. His approach was as the soft spoken storyteller and so often he faded into the background as the scene took the lead. At first I thought this was unremarkable but came to realize that is just the sort of well-calibrated effort this book needed.
I give it a 4 star instead of 5 because I'm not sure if I am sated in this storyline or not. I was left with some tantalizing ways for the magic to go in the next book, as well as a daring heist to rescue the girl, but I feel like I'm at a nice cozy spot with this group of characters and I'm hesitant to follow them to a place where things have to get more complicated.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
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- Lady Meserole
- 18-08-17
Memory and Magic
The Dragon's Blade: The Reborn King is Michael R Miller's debut novel. It was a very interesting read, and had some clever new ideas I had not encountered in the fantasy genre before. I found shadow travel, the gemstones, staff trees, and the magic system of cascade energy to be particularity intriguing. And while I have read stories where magic has a price, I really enjoyed Miller's treatment of this idea. I loved his emphasis on magic and memory for the themes.
There was a lot of world building and history in The Reborn King. It was well done, and added much to the development of the story. There is a large cast of characters, and while there were many that were developed, there are many more that can be more fully fleshed out in subsequent books. The main character, Darnuir, is fascinating. Many times a main character will have internal conflict, but Darnuir's conflict is very unusual, with many years of influence from each of the two opposing schools of thought colouring his judgment.
My only minor quibble with the book was regarding Darnuir's younger years growing up with the hunters. I enjoyed the history and seeing into that part of his life, but I wasn't a fan of how it was presented. The jumps from 2yrs, 6 months, 1yr, 2yrs etc was jarring. I would just get interested in what was happening at that time in his life and then the time would jump again. It just felt awkward and pulled me from the story each time. That being said, for others who feel the same, persevere because once you get past that section the story is very well done.
While I almost never compare books/authors (as everyone gets something different out of a story and it's like comparing apples and oranges), I just wanted to mention that to me The Reborn King had the same 'feel' to it as Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series.
The Reborn King had some resolution at the end, but it does have a continuing storyline. Thankfully, for those who don't like to wait, the second book is out:) I have to admit, I'm looking forward to exploring more in this world. And I have to add that I'd love if someone did an illustration of the swords, they sound gorgeous!
Narration: Dave Cruse was fine narrator. He had many voices and accents to cover and did them all justice. He had an intesting method for doing internal monologue that I hadn't heard before. It took a little to adjust to it and realize what he was doing, but then I enjoyed his approach. I'm glad to see he is narrating the second book as well. I'm looking forward to listening to more of his narrations.
For those who like to know... there is no sex, I don't recall any profanity, and while there was a great deal of fighting and death, there wasn't a lot of explicit details, so it wasn't gory.
I received The Dragon's Blade: The Reborn King free in exchange for an unbiased review.
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- Demetria Vassilaros
- 16-07-23
Dullest story ever!!!
The beginning seemed interesting but as it got on in story it just was boring. Fight after fight with demons and dragons, and humans just wasn’t a good story line.
The narration was beautiful but the story line not so good!
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- Hokage McKinley
- 31-03-23
love the book
I like the book a lot. I can't wait for the next one in the series
*nothing to do with the book, but forcing us to write a review 🙄 is the worst thing audible doing. makes me not want to rate books anymore. not all of us like to leave a review!
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- Callie
- 29-05-22
A great classic fantasy with dragons
If you’re a fan of fantasy, there’s nothing not to like about this book.
It’s nothing out of the box in terms of themes or world-building, but I believe Miller really shines here when it comes to amping the drama and creating suspense.
I was surprised by how much I liked this novel. The title and description really do remind you of a litRPG novel, but it didn’t feel like one. This book is a much more polished and well crafted version of a reincarnation ‘tale-as-old-as-time.’
The performer doesn’t have great range when it comes to making new voices for characters, but the diversity of his ability to do accents was fun and helped distinguish more.
Just a great novel that I recommend to fantasy fans. Even though the dragons are humanoid, they are still awe-inspiring.
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- Zach
- 20-04-22
Highly rated, but not for me
A lot of other reviews acknowledge that the other books are more exciting and that this first one is a bit slower. It was indeed slow. I found it hard to care about much of anything that was going on, and the parts that I did care about seemed to last all of 30 seconds. But other portions of the book the author will go on for 20 minutes about a bit of fabric hanging from a wall.
The thing that killed this audiobook for me the most and what made it so I won't be continuing the series is how they handled the character's inner monologue. The narrator would do a kind of whisper or cover his mouth or something. It made his voice sound wet(?) and made me want to start attacking anything around me. Since about a 1/4 of the book seems to be inner monologue, it made finishing the book more difficult.
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