Awesome Book

This book was awesome! I have to say at first I had no clue what was going on and I was worried I was going to get into it. Then, bam I was hooked. The author did a great job with the world building.

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Highly recommended

I really wasn’t able to put it down. From the first page until the last I was completely into the story. It wasn’t as complicated as Some stories, no additional side stories and clear characters. I loved it and it ends with a real cliffhanger. And the narrator was very good. The story really flows I recommend it. Buy the book, you won’t be sorry.

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The World of Warcraft meets Star Wars

A story of a greedy emperor turning himself evil and even more powerful using black magic in pursuit of ruling and destroying all, invading surrounding kingdoms (hmmm, what do you call a city with a king as the ruler?) while a small party of mostly magic-wielders stands in resistance, culminating in an epic warship battle. Do they even stand a chance against the biggest and strongest ship ever built with an evil emperor at the helm..? * Definitely worth a listen. * The narrator is amazing, truly gave it his all, well done.

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very good

love the entire book, storyline is very good easy to understand, many characters and very catchy.

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Please find another narrator and let me try again.

Positives: Kingsguards! Sand crawlers? Wastelands? Mages? Warships?!
A prophecy that's not what it seems to be?!
"I sense a sinister plot is at work here!"

I love fantasy and sci-fi, and this book is a great combination of both. However, I think it would be much better to read than my listenining experience has been, due to the choice of narrator. A search of the narrator shows that he is not highly favored or enjoyed by most listeners.

The author does a great job of describing people and places, painting a great visual for the listener. He gives adequate detail without being too excessive with descriptions. You can see the people, rooms, buildings, etc.

Negatives:
Narration: Narration is awful, 1/3rd of the way in, I wanted to quit. But I also wanted to finish, to give an honest review and give the author the benefit of the doubt. After over 3 hours, it became wholly unbearable. It sounds as if the narrator thinks that slowing and deepening his voice is appealing but it's not.

Sped to 1.25 for more natural cadence around chapter 6/7. I do not always speed up books. The narration was so much better once sped up. Yet still, I only made it to Chapter 10: Revelation, before having to call it quits on this one.

Chase's natural voice when voicing "regular" male characters sounds so much better than his slow, "deep" narration voice that sounds like his chin is stuck to his chest. It is so unbearable.
Speeding it up improves some of the character voices, and slightly improves narration.

With that said, some of his character voices are cringy and do not sound believable. A few almost sound comical, like cartoon villain voices, but I'm not sure this is the author's intent.

Formir's (sp?) voice is the worst so far, and hardest to listen through. He sounds so unbelievable.

Shadowstorm sounds like a ...Scotsman? Actually one of the better voices from the narrator. But it feels out of place. Even saying "laddie."

Writing:
Grammar and wording
Lots of "me and him" instead of "he and I."

Some word strings could have been replaced with more finessed phrases, or otherwise benefit from rephrasing (maybe I'm too nitpicky).

Lots of cliches that could sound more sophisticated (which I started taking note of about 2 hours in [around chapter 7/8])

"Seeing a taste of what I saw..." "...hazard a guess" "...seven or so..." "...well, where I came from..." "...you might say..." "I played my part..." "A select number..." "Rust-bucket drunk" "...it really does take all sorts..."

Things I didn't understand:
Making the narrator recreate sounds of the "sandbeak" squeaking ("squeeeeeak" - sounded awful), and making the sound of the mech lift/elevator slowing down? "A light-hearted 'ping'..." Why? Why make the narrator make these sounds?

Redundant:
Smiled smugly with a smirk could be "smirked smugly"? Or even just "smirked" would have worked here...

"Not to be underestimated, however..." However to me is a "filler word" that could have also been omitted. This word is frequently used in the book. Lots of examples of this excessive wordiness, in my opinion. Or weird word placement that would benefit from rewording.
"I can 'kinda' understand why..." But the rest of the speech is proper?
"The kingsguard never needed anymore permission than their already high status..."
"A few paintings, mainly imperial in nature..."
How about "a few imperial paintings?" And not "littered the walls." Litter implies trash. Better words could be used here, especially for "imperial art" in the most senior/important part of the building/tower.

I'm at chapter 10. At normal speed, I have 3 hrs 21 min remaining of a 6 hour 28 min book and I can't force myself to finish due mostly to the narration grating on my nerves. I tried to finish to give the full book an honest review, but this is my honest review.
The narration made me quit this book, and there is no way, with the same narrator for the rest of the trilogy, that I can read the other two.
Any sample by this narrator will be enough to put certain folks off. The writing style is more bearable, but not combined with the awful narrator.
I hope the author has other options going forward. This narrator is going to cost the author sales, and I almost would recommend having it re-read by a new narrator. I'm sorry if I am too harsh.
Did not finish. Reason: Narrator. Read about 50%, until I realized I couldn't lose another 3 hours listening to this man read. Nothing about his reading sounds natural. Maybe he'd be better at cartoon voice acting?
The book and content itself is fine. Listening to the awkward narration with some of the awkward sentence structure and word choices made me quit. And 3 onomatopoeias read by him was enough for me.

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