
Nightblade: A Book of Underrealm
The Nightblade Epic, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Garrett Robinson
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By:
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Garrett Robinson
Loren's dagger holds incredible power - but something keeps her from using it.
Loren dreams of escaping her cruel parents and becoming a great thief: Nightblade, a warrior of darkness and a champion of the light. Following the fugitive sorcerer Xain out of her forest home, she wears a stolen noble's cloak of fine black cloth and carries a dagger the world has not seen in centuries - a blade that can turn enemies to allies when she least expects it.
Yet something keeps her from using that dagger to take a life.
Soon she crosses paths with the smuggler family of Yerrin, invoking their wrath by stealing their most precious treasure. Yerrin’s reach is long, and they will not stop until they silence Loren forever.
If she can survive, Loren may become the most infamous thief in the world. But if she fails, she will be only the first to burn in a war that threatens all the nine lands.
©2014 Garrett Robinson (P)2018 Legacy BooksListeners also enjoyed...




















One of my favorite books/series
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Nightblade is the first of (as of this writing) eleven books in the series, and for most readers/listeners, it will be their first foray in the world of Underrealm. Though the world is well-developed and complex, it is not immediately overwhelming, because the main character Loren is just as much a stranger to the larger world as we are, and Garrett takes care to slowly weave in the worldbuilding details. The characters are richly developed, with a depth that is rarely seen, particularly for a introductory novel in a larger series. Everyone from the constable Bern, to the cobbler Markus, and of course, Loren herself, are fully developed characters, with their own wants, needs, and lives outside of what we directly see.
As mentioned, Nightblade is part of a larger series, and nearly every scene lays the groundwork for the future. Tiny, almost irrelevant detail, can come into play in later books, and particularly sharp readers/listeners will be rewarded as they delve deeper into the series. I have read or listened to Nightblade at least five times, and without fail I have found another detail that I had somehow missed before.
From a performance standpoint, I was genuinely surprised and impressed at Garrett's skill at narration. Characters had distinct and consistent voices, and he made excellent use of vocal inflection and pacing to bring the story to life in a completely different way for me. As the author of the series, there is nobody better to determine the correct mood a scene should carry, or just the right way a particular character should speak. Though I have read through the entirety of his works multiple times, I eagerly look forward to experiencing Underrealm again, through the voice of its author.
My Favorite Series, Now in Audio Format
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Love the Nightblade
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A refreshing fantasy story
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After recent experiences this year, I'm a bit more open to books narrated by the author than I used to be.
In fairness, Garrett Robinson is a skilled narrator. He has a solid assortment of character voices and good use of tempo changes and vocal inflections.
Unfortunately, there was an ongoing slip near the end that prevented this from being a solid 4🌟 performance.
Around 75% or so into the book, the main character's voice changes. Would have been no problem if there had been descriptions in the text suggesting she was altering her voice. Unfortunately, there was not.
Now, we do have an interesting world that, while unrealistically conservative in some ways, feels authentically medieval in others.
The main character, Loren, starts out as this country bumpkin of a girl with big dreams that have been shot down all her life.
Of course, she soon discovers the "real world" isn't all she thought it would be and I love the play on her expectations versus reality as she comes into all this.
There's very little of the world's magic system in this book, but what is there is really interesting. As is the shadowy "underworld" (my word, not the author's) organization that seems to have their hands into everything.
There is a wide cast of characters (considering the length of the book, at least), and even the ones who are shallow or only present for a short bit feel like real people with their own lives and reasons for all the things they do. With possibly one or two exceptions, no one really feels like a prop just to suit the needs of the plot.
The ending, while some aspects do feel a little too convenient, was well put together and satisfying. And I feel like the way things conveniently come together is actually a feature of the magic system rather than a flaw in the writing.
There are a couple of twists that were a little too obvious, and the complete lack of contractions (even among the common folk) does come off as a little stilted. But all in all I really enjoyed the story and I'm looking forward to the next one being released in audio.
Great story!
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Fantastic Story
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