Joshua C Cook

My first impression of this story is that each book in this series is better than the last. Where it really lost me was when it pulled the old power being shown up and threatened by newcomers crap. That’s been done to death and the second series by this same author I’ve reviewed to feature it. It just feels lazy. I’ve seen this story 100 times before, I know how it’s all going to work out. It’s not fun or interesting anymore.

The plot feels like it was kicked into the back seat while this new plot about politics in a magic city takes over. Hardly anybody addresses the fact that the Forgremaster is missing, the human Gods are gone, the old power structure is gone and the world must be in chaos. That’s pushed aside in favor of a ridiculously played-out power struggle story in a new city. I found myself constantly wondering what the hell any of it had to do with the story previously being told.

Unlike my other example, Bridgefinders, what saves this book is the characters. As the series progresses, characters get picked off and new ones introduced. The new characters are always equally as compelling as the old and gave me a reason to keep listening.

The narrator, as always did a fantastic job of reading and acting out the lines.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.… (más)

I’ve mentioned numerous times in my reviews that I’m a fan of the whole good vs. evil battles while humanity remains miraculously, blissfully unaware. It’s fair to say that I have a bit of a bias towards this type of story.

This is one of those rare exceptions for me. I did enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s incredibly slow. Little to nothing happens in the grand scheme of things and it’s almost entirely setup and world-building. When it finally starts to get interesting, it ends.

The story constantly brings up memorable protagonist and his ex-girlfriend’s relationship. But it never goes anywhere with it. It never hints that they might still have feelings or get back together, so it feels like a waste of time to even bring it up. It seems the only reason for ex-girlfriend and memorable protagonist’s relationship is so she can constantly talk about how logical he is in his decision making, every time he does something rash.

The other characters are all generic. Bossman, who I want to call Isran because he reminds some of a character from a videogame, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He’s the tough, gruff boss-man who’s always been in charge and doesn’t like this new kid who doesn’t bend to his will. There’s generic evil villain who’s evil because evil, generic evil sidekick who’s evil because evil. Finally, there’s generic throwaway character because they needed another body to make the roster feel less empty.

The premise is interesting. The world and lore are interesting. The story is slow and the characters are paper-thin, and by paper, I mean tracing paper.

The narrator is a mixed bag as well. He constantly pauses awkwardly between sentences, as if each sentence is the end of a paragraph. He reads the number 0 as “o”, which I find insufferably annoying. While this didn’t annoy me, I’m mentioning it because it might annoy some; he constantly makes smacking noises while he talks. It sounds like he’s got a mouth full of spit or a piece of candy clinking off his teeth every few words. You can tell when one audio recording session ends and another begins because the audio will randomly be louder or quieter than it was before, which is incredibly distracting.

For those of you wondering why I referred to his narration as a mixed bag; He’s amazing at doing character voices. He does a superb job of bringing personality to these cardboard cutouts.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.… (más)

Overall: ****
Performance: *****
Story: ****

This was one of the best performances that I have heard in an audiobook. I had NO trouble seperating the characters (a common complaint that usually knocks off 1 star) and I actually enjoyed the tone and pacing.

Now for the story ... this is pretty much a standard fantasy trope execute well. The world building was solid and revealed through character interactions or dialog (I didn't notice any info dumps, so I must assume they were appropriate when they exist). Main characters were well developed and fairly independent of each other with the expected growth for the main protagonist. The story ended well (yes, I am a sucker for good endings) and wrapped upon most of the major plot conflicts in this book, so it can easily stand alone (with the epilogue introducing a possible sequel); that was also well done and is another common complaint I have with current fantasy stories. I highly recommend this story and I am looking forward to the sequel!

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