Fantasy Reader
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Rise of the Shadow Mage
- By: James Haddock
- Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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When Robert’s mother dies, his whole world caves in on him. Fatherless, he has no one, and nowhere to go. The royal mage shows him kindness by putting him on the royal guard as a “boot” to keep a roof over his head. Robert’s quick wit and willingness to help others serve him well in the guard. He becomes friends with the king’s second son, Randal, who was placed in the guard by the king to teach him discipline. As he ages, he develops mage abilities but keeps them secret. While on a weekend pass in the city, Robert saves Randal’s life and is rewarded by being made Randal’s liegeman.
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Another Great One, Familiar but just different enough.
- By corey on 11-15-24
- Rise of the Shadow Mage
- By: James Haddock
- Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski
Surprisingly good in a strange way.
Reviewed: 11-24-24
In many fantasy books the main character second guess a bunch of his decisions and abilities. Not here. It was almost strange how the main character just did things. He wanted something he just bam went and got it. He just gets down to buisness. Only reason I knocked off a star is because it is just really easy for him the entire time. He did go through some specialized training, but his power is nuts. Also while it is a nice change of pace having a character just power through everything it does leave the other characters behind as background characters.
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Journey of a Betrayed Hero Publisher's Pack
- Books 1 and 2
- By: Brandon Varnell
- Narrated by: Renée Nolen, Alfie Syme
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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After being betrayed by the very kingdom he saved, Jacob Stone forsook his title of Hero. Now he lives the simple life of a barkeep. Yet even that life is irrevocably erased when a young woman named Enyo appears before him. She claims to be the daughter of the former Dark Lord and has come seeking his aid. He’d normally never consider lending her a hand, but when she tells him that she knows of a way for him to return home, he’s left with little recourse.
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Weak world building makes for and unsatisfying story
- By Fantasy Reader on 11-20-24
- Journey of a Betrayed Hero Publisher's Pack
- Books 1 and 2
- By: Brandon Varnell
- Narrated by: Renée Nolen, Alfie Syme
Weak world building makes for and unsatisfying story
Reviewed: 11-20-24
The world building is just flimsy. Some characters have powers so absurdly powerful it doesn't really make sense why the world is the way it is. The ease that one side can infiltrate another is absurd. Not being able to find the hero for years but then constant run ins when they are trying to hide. There is a lot of suspension of disbelief needed.
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1 person found this helpful
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Loremaster
- Ascension of a Street Rat, Book 1
- By: M.E. Robinson
- Narrated by: Pavi Proczko
- Length: 22 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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With a knife in his gut, Rowan figured he was destined to become just another corpse littering the slums of Taureen. So he was fairly surprised to wake up in the back of a moving wagon with a couple of adventurers. Turns out that Rowan had been given something most street rats can only dream of—a second chance.
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A Frustrating Disappointment
- By Julie Pickerill on 10-12-23
- Loremaster
- Ascension of a Street Rat, Book 1
- By: M.E. Robinson
- Narrated by: Pavi Proczko
Story was ruined by a bland and dumb MC
Reviewed: 11-13-24
I found the story to be somewhat cookie cutter. The main character is an orphan with a mysterious past that gets saved by some powerful adventurers and ends up getting set up to attend a fancy academy. (minor spoilers ahead) He gets in because he has almost the same amount of magic as a dragon and the begins to have dreams about what looks like to be his past. Then never really investigates anything about it. He makes some friends and does alright in school by working hard. The main character didn't have much personality other than not being a complete dirtbag and working hard. He is a former street rat, but doesn't seem to use that experience for anything other than being sneaky. There are plenty of problems he lets fester due to inaction and choices he makes to move the plot in a certain direction that doesn't make sense when you think about his past.
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The Faded Land
- A Progression Fantasy Epic (Keiran: The Eternal Mage Book 1)
- By: D.E. Sherman
- Narrated by: John Joseph Rogers, Rylee Kuberra
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Keiran of the Night Vale has staved off death for two thousand years. His mind and his magic remain as sharp as ever, but his body is old, worn out, and failing. What he needs is to reincarnate into a new, young body, and he bends his prodigious talents towards doing exactly that.
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Great Story Buried in Fluff...
- By AmalgaMat1on on 04-18-24
- The Faded Land
- A Progression Fantasy Epic (Keiran: The Eternal Mage Book 1)
- By: D.E. Sherman
- Narrated by: John Joseph Rogers, Rylee Kuberra
Psyco in a childs body
Reviewed: 10-26-24
This is actually a review of the first 2 books. By the end of the second book the main character isn't even 10 years old and while and has killed a lot of people directly and indirectly. His family should know about most of these and they are still alright with it which is wild. The characters don't feel real to me and that tends to happen when the entire world revolves around the main character.
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An Unexpected Hero
- A LitRPG Adventure
- By: Rhett C. Bruno, Jaime Castle
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Justin Thomas James, Annie Ellicott, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Sorry... Really? Thrust? Anyway, Danny Kendrick was a down-on-his luck performer who always struggled to find his place. He certainly never wanted to be a hero. He just hoped to earn a living doing what he loved. That all changes when he pisses off the wrong guy and gets sucked into a fantasy realm straight out of a Renaissance Fair. Getting used to a new world is tough. It's even tougher when you're surrounded by axe-wielding barbarians, super hot elf assassins, strange magic, and a jaded System that doesn't appear interested in being charged with yet another companion.
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Wanted to like it
- By Roy on 10-18-24
- An Unexpected Hero
- A LitRPG Adventure
- By: Rhett C. Bruno, Jaime Castle
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Justin Thomas James, Annie Ellicott, Ian M. Walker
Ruined by a terrible main character
Reviewed: 10-26-24
I wanted to like this book. Sound booth theatre really brought this book to life, but the main character just killed it for me. Some minor spoilers ahead. The main character's is a has been musician that is now in the body of a bard in a fantasy world. His entire backstory is pretty much irrelevant since he magically becomes able to play a lute, magically knows songs, and magically plays the lute. Also his lute ends up playing itself as well. So the whole reborn musician is irrelevant. Then we get to his personality of just whining and being an idiot at every turn. He doesn't try to understand his surroundings at all and it is frustrating. He makes many cultural blunders and acts like a know it all as well. I only got through a third of the book before I had to throw in the towel.
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2 people found this helpful
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Path of the Berserker: A Daopocalypse Progression Fantasy
- Path of the Berserker, Book 1
- By: Rick Scott
- Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell
- Length: 28 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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When the cultivators came to Earth, they destroyed our entire civilization in a matter of hours. Armies fell, cities burned, and that was before the moon turned red and filled our world with monsters. Now, over a decade later, what's left of humanity slaves under the heels of our Qi-infused masters. The luckiest of us might even become one of them, they say—if we serve the Dynasty well enough and harness the power of Qi. But I want none of that. I'm sick of serving, and I want nothing to do with their world. Instead, I want them to pay for what they did to mine.
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Great story. Not so Great Narrator.
- By Anonymous User on 01-03-24
- Path of the Berserker: A Daopocalypse Progression Fantasy
- Path of the Berserker, Book 1
- By: Rick Scott
- Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell
Weak story, over the top narrating
Reviewed: 09-05-24
I read the first 2 books in this series and will not be continuing. Some minor spoilers ahead. The main character is a dao cultivator that goes on the path of the berserker. He literally uses rage, fear, and other emotions as fuel when regular cultivators use qi. His type of cultivation has almost every advantage over the qi cultivators other than it is kind of illegal, but no one uses it or knows about it really. You learn that there are survivors from earth and that others also have the ability to awaken their inner flame and become berserkers as well, but somehow he awakens first. The problem with this is that many of the other people have been in some crazy situations and should definitely awakened before him. I say the story is weak because the berserker ability is very dues ex machina prone. The more the odds are against you the more powerful you are.
The narration is way over the top. Kinda cringey to listen to really.
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The Perfect Run
- The Perfect Run, Book 1
- By: Maxime J. Durand, Void Herald
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Ryan "Quicksave" Romano is an eccentric adventurer with a strange power: he can create a save-point in time and redo his life whenever he dies. Arriving in New Rome, the glitzy capital of sin of a rebuilding Europe, he finds the city torn between mega-corporations, sponsored heroes, super-powered criminals, and true monsters. It's a time of chaos, where potions can grant the power to rule the world and dangers lurk everywhere.
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Refreshingly different
- By CDM860 on 11-05-21
- The Perfect Run
- The Perfect Run, Book 1
- By: Maxime J. Durand, Void Herald
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
A surprisingly fun book.
Reviewed: 09-05-24
Books that involve time travel can be a hit or a miss for me. The big problem is usually that most characters feel disposable and the consequences are nonexistent when the mc can just rewind time. In this series I did actually come to care for some of the characters that may have been just temporary, but the MC really steals the show. He is funny, somewhat honorable when it comes to his friends, and someone you can rely on. The MC also doesn't always take everything seriously and is kinda nuts. It was a fun story.
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Dungeon Lord
- The Wraith's Haunt: A LitRPG Series, Book 1
- By: Hugo Huesca
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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When Edward is swept into the world of Ivalis as a Dungeon Lord, the Dark's most powerful servant, he has no servitude in mind. He'll oppose the evil plans of the Dark god, Murmur, whatever it takes. Through only his wits and his guts to help him survive a weakened arrival, Edward must rise to power if he is to earn the right to live another day. But in the battle between Dark and Light, what can Edward choose if both sides are cruel, uncaring monsters?
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Over all too soon!!
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 01-30-18
- Dungeon Lord
- The Wraith's Haunt: A LitRPG Series, Book 1
- By: Hugo Huesca
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott
Decent book, but stopped at book 3.
Reviewed: 09-05-24
This is a review of the first three books. The story follows a somewhat nerdy guy that gets transported into the his favorite mmorpg. It is quite unique since the world he is transported to is real and yet still a game to some back on earth. I found the power scaling in this world not to make sense really since the achievements that the MC has should make him much stronger experience wise then he is. The battles were complex and somewhat entertaining, but I feel that the progress in the main storyline was too slow for me.
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Unintended Cultivator, Volume One
- By: Eric Dontigney
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Sen never dreamed of ascension. Such were the aspirations of the rich young nobles, not orphans like him, scraping together a meager living on the streets of Orchard’s Reach. However, when destiny takes an unexpected turn, Sen finds himself thrust into the role of a cultivator’s disciple. Chosen over the nobles who once looked down on him, he is adopted into a makeshift family of three ancient cultivators, each with a lifetime of knowledge and insights. These old monsters will teach Sen everything they can, from the art of the jian and spear to the mysteries of arcane alchemy.
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artificial cultivator story.
- By kevin on 02-03-24
- Unintended Cultivator, Volume One
- By: Eric Dontigney
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
Just ok
Reviewed: 09-05-24
I thought the book was just alright. Very cookie cutter if anything. The main character has a rough upbringing as a orphan on the streets and is picked up and trained as a cultivator by some old experts. He is very naïve, but strangely competent at everything he ends up doing and learning. The bad guys are bad and very 1 dimensional.
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The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story
- By: M. L. Wang
- Narrated by: Andrew Tell
- Length: 24 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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On a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire's enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name "The Sword of Kaigen". Born into Kusanagi's legendary Matsuda family, f14-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: To master his family's fighting techniques and defend his homeland.
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OH. MY. GODS! Holy emotional epicness!
- By Kevin Potter on 09-03-20
- The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story
- By: M. L. Wang
- Narrated by: Andrew Tell
Good story with an odd ending
Reviewed: 08-05-24
I enjoyed this story. It definitely is a bit of a slow start, but you come to care for the characters throughout the book. The main issue I had was the ending. It felt like the last couple hours was more like an epilogue then a satisfying ending.
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