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  • Free the Darkness

  • King's Dark Tidings, Book 1
  • Written by: Kel Kade
  • Narrated by: Nick Podehl
  • Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (429 ratings)

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Free the Darkness cover art

Free the Darkness

Written by: Kel Kade
Narrated by: Nick Podehl
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Publisher's Summary

Raised and trained in seclusion at a secret fortress on the edge of the northern wilds of the Kingdom of Ashai, a young warrior called Rezkin is unexpectedly thrust into the outworld when a terrible battle destroys all that he knows. With no understanding of his life’s purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bestowed upon him by a dead king, Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence.

Determined to adhere to his last orders, Rezkin extends his protection to an unlikely assortment of individuals he meets along the way, often leading to humorous and poignant incidents.

As if pursuing an elite warrior across a kingdom, figuring out who he is and why everyone he knows is dead, and attempting to find these so-called friends and protect them is not enough, strange things are happening in the kingdom. New dangers begin to arise that threaten not only Rezkin and his friends, but possibly everyone in Ashai.

This is the first installment of an ongoing series. This book is intended for adult readers. It contains graphic violence, creative language, and sexual innuendo. This book does not contain explicit sexual content.

©2015 Kel Kade (P)2016 Podium Publishing

What listeners say about Free the Darkness

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A bad Anime, in book form

This book consists of 3 and only 3 things, really.

1) An invincible main character who knows everything, is the strongest fighter in the world, and is devastatingly attractive.

2) A series of circumstances that allow said character to show off how incredible he is and win the praise and admiration of everyone around him.

3) A cast of flat, stagnant characters who have no initiative or real machinations of their own. They only exist to fawn over the main character or be defeated by them.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Maybe a bit chezzzzzzy but highly entertaining

I read some reviews on this series and the biggest complaint seems to be how Rez is better than Superman, Batman, Sherlock Holmes, The Hulk, etc... all combined.
That may all be true.
However, my personal feeling when reading/listening to any fiction, but especially fantasy, is I like to just suspend reality in my mind. If the story keeps my interest and leaves me wanting more, I try to make no other judgements & just enjoy it for what it is.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

main character massively OP

This book would be way better of the main character wasnt so rediculously overpowered. If nothing the hero does is a challenge then whats the point. Its like when Superman fights bank robbers, you know going in he is unstoppable and the robbers have zero chance, therefore its meaningless. Characters are suppose to grow and progress as the story goes on, not be all powerful from the start.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Kind of a Guy-flick

It's a good enough story but having 2 girls fight over a guy is kind of a cliché, entertaining in its story but having absolutely no one to compete against the protagonist made it a little dry at times.

The book is entertaining enough to get me thorough it but nothing out of this world ; it is a light read.

Performance was absolutely amazing! No complains with that 6/5 stars.
Nick Podehl is one of the best readers I've heard.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • MJR
  • 2019-02-18

This is terrible. An overpowered Mary Sue.

This book had me laughing out loud at times, with the fawning that all the other characters did over the Awsome, perfect, handsome, piercing eyed 19 year old fighter thief assassin.... The point of view changes so rapidly that in audio format, it often seems like gibberish. Might be better on paper, but I doubt it. I'm sad I wasted a credit on this drek. The reader is good though. No complaints there.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The world’s deadliest Boy Scout

Imagine training a child to be the most deadly weapon imaginable, taught to live and breath rules that dictate his conduct and beliefs. Now separate him from absolutely everything that he knows and has grown up with and place him in a world in which he has only heard about in training. That is the short synopsis of this story.
The main character, Rezkin, is refined, cunning, and confident, but absolutely oblivious to things like friendship, romance and any type of relationship with others that is not one of convenience or business. The fight scenes involving this character are well written and play out in your mind like a Wachoski action scene. My vote goes to them if them make this into a move.
The secondary characters take away from the story in a lot of ways with their obliviousness, but help to show exactly how little Rezkin understands of the outside world and their customs.
Would I recommend the purchase? If you can turn off your brain and accept that a 19 year old is the worlds most deadly weapon, with a code of conduct and a sense of honour, go ahead and make the purchase and enjoy the listen. If that is too much for you to accept, then you may want to wait for it to be on sale or find something else to listen to.
To the listener, work past the first two chapters in which the “rules” are repeated at nauseam, it will get better around the middle of chapter 2.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I love a good OP

I really enjoyed this book, it kept a good pace and kept me listening. Plus I love Nick Podehl as a narrator, I quite liked the overall scheme of things and will 100% be getting the next book in the series

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Addictive

Addictive and fun. Downloading the next book! I was not sure about the narrator in the beginning, but I'm glad that I didn't give up.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Reads like bad fanfiction

This book comes across like a clumsy mash-up of two different works of fiction.

The first part is fanfiction from 'that' D&D player who thinks his character should be a master of every conceivable physical skill, a brilliant scholar, a charismatic diplomat, a master manipulator, and devastatingly handsome to boot. Even when his utter perfection is framed as a potential weakness, it's applied inconsistently and in a way that never leaves the main character seen as anything other than a superhuman demigod who's never left at a disadvantage.

The second part is sloppy romantic fantasy where every female swoons over the superhuman described above, while he is utterly oblivious to it beyond belief. He finds himself in a courtship with practically the first woman he's ever met in his life, and somehow can't manage to find a way to be with her, despite being revered as a god by every human who ever crosses his path.

I'd expect most books with a shirtless Fabio on the cover to have better writing and more compelling character arcs. There's little of redeeming value in this book, other than the ever-amazing performance by Nick Podehl. I regret purchasing multiple books in this series while they were on sale, because I could barely convince myself to finish this one.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Leo
  • 2021-02-01

Much too clean for me

The narration was excellent at 1.3 Speed. I would have liked more gore and sex. It was much too clean for my tastes. The MC is supposed to be sexy and alluring, but we don't experience that. I have no clue what his body truly looks like, does he feel attracted or does he only think he is attracted to woman. I will not continue the series.

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1 person found this helpful