Truly original!

Very surprising and well crafted narrative with well developed and interesting characters. It’s not what you expect and it keeps you guessing throughout.

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Mystic Arts Gets A Little Cosmic

I had this recommended as a Lovecraftian horror... and though it wasn't entirely in that style (in my opinion), it was very entertaining to listen to. And the narrator initially seemed like they'd have a distinct and distracting voice, but I found I quickly warmed up to it, and she did an exceptional job with the various character voices--especially the more sinister ones. Clearly the apprehension was a "me" thing. It's a dark and twisted story... and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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Unique ideas

It took a bit for me to get drawn into this story but I found myself laughing out loud and unexpectedly thrilled with it once I did. I’m very happy with this purchase. I will be reading more by this author.

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Excellent story

Excellent depth, imagination, and writing in this unique story. Give it a try! worth it.

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Wild ride

The voice actor was really very good. And the concept was absolutely amazing. Very fun and gory. Good for a reread.

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Compelling fantasy novel

I love the suspension of disbelief this story asks of the reader. The world the author built is presented as is, which left me puzzling out my own theories.

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Excellent Book!

I really enjoyed this story. It was weird and original and the narration performance was great!
I’ll be looking for more from this author.

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Too much Animal Cruelty

After 3 chapters I didn’t want to continue reading but the reviews are so good I decided to give it another go.. now 10 chapters in I won’t continue.
Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy a good unbelievable, magical, sci fi battle story but this one’s just too needlessly cruel and violent.
I slogged through until the part where a pack of domesticated dogs have their insides torn apart in horrible graphic deathly detail and I’M OUT!

This book is cruel to animals (and people for that matter.

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no action To much story

after 4 chapters decided to stop listening. completely disappointed. story goes on and on with our much action. too much details about stories and character background

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An uneven origin story

I had to stop after I finished this and post a review, because this is one of the more frustrating listens I've had in awhile.

The narration was decent, not an unpleasant voice, but the dialogue and narration, together, sometimes lead to characters coming off as incredibly dense. The biggest issue being that the material is uneven, so when the story hits a huge down turn, involving co-protagonist and cookie cutter "everyman" Steve and his mission to do... whatever, you have literal hours of absolute nonsense, where even the narrator sounds like she's going through the motions just to be done with it.

The world and characters of the universe are also hard to believe, mostly because you're kept in the dark about so much, for so long, that you stop caring about what any of it means. The listener/readers view into this world, the afore mentioned Steve, is constantly so willfully obtuse, unquestioning and downright idiotic, that you'll want to strangle him. The fact that he's surrounded by purposefully cryptic characters and situations makes it all nearly unbearable at a certain point.

Like I mention in the title, this story is clearly meant to be an origin, a beginning to something much bigger, and while I'm tempted to call this book a "slow burn" that would imply it eventually leads somewhere, but it doesn't. The payoffs are weak, non-existent, or clearly sign posting further developments in subsequent novels. This would be fine, if the story told HERE was satisfying in and of itself, but that simply isn't the case. That's not to say that there aren't interesting ideas here, because there are. In fact, there are quite a few moments where you'll think the book is about to turn a corner, but it will suddenly shift away to something far less interesting to focus on something mundane, like Steve. God damn Steve.

Somebody recommended this book to me on the basis that it had a very Lovecraftian tone, which...is simply not the case. I love weird, mind-bending fiction and this book constantly feels like it's on the verge of doing something interesting, but stumbles every time. In fact, it sweeps a bunch of the most interesting bits, those involving ancient gods, arcane arts and world ending cataclysm, under the rug, or gives them bland explanations that would have been better off without an answer. Instead it gives you Steve.

I'm usually one to stick through a subsequent book or two in a series, even if it has a rocky start, but I have so little interest in any of the unexplained mysteries here, and zero affinity for the characters, that this is probably going to be one I won't head back to in the future.

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2 people found this helpful