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  • Summoner

  • Written by: Eric Vall
  • Narrated by: Joshua Story
  • Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (53 ratings)

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Summoner

Written by: Eric Vall
Narrated by: Joshua Story
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Publisher's Summary

Gryff never knew he was the most powerful summoner in the world until a rogue monster attacked his village.

Now, he's been recruited into the top magical academy, beautiful women are breaking down his dorm-room door, and the headmaster has big, big plans for him. Instead of summoners being maligned by society, Gryff is in a position to make them revered and honored.

There's just one problem: The most powerful fire mage in the academy wants to protect the status quo and will do anything to stop him.

This novel has harem elements.

©2018 Eric Vall (P)2019 Eric Vall

What listeners say about Summoner

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

good narration weak story

the narrator did a great job with the voices and pacing. but the story is weak and extremely cliche. the female characters are all standard types like tsundere, prankster/clown and over sexed teacher. the backstories for the support characters are spoon fed as every character bears there souls when asked rather then natural progression thru interaction.

2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Couldn’t get past the perspective.

I did not finish this book.
The narrator’s character voices are great, and they do a good job of the dialogue but their narration of the story from the point of view of the main character was all over the place and kept finding myself focused on the strange pauses, emphasis’s, and inflections in places that didn’t make any sense. After every sentence I found myself waiting for the sentence to continue because... it just might!
I can’t speak on the story since in didn’t get past the start, but I’ve seen it recommended lots so I’m sure it’s fine.

1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good book with one issue

Great listen, but the double recorded lines get really annoying. It's not even that they're looped lines, as they're pacing indicates different recording sessions. As frequent as they occur, it's like the editor never listened to the book unbroken.

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    4 out of 5 stars

a great new series to start

I've been into a lot of fantasy and isekai light novels lately, but this more western themed fantasy story caught my attention, and I really like it. A tad predictable at times, but very entertaining, and the voices were really well done. The world building is pretty strong and gives a rich sense of the world. I'm definitely going to dig into the series.

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  • Boy
  • 2019-01-22

good

Was a good story and narrator the narrator was top notch. left with wanting more.

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  • Darren Silvers
  • 2019-01-21

story not very good

the story was really everywhere. it was too short and I had a hard time with the main character hooking up so much without. gaining any kind of attachment to any girl.

the character seemed too powerful and didn't struggle. anything he didn't know or needed was handed to him. overall I was bored.

the readers of the audio did a great job overall but they also had a bad script to work through.

64 people found this helpful

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  • David
  • 2019-01-23

Not my kind of book.

I lost interest about half way though this book and stopped. This books main character has his good moments but the book as a whole dragged it down. Summoners are one of a few kinds of magically capable people in this world. Summoners to this point surprisingly have yet to realize the obvious combination combat capabilities of the summoned monsters. I mean after so many decades you can't be serious. A town gets attacked by monsters, the main character displayes his revolutionary monster combo tecnique, and is snapped up by a convenient head master flying past in an air ship. The book ambles on and I was just not impressed. Summoners makes me think really hard about pokemon and how this author must have gotten their inspiration for the magic class from them. Also so many of these monsters were made for the purpose of being used in combinations or in menial labor I mean cement trolls? Really? They excrete fast hardening cement. The only thing that could save this book in my eyes were the romance scene as promised by the summary. This too let me down as the romance was just DTF. No romance about it. Then you have the scenes themselves which were depressingly short and lacking in detail. Narrator tried to save it but this is just a book that didn't need to be made into an audio book.

44 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • thomas
  • 2019-02-21

Don't be decieved by 5 star reviews.

The truth is this feels like it was written by a 15 year old.... Lets just start with the MC. First off he is incredibly cocky and has a big mouth, picking unnecessary fights more or less all the time. He gets women with very little effort because he's a handsome, talented hand to hand combatant who is unique in his fighting style implementing bar-room style tactics with unconventional summoning style combining creatures abilities in unique ways. Granted that may earn the eye of the regional military ( as was the case ) but to have it written where this dude just comes in like hot shit and basically takes over the role of teaching? Come on... I'm okay with overpowered MCS : I LOVE OVERLORD, among others... Anyway, there's just nothing really likable about this character except he cares about the dude who raised him. He's nice to his women, and he quickly gets multiple of them...

The action is as bland as the story, and also just so you know if you want details in the sex / love scenes you're way better of going somewhere else.

Unfortunately I have to say the narrator did a very bad job also, I don't know if he did the female voices which is strange because you can generally tell if a man is doing female voices, but that aside most of the time it's a male voice and my god he's just talking so quickly, it's not that you can't understand the story or what is going on, it's just that it's really not enjoyable to listen to.

I have to say I'm very disappointed. I've got a tendency to always finish a series I begin, but this might be the first time where I read/listened to the first two books of a series and just absolutely will not continue with the series.

Volume two is a marked improvement from number 1, let me say, particularly in the combat, but there is absolutely no way this deserves a 4.5 * average. This story unfortunately could be written by a 13-15 year old boy, and feels more or less like it was... I mean wasn't the guy who wrote Eragon like 16? Yeah, Eric Vall... Smh

26 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2019-03-24

Good performance, juvenile story

some good voice acting, and a possibly creative story. Unfortunately, having a main character who inexplicably does it all, is loved by everyone, and who has a sex scene with a different person every 3 chapters (or so) kind of ruins it. NSFP (not safe for public listening)

17 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Crispy Bacon
  • 2019-03-09

Hardly worth the read.

I have not returned a book yet, but this will be the first. I figured I'd give it a try, just to see if it had any redeeming qualities, but it didn't.

Let me put it simply. The best fight scene in the entire book was the very first fight scene! It went downhill from there, literally getting worse and worse with each magic fight scene, culminating in the very last battle being anything but climatic. In fact, 1 of his creatures actually was the hard counter to his arch enemy, who was just some stuck up rich kid, yay! Great build up for that.

If you are into high school angst stories with a splash of teen porn, this is the story for you. Otherwise, I suggest you spend your credit someplace else.

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • The Story Adict
  • 2019-02-08

How was this even published?

I like to think I'm a rather forgiving reader, especially for a genre that I typically enjoy such as the harem fantasy genre and its various subs. But after listening through the first 35 minutes, 25 of which was exposition or getting told how someone was feeling. I can deal with that usually because I'm used to it. However, the first clincher was when the MC saves a village, because you know risking your life for complete strangers is just the right thing to do no other reason, just using his brains in no spectacular way to defeat a big bad. Breathe, then immediately afterwards the great high best wizard ever person shows up to tell the MC, that he is the special, TWICE. The scene was literally "Oh wow you did nothing that anyone else with just an ounce of intelligence could have also managed but you're the special! You're the chosen one! Why because I said so! By the way you're coming to my magic school because Hogwarts!" Then the MC awakens the next morning to have pretty girl who he has apparently slept with be all lovey and amazed because he's the special.

At this point I put the book down, I can only handle so much as I am not a masochist. Maybe it gets better past the first hour, but given the book is only 7.5 hours long I doubt it. It had promise, with a hint of a non-traditional none whiny hero, an interesting magic system and an attractive cover, but it just falls short. Well so much for my "it has a sequel so it can't be horrible rule." I'll be returning this book and going to listen to see if William D. Arand, Michel Scott Earl, C.J Cepriono, Prax Venter, Harmon Cooper or someone that actually knows how to write a good story never mind a good harem.

Lastly the narrator did pretty good given the brain numbing junk they were given to read.

Edit: okay so because I am that much of a masochist I forced myself to finish the book. Yeah it doesn't get any better. Look I like harem, but when every woman in the book throws themselves at the MC for no apparent reason except for the love interest it gets old. The worst being a female teacher. This is a shame since after the MC arrives the book does get much better, despite half of it being I'm the special because I have common sense and so I combine creatures special abilities. Lastly what makes it tempting for me to give this an even worse grade was the non-ending. Oh the book stops, there just is no ending, no conclusion to the story it just stops mid way through. Which makes me think that Summoner was original written as one giant book and then broken up when the author couldn't get it published.

17 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Tony
  • 2019-02-02

I just didn't feel it.

I wanted to like it and like the general idea. I would have thought it was written for a much younger audience if not for the adult relationships contained within.

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Ben
  • 2019-03-01

it's a cringefest

I have to give points to the reader, here really put gusto into polishing this turd.

Summoner is set in an interesting world, with airships, castles, and people of many kinds. it is beset by portals that open from the shadow world to spew out evil monsters to invade the world. Our hero the summoner is an unknowing prodigy that uses the amazing power of teamwork to be the best summoner ever, and invited to the magical academy where our adventure is set.

The prose is melodramatic, describing everything they encounter, every woman he meets, and every spell, action, and characterization as grandiosely as possible. Brace yourself for Dragon Ball Z style powercreep and battles that despite scale and grandure lack any real stakes.

the dialogue is often cringey, and stilted, though not irredeemably so.

It's a fine enough piece of escapist fiction, but in terms of writing, it's only a few steps above fan fiction.

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
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  • J. O. Jarquin
  • 2019-02-23

Big dose of nope

The story is weak, the narration sounds like the voice actor is just going through the motions and the plot has so many holes you could drive a truck through.

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Cory
  • 2019-01-13

skipping records destroy story

but overall I've only given two Stars the reason for that is the editor of this story has made it so it's like a skipping record that continually but hits a certain spot skips repeats skips repeats this is so bad I'm returning it but I'm doing so under a protest that the author should be paid by the editor for how horribly they've mango the story by their doing this practice of skipping and repeating sentences

9 people found this helpful