Solid story but mediocre reading

Speaker with a good talent for different voices but alas little talent for emphasis. All sentences have the same "melody"/intonation.
Solid story that makes you want to continue listening, which is all I'm asking for in a story. We can't all be Gaimans.. .

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

The first Step

Since by this time, this series has 10 books and some spinoffs a few words for those of you considering to start the madness:

Spellmonger as the first book in The Spellmonger series is probably one of the, if no the, weakest installment of the series. Nonetheless it is a first step into a great world (getting bigger and greater as Mancour expands the franchise). The Spellmonger is for you, if you like promising things getting started and are okay with them taking their time getting finished. This goes for the series itself and the stories in the books. There are projects in the books (like castle and town building, side stories etc. ) that are started in book one and not resolved or finished in book 10.

As others have pointed out, the depictions of female/male relationships in the series is problematic. The fact that Mancour describes a feudal society historically excuses some of that but not all of it. Female characters, even the strong and inspiring ones, tend to get reduced to their private parts quite some time. Although the same goes for the male characters, so one could argue, that Mancour just identifies sexuality as a strong human motivation.

The series is well written and wonderfully read, i had no trouble listening to it for hours on end.

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2 Leute fanden das hilfreich

A good surprise

I was positively surprised by the system of magic that drives the story and the story itself. only weak point is the small number of interesting female characters.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

Solides Fanasy Hörbuch

Gutes und solides Fantasy Hörbuch. Manchmal ist der Hauptakteur doch etwas zu gut und die Story ist etwas zu vorhersehenbar. Durchaus empfehlenswert.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich

Mediocre and dragging

While I love a slice-of-life style of storytelling with heavy focus on background and world building, there still has to be some compelling story to be supported by that solid framework.
I had high hopes that the story and characters would materialize more in the later parts of the book, however that's when it really breaks down. I've already seen that there are many books in this series, so maybe it starts gathering steam later an, but this first glimpse unfortunately has scared me off.

The performance by narrator John Lee however is beyond reproach and lends even the most mundane passages a weighty feel.

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Wishfullfillment fantasy

A well-written and engaging wish fullfillment fantasy. Hard to pause once engaged with. The only issues I have with it, is that it might be a little too blatently wish-fullfilling, to the point where it gets rather silly:
"The girlfriend: Tell me again, how you nailing your ex-girlfriend will save all of us!"

The book tries passably to enbue the main-character with convincing enough humility and enough obstacles to overcome that it never get annoying or boring.

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5 Leute fanden das hilfreich

The best fantasy series I was lucky to come across

Currently I am past 11th book of the series and I am happy to say, that up to this point not only it did not disappoint, but it actually exceeded my expectations.
Please note, that this is not a deep, philosophical kind of reading. It's not even an A. C. Clarke kind (sf I know, I know). It is light, but not shallow and mindless. It is exactly a perfect level of entertainment: simple and lighthearted, but at the same time complex and with a ton of lore, and well paced.

And most importantly: it doesn't get boring and repetitive. It achieves it through constant introduction of new pieces of the lore - in a gradual manner, layering everything new on top of previously introduced parts. Well, yes, I did not look for inconsistencies and lapses in logic, however, it is sufficiently well crafted that nothing stands-out as an obvious nonsense.

And one more thing. It is an audio book, so a word about voice acting: one of the best I have ever experienced. After eleven books there may have been just one moment which was not exactly working: the first dialog between Gareth and Minalan in book 3. Apart from that all eleven books are voiced in a fantastic way. A pleasure to listen to.

My hope is that as Terry will write new books John will be there to lend his voice and read them for us.

I cannot wait for the next one.

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Awesome Series - Great Performance

There are a lot of books in my library by now, a few that I've stopped after a few hours, many that I listened to once, some twice, but this series is addictive. I've listened to it (some parts, at least) over 5 times, now. It's an exciting, funny and wholesome story with great writing and lots of whitty remarks.
The performance of John Lee is awesome, it's a great voice to listen to and he's pretty versatile when entoning different characters, the main ones being easily recognisable after a few lines.
This series was the best cost/entertainment investment I've made at audible by far :-)

I can wholeheartedly recommend this first book and the rest of the series!

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Gewöhnungsbedürftig, dennoch 5 Sterne

Würden Sie dieses Hörbuch einem Freund empfehlen? Wenn ja, was würden Sie ihm dazu sagen?

Eine schöne Geschichte, die recht langsam erzählt ist. Sehr ausführlich erzählt, das könnte einige Leser stören, da schon Längen im Buch vorkommen, insbesondere in Dialogszenen, die sich schon ab und zu mal im Kreis drehen.

Was mochten Sie an der Handlung am liebsten?

Das es sofort losging und die Herkunftsstory des Helden nicht zu viel Platz einnahm, was zu sehr Richtung Harry Potter gegangen wäre. Auch die "historiche Rahmenhandlung" der Fantasiewelt ist in sich schlüssig und gut erzählt.

Hat Ihnen John Lee an der Geschichte etwas vermittelt, was Sie vielleicht beim Selberlesen gar nicht bemerkt hätten?

Der Erzähler der Geschicht liest das Buch sehr schön vor.

Gab es im Hörbuch einen Moment, der Sie ganz besonders berührt hat?

Ja.

Was wäre für andere Hörer sonst noch hilfreich zu wissen, um das Hörbuch richtig einschätzen zu können?

Wie bereits in einer anderen Rezension erwähnt, sind die Rollen der Frauen im Buch sehr reduziert und flach dargestellt. Auch die Abschlussszene der Flucht ist schon ein wenig affig, dennoch ganz nett zu lesen.

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8 Leute fanden das hilfreich

No Rothfuss but entertaining

The author tries to create an epic tale and has some very good ideas. Unfortunately his characters are too shallow and even if the hero claims to be aware of the dire situation the listener can not really buy into it. Further more there are several very comical scenes which break the tension at very unfortunate moments. Nevertheless the story fun to listen to.

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