THE KALARTHRI

The Kalarthri by H. M. Clarke
Book 1 in The Way To Freedom series
Narrated by Katherine Anderson
Genre: high fantasy
Format: kindle ebook & audiobook

About The Kalarthri:

“This Hatar Kalar has more natural Talent than any Second Born found in the Empire.”

Kalena awakes one morning to find her world changed forever....

The Imperium Provosts of the Great Suene Empire have come to take Kalena away from her family and friends.

All because she is Second Born.

The Second Born Rule declares that all second born children above the age of five become indentured to the Empire for a period of thirty years to serve wherever the Empire sees fit. After the thirty-year period, the Kalarthri (as the indentured are called), are then pensioned into retirement by the Empire.

Kalena is different in that she has a special gift that is much sort out by the Imperium Provosts. Her mind has the ability to accept the special ‘living’ crystal that is implanted into her head to enable her to partner a Hatar’le’margarten (Hatar) in the Military Flight Corps. Kalarthri who are in the Flight Corps are indentured for life.

Taken to Darkon, Kalena is paired with one of the giant, feathered Hatar'le'margarten. But when Kalena accidentally injures one of her Wingmates, there is a race against time to find the one man who can help them.

Kalena and her New Hatar Partner, Adhamh, are determined that they will be the ones to find him.

Source: Info in the "About The Kalarthri" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21346586-the-kalarthri on 19/03/2022.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

It took me a bit of time to get used to and understand the terms like Kalarthri meaning second borns and second class citizens or indentured. Hatars are dragons with feathered wings instead of the typical bat-like wings of dragons. It took me sometime to keep track of whats what... And that contributed to the slowness of the pace of this book despite it being very short indeed!

The book ended in a cliffhanger but it did kind of closed the current dilemma in the book. However, I am never fond of cliffhangers, so there we are...

This is my first Katherine Anderson listen and I like the way she reads, especially when she reads Kalina's lines with a young voice! And yes, the descriptions are right, she has a typical British accent.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (3 hrs and 54 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Way To Freedom Series:

 

Meet The Author

About H. M. Clarke:

In a former life, H M Clarke has been a Console Operator, an ICT Project Manager, Public Servant, Paper Shuffler and an Accountant (the last being the most exciting).

She attended Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, where she studied for a Bachelor of Science (Chem), and also picked up a Diploma in Project Management while working for the South Australian Department of Justice.

In her spare time, she likes to lay on the couch and watch TV, garden, draw, read, and tell ALL her family what wonderful human beings they are.

She keeps threatening to go out and get a real job (Cheesecake Test Taster sounds good) and intends to retire somewhere warm and dry - like the middle of the Simpson Desert. For the time being however, she lives in Ohio and dreams about being warm...

She is also a bit of a video game nerd and, is into Star Trek, Midsomer Murders and Harry Potter, and she absolutely adores the TV show Almost Human.

www.hmclarkeauthor.com | twitter | facebook | pinterest | instagram | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Katherine Anderson:

Engaging, Eloquent, Emotive … and quintessentially British!

Katherine is a passionate reader and narrator who loves language and literature, in all its genres. She has a natural British accent (RP), and a versatility that has allowed her to narrate a wide variety of books ranging from historical fiction through cozy mystery/comedic to young adult fantasy.

With an Irish mother and Scottish father, she has an ingrained love of storytelling, complemented by formal training in speech and drama. She also speaks fluent French, having lived a number of years in France, and is capable of employing convincingly a good number of different accents - British, several European and others. Katherine also enjoys non-fiction, particularly, but not exclusively, relating to political science, history, language and literature and international relations.

Katherine understands that every book is different, and each deserves the best a narrator can give. Her genuine love of reading and the spoken word allows her to embrace and interpret each book (and, for works of fiction, its characters) with the requisite vigour and emotion.

Katherine works from her home studio (Equipment: DAW: Studio One; Audient iD14 interface; Rode NT1-A microphone; Behringer DT770 PRO headphones).

www.katherineanderson-narrator.com | twitter | facebook | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

THE SKULL THRONE

The Book

The Skull Throne by Peter Brett
Book 4 in The Demon Cycle series
Read by Colin Mace
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Skull Throne:

The first three novels in New York Times bestselling author Peter V. Brett’s groundbreaking Demon Cycle series -- The Warded Man, The Desert Spear, and The Daylight War -- set a new standard for heroic fantasy. The powerful saga of humans winnowed to the brink of extinction by night-stalking demons, and the survivors who fight back, has kept readers breathless as they eagerly turned the pages. Now the thrilling fourth volume, The Skull Throne, raises the stakes as it carries the action in shocking new directions.

The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty.

Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honor and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all. But Arlen Bales, the Warded Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honor refuse. Rather than risk defeat, Arlen cast them both from a precipice, leaving the world without a savior, and opening a struggle for succession that threatens to tear the Free Cities of Thesa apart.

In the south, Inevera, Jardir’s first wife, must find a way to keep their sons from killing each other and plunging their people into civil war as they strive for glory enough to make a claim on the throne.

In the north, Leesha Paper and Rojer Inn struggle to forge an alliance between the duchies of Angiers and Miln against the Krasians before it is too late.

Caught in the crossfire is the duchy of Lakton -- rich and unprotected, ripe for conquest.

All the while, the corelings have been growing stronger, and without Arlen and Jardir there may be none strong enough to stop them. Only Renna Bales may know more about the fate of the missing men, but she, too, has disappeared...

Source: Info in the About The Skull Throne was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13630171-the-skull-throne on 20/03/2016.

Review

My Thoughts:

The world building is nice, but that is not it's most prominent feature. It is woven in such a way that it hooks into your brain sneaky-like and you find yourself craving to read more of the world in odd moments. It encroaches into your real life. It is addictive. So if you are masochistic like that, just plod through Book 2 and Book 3 and you'll get here.

The writing style still has multiple threads but now the author writes them in bigger chunks and therefore is a whole lot less annoying. And I like that very much!

The Skull Throne still ends with a cliffhanger, but then, we already knew that going in. What makes it insidious is that, it seemingly ends in mid-chapter and The Core starts straight where it ends. Starts mid-chapter. Same sentence. Real stealthy! So my advise is, don't start reading The Skull Throne until you have The Core in your hands too.

I actually bought The Skull Throne when it first came out, like a year before The Core, and stopped reading about three quarters into the book because I knew it was going to end in a cliffie. Another incentive for me to stop reading there was that a favourite character died and it took me a good year to grieve him before I could continue on reading in this world again. It was that much of a shock.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 4
Plot = 3
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

The Author
	Raised on a steady diet of fantasy novels, comic books, and Dungeons & Dragons, Peter V. Brett (“Peat” to his friends) has been writing fantasy stories for as long as he can remember. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Art History from the University at Buffalo in 1995, and then spent over a decade in pharmaceutical publishing before returning to his bliss. He lives in Brooklyn.
www.petervbrett.com | facebook | facebook author page | twitter | goodreads | pinterest | instagram | google+

Books in The Demon Cycle series:

FTC Disclosure:
The copies of these books were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Review: THE DAYLIGHT WAR

The Daylight War by Peter Brett
Book 3 in The Demon Cycle series
Read by Colin Mace
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Daylight War:

On the night of the new moon, the demons rise in force, seeking the deaths of two men both of whom have the potential to become the fabled Deliverer, the man prophesied to reunite the scattered remnants of humanity in a final push to destroy the demon corelings once and for all.

Arlen Bales was once an ordinary man, but now he has become something more—the Warded Man, tattooed with eldritch wards so powerful they make him a match for any demon. Arlen denies he is the Deliverer at every turn, but the more he tries to be one with the common folk, the more fervently they believe. Many would follow him, but Arlen’s path threatens to lead him to a dark place he alone can travel to, and from which there may be no returning.

The only one with hope of keeping Arlen in the world of men, or joining him in his descent into the world of demons, is Renna Tanner, a fierce young woman in danger of losing herself to the power of demon magic.

Ahmann Jardir has forged the warlike desert tribes of Krasia into a demon-killing army and proclaimed himself Shar’Dama Ka, the Deliverer. He carries ancient weapons--a spear and a crown--that give credence to his claim, and already vast swaths of the green lands bow to his control.

But Jardir did not come to power on his own. His rise was engineered by his First Wife, Inevera, a cunning and powerful priestess whose formidable demon bone magic gives her the ability to glimpse the future. Inevera’s motives and past are shrouded in mystery, and even Jardir does not entirely trust her.

Once Arlen and Jardir were as close as brothers. Now they are the bitterest of rivals. As humanity’s enemies rise, the only two men capable of defeating them are divided against each other by the most deadly demons of all--those lurking in the human heart.

Source: Info in the About The Daylight War was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8176879-the-desert-spear on 03/01/2016.

My Thoughts:

I went into this book with a lot of prejudice. That didn't help any. So yes, this is a slow read, audiobook or not. And just like Book 2, it's just another chapter of a bigger book. Which makes this series, obviously, not a trilogy. This series seems to be becoming an ongoing thing so much like Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time series. Hopefully, unlike the Wheel Of Time, the author won't die before the final book is published! **fingers crossed** ...And also unlike the Wheel Of Time, there would be less padding... hopefully...

Also like the previous books, The Daylight War also has the same story telling style. The story has multiple threads and jumps from thread to thread every couple of chapters or so. Like for example I was reading about Arlen for the last couple of chapters. Then the next chapter jumps to Leesha. I have to go back to the last chapter where Leesha left off because I had forgotten what had happened to her last while being immersed in Arlen's story. The continuity of the story is broken. This story telling style feels jarring to the reading flow. And this is the very reason why I stopped reading Ian Irvine... And another reason why this book is a slow read. And then it ended in a whoopping, big-ass cliffhanger....

However, even after all that moaning, it still has a masterful world building! So much so that no matter how I dislike the story telling style, I could not, in all honesty give this book a less than 2. Well, 2, is not exactly the sum of its parts when broken down in the Empirical Evaluation, but that is what I give this book anyway. Cliffhanger endings is sooo not to my liking.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3.5
Writing Style = 1.5
Ending = 1
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 1.5
Plot = 3
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

About Peter Brett
	Raised on a steady diet of fantasy novels, comic books, and Dungeons & Dragons, Peter V. Brett (“Peat” to his friends) has been writing fantasy stories for as long as he can remember. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Art History from the University at Buffalo in 1995, and then spent over a decade in pharmaceutical publishing before returning to his bliss. He lives in Brooklyn.
www.petervbrett.com | facebook | facebook author page | twitter | goodreads | pinterest | instagram | google+

Books in The Demon Cycle series:

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook copies of this book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.