Baldemar

By: Matthew Hughes

Narrated by: Harry Frost

Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

In a dying Earth of wizards and walled cities, a boy climbs out of poverty when he becomes an assistant to a moneylender's debt collector, then enters a career as henchman to an ambitious young thaumaturge. But Baldemar's career as a wizard's minion goes sideways after a powerful entity left over from the creation of the cosmos finds him useful for its own ends.

Now he must tread a perilous path peopled by dukes and demons, spellslingers and secret agents, assassins and academics, plus a pair of vengeful wizards who want their stolen treasures returned.

His course will lead him through the Underworld and Overworld, and along shadowy paths in the tenebrous realm known as the Glooms, to a final confrontation that will test Baldemar's hard-won knowledge to the utmost.

©2017, 2021 Matthew Hughes (P)2022 Matthew Hughes

Excellent. Absolutely worth the credit!

This audiobook was well performed and very well written. It managed to actually be funny instead of the usual dumb jokes where you can just imagine the author typing at his computer and chuckling to himself, not realizing that his sense of humor is more embarrassing than amusing.

Moreover the narration was spot on and instead of over-acting, Harry Frost seemed to really get the tone of the author and delivered his lines with an understated casualness that made the funny parts even better… In my experience this is exceedingly rare in the current stock of Fantasy narrators.

The book was really entertaining and I didn’t want to put it down. The dry humor was refreshing and though there was a bit of an episodic feel to each of the chapters I think it all flowed together really well.

This is definitely worth the credit. This being the first audiobook I’ve listened to from this author, I was more than pleasantly surprised and impressed.

Great book, solid plot

Love just good overall stories. This book has a great plot, wonderful characters and overall good wholesome fun. Reads like a little bit mystery, little bit coming of age and not young adult.

Sparkling fantasy

The tales of Matthew Hughes are fantasy of the highest order, cleverly plotted in a rich ambience somewhat linked to Jack Vance and the Dying Earth but with a flavor of their own. The Baldamar tales are available on Kindle but here appear in a sprightly reading. Every syllable is clear. My one request would be for the Kindle and Audible editions to be synched so that I could read and simultaneously hear, never losing my place.

Wonderful performance of a captivating story!

Matthew Hughes is one of my favorite short story authors. His characters and their worlds are very well rounded and interesting.
I have read the stories of Baldemar as they were published and always looked forward to the next one with great anticipation. The imagination required to write these exciting, insightful and inspiring stories is almost beyond my comprehension. All the characters are complete persons - especially Baldemar, his Everyman facing circumstances that test all his talents almost to the breaking point.
I’ve just finished Chapter Three of this audio version of the collected adventures of Baldemar and couldn’t wait to share my feelings about it! Harry Frost reads this story wonderfully - I couldn’t ask for a better performance (it’s much more than a reading!) of this story. Matthew Hughes and Harry Frost have combined their talents to create an unforgettable audio experience!
Highly Recommended!!!!

World creation at its best!

Baldemar, as a child, was never one to settle with his lot in life.  Rather he sought to remove himself from his poverty-stricken life as soon as possible.  His eagerness led him to become a debt collector, a henchman, and a wizard’s underling. Of course, the latter is what led him down the dangerous path into the world of dukes, demons, assassins, and more. Baldemar comes to the attention of a more powerful and secretive being who has its own agenda.  

Matthew Hughes, the author, creates a magnificent world that centers around magic, demons, power, and realms that are dark and dangerous. His careful world creation and his character development are detailed and thorough.  One finds it easy to connect with Baldemar because he is down-to-earth and has a kind heart – hard to believe given his previous roles in life.  The book is epic in length but well worth the listen as Hughes takes the listener and leads him through the book with powerful and vivid imagery.

The narrator, Harry Frost delivers a sound performance that captures the listener and keeps them enthralled in the story.  He speaks clearly and smoothly.  He gives a unique voice to each and helps keep the story easy to follow.

This is a book I would highly recommend as it captures and keeps the imagination of the listener.

There were no issues with the quality or production of this audiobook.

 

Average Guy just wants to get the job done right

My friend and fellow narrator Harry Frost and I were chatting a few months ago he gave me a free code for this gem. Listening through Baldemar, I completely understand why he enjoyed it. Baldemar is a fantasy novel, written very tongue in cheek in the manner of Terry Pratchett. The novel's unique form is more of a memoir of the title character's life, with each chapter acting as a short story (shorter at least – frankly they’re very LONG for chapters). We first meet Baldemar when he is a runt of a boy who has the wisdom to hire a thug so that he can keep his lunch money at school. In this way, Baldemar falls into what will be his chosen profession.
Baldemar is a very laid back kind of character, as are several of his mentors and companions through the years. Partially it’s the writing, but the narration expertly done by Harry Frost is the icing on the cake (or maybe it should be Frosting?) Harry captures lackadaisical perfectly. Baldemar and Vundt in particular are all about understatement. Baldemar is the epitome of average. He has no ambition other than to do the job he’s hired for until its completion. Exceedingly mild spoiler: Baldemar doesn’t even get the girl. The fact that he has no interest in getting the girl is part of what I love about this book. He’s just a guy. He’s seen his boss(es) do stupid things in pursuit of power, glory, etc. It’s just not for him. If he can chill and go fishing a bit at the end of the day, he’s good.
Harry being a native Brit also gets to branch out a bit in one trippy section of the book where Baldemar is in a strange version of the wild west, then riding a Harley in some kind of biker gang. Thoroughly delicious.
The world building is simple, but also unique enough not to be boring. You have wizard tropes, henchmen tropes and some self-aware magical items. I don’t know if there is more in the works for this world by Matthew Hughes, but I’d love to listen to it if so. My only complaint is that I don’t get to narrate it. Intriguing and imaginative, I’d recommend it to anyone in search of a fun stand alone fantasy book.