Esoterica: Part 1

Liam's Awakening (Esoterica Chronicles)

By: Virgil Knightley

Narrated by: Bruno Anderson, Peggy Greyson

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Liam Elloway is the survivor of a terrible accident, but when he gets swept up into the world of the occult and enrolled at a strange academy for practitioners of dark magic, things get really interesting really quickly. As the first necromancer enrolled at the school in years, and the only mage of a certain type known to exist in centuries, all eyes are on Liam as he begins to discover his destiny. But can his sneering headmistress be trusted? And between the gorgeous celestial girl, the raven-haired vampire, and the pink-haired, red-horned half-demon, how will he manage his new relationships?

©2021 Eldrith Blade (P)2022 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Decent story but narrator needs to relax

This is a decent story there's some lack of detail but enjoyable enough. My main problem is the male narrator over pronounces everything and it's obviously not natural.

Main character is lower than a doormat

I finished most of the book due to there being quite a few interesting scenes but it is when the story has more than one woman in any particular part, you start to see how weakly written the main character is. He is simply a mentally weak character with a significant power. Any idea or opinion the females in the story have about him, he just conforms to it. he agrees as long as he is able to continue whatever non-existent relationship they have. He is degraded in almost every conversation and the only time he shows a semblance of a back bone is when he speaks to the other male characters. The character is so pathetic that two female characters get genuinely upset with him for insinuating that he may have had activities(which he doesn't) with another female character that is not in their group. one of them rebukes him severely. within the next chapter or two, he just stands there as the same female has sex with her and everyone acts like it is the greatest thing ever. I can't recommend this book.

Another fun magic academy story.

Not a lot to say, other than you are going to like this if you like the harem LitRPG magic academy sub genre.
The MC gets attacked by a monster and then taken to the magic school where there's a bunch of gorgeous monster women and he finds out he's the OP new guy and is a "chick magnet."
Not as much sex as I've come to expect from a Virgil Knightley book but enough to keep you interested.
Greyson and Anderson do a great job.
5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars.

I WANT PART 2

WOW WHAT A GOOD HOOK FIRST BOOK WAS EXCITING AND ENTICING. i wish for more for Rebecca but it is what it is. great book and i want another one!

Another great story from Virgil Knightley!

Virgil Knightley writes an interesting story full of fun and engaging moments, along with some great character development and plot movement. I look forward to the next part of this series! Audio Version: Bruno Anderson and Peggy Greyson narrate this story well and their respective characters are unique and interesting.

Very interesting

Right up front before you read any further just know that I recommend this book to anybody thinking about giving it a shot. A little context for my review. I tend to take it easy on the first and last book of any series as not every series makes it to “The End” and the first of anything can be a shaky endeavor. I also try to make clear the distinction between the quality of the writing/performance of the author/narrator and my personal tastes should they differ.

Virgil Knightley writes humorous fantasy erotica that is on the seedier side in the harem genre. The author is very upfront with the kind of story you can expect when reading the blurb. This includes the content warning. In my opinion I would say it's a 70/30 split with sex scenes in the majority. At this point I have enjoyed a number of this author’s works to include the “Solar Dragons” series and the “Monster Masseur,” both of which I highly recommend you check out if you get to the ending of this one and are looking for more. The story is performed by a pair of narrators for whom this is the first series I've ever had the opportunity to listen to their performance. They've done a fantastic job in my opinion. The author does deviate from his usual fare by adding an element of “horror” to this series. We meet the main character Liam after he has suffered a debilitating injury which upends his life. He runs into a fellow classmate from college as he's going out for a walk. They shared textbooks and she stopped by to pick up what she needed for one of her classes. They run into a creepy guy in the park only to be attacked by an Eldridge horror once they returned to his place. There's a fight which hence that our main character has some kind of power. His rescuer shows up to take him away to a new life and our main character has to say goodbye to the only friend he has left. Now in this new world he finds that there is alien technology so advanced that to us it might as well be magic and that he possesses the ability to use said magic. The magic shows up on a specific birthday and likewise this evil entity known as the void attacks around the same time for certain reasons I will leave unspecified. There's new school he finds himself in is weighted heavily towards female students, may have been influenced by a certain wizarding story, but the main character is certainly not that story's main character. It's a roundabout way of saying that our hero here is focused more on making the most of his opportunity.

It appears as though this story was originally planned to be a trilogy, or I should say the first trilogy. Of course, plans change, and it now appears as though this is a four-book series. All four books are currently out and available in eBook form with this one being the first to have received the audio treatment. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the series receiving the audio treatment. Lastly, I'll just say good job to everybody who had a hand in bringing this book to us, the audible listeners. Now I can't wait to see what you all do in the future.

good start

I thought this was a pretty good start to the series. it was pretty funny and fast paced. I don't get into school based stores often because I don't always like the day by day grind of students going to class and seeing what they learned. this story really didn't have any of that which was nice. narrators did pretty good too.

Pretty good

For a light horror comedy that’s also harem-lit, it’s pretty good. About my only complaint is the lady narrator’s voice for Carmilla and Memento are too similar that it can get confusing in scenes they share.

The dark tone and character deaths shocked me

Don't get me wrong: This is a good book, and it was the first book I read by Knightley. I think the negative ratings are probably because there is a character death that is pretty shocking and some fans will probably not like this twist. It's definitely the most brutal part of the series, but the book is still really good. But I'd be lying if I said Virgil hasn't improved a ton since this one first came out on ebook. Get this if you like dark fantasy harem stories, magic academy series, or just want to see more audio from harem authors. Skip this if you can't handle character deaths, imo.

Pretty fun!

Got a bit of fun mixed in with some lovecraftian and spooky vibes. Was a fun listen near Halloween!