Ledge

The Glacian Trilogy, Book I

By: Stacey McEwan

Narrated by: Sarah Slimani

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Ledge is the heart-stopping beginning to The Glacian Trilogy from TikTok sensation Stacey McEwan @staceboookspace

After being randomly selected as a human sacrifice, instead of death, Dawsyn finds herself on a quest to save her people from their icy prison...

---

In a place known as the Ledge, a civilization is trapped by a vast chasm and sheer mountain face. There is no way for anyone to escape the frozen wasteland without befalling a deathly drop. They know nothing of the outside world except that it is where the Glacians reside—mystical and vicious winged creatures who bring meager rations in exchange for a periodic human sacrifice.

Dawsyn, ax wielder and only remaining member of her family, has so far avoided the annual culling, but her luck has run out. She is chosen and ripped from her icy home, the only world she knows. No one knows what will happen to her on the other side, least of all Dawsyn. Murdered? Enslaved? Worse?

Fortunately, a half-Glacian called Ryon offers to help them both escape, but how can she trust one of the very creatures that plagued her life? Dawsyn is a survivor, and she is not afraid to cut anyone down to live.

With a slow-burning romance, high stakes, and even higher rewards, this richly created new fantasy series by popular TikToker Stacey McEwan will keep you gripped to the very end.

Content warnings: gratuitous violence and death; death of a minor; suicide; attempted sexual assault

©2022 Stacey McEwan (P)2022 Angry Robot

not a bad debut

Overall I did enjoy the story. I did find it absolutely annoying how inconsistent the volume was from the narrator. Imagine driving in your car, volume up because the narrator has gotten quieter and quieter. Then all of the sudden, it is extremely loud and you have to turn the volume down. You can very obviously tell when she took breaks.
Other than that, I enjoyed the book and will continue to listen to the rest. Spice level , 2 chili peppers but most of it is very close to the end.
The cliffhanger? Are you kidding me. I'm hooked.

100 Stars!

Okay. Let’s go! I’m ready for book 2. It’s May 2023 and I know it’s coming in September, but geez! I found Mrs McEwan on IG and truly relish her banter with her husband. One day I see she has this book. It seems that her true self is quite the voice of the protagonist, and I have zero qualms with that. The adventure, the idea of a people living in the depths of winter forever, the fights, the female power, the frigid winged beasts, the unquenchable romance. It’s all that and more. And the narrator is superbly chosen. I can’t imagine this won’t be a movie someday.

Excellent, now onto book 2

Excellent story line, world building, and narration! So glad book 2 is out. I listened to book 1 again just to be fresh. Such a great find!

Loved so much

50 years ago, the Glacians forced a group of humans from the village below and flew them to the ledge, leaving them there. The Ledge now houses a small civilization of people on the side of an icy, almost inhospitable mountain. On one side is a sheer rock face and the other a large chasm. There are only two ways out, fall to your death or to be chosen as a sacrifice by the Glacians.

The people on the ledge know nothing of the outside world. Every season, the Glacians come and pluck some of the villagers from the Ledge and fly them off to who knows where for a purpose the people of the Ledge can only guess.

A skilled axe wielder, Dawsyn was born on the ledge. She was raised to fight for everything she has and at twenty-four years old, she is now the only remaining member of her family.

During the culling, she is chosen by the Glacians and flown over the chasm where she quickly learns what everyone on the Ledge has been sacrificed for.

She faces a journey so tough that it will test her limits. She’s stuck with an unlikely accomplice she’s not sure she can trust and finds answers to questions that threaten everything she has ever known.

Can she trust the man she has been forced to accept help from?
—————————————
After being lucky enough both times to read this book early, I can say with absolute certainty this is easily one of the best Fantasy books I have read. It has everything you could want. The twists I didn’t see coming and the ending shocked me to my core. I can not wait for the next book.

-Fast Paced High Fantasy without the long pesky world building.
-Enemy to lovers
-Found family
-Forced proximity
-Epic quest
-BA FMC
-Touch her and die vibes

I did enjoy the narration

An exciting listen with lots of twists!

I saw this and was immediately intrigued by the premise, and was not disappointed! Sarah Slimani does an incredible narration for this book.

The frozen dystopian setting immediately sets the stakes above the bar. The Glacian monster overlords subjecting humans to a hunger-games-esque selection to be fed upon sets the stakes even higher.
Dawsyn, our fiercely independent FMC, is intriguing to follow through her journey, as is her half-glacian-half-human counterpart, Ryon. The eccentric B-characters Esra, Salem, and more round out the tale. I'm usually pretty adept at spotting twists ahead of time - and I didn't see any of these coming. It ends on an insane cliffhanger and I am not so patiently waiting for Book 2.

If you like any of the below, give this book a read:
• Dystopian / survival setting
• Independent FMC
• Enemies to Lovers
• Slow Burn
• Monsters
• Political intrigue

Loving this World

5/5 ⭐
3/5 🌶️
5/5 🎧

I can't believe this was Stacey's debut novel. It was PHENOMANAL. The world she built was truly impressive, combined with two amazing main characters and a fascinating plot and it's going to go down as a favorite of the year for me. I don't usually love third person POV, but it was written so well it didn't bother me one iota.

The audible was very good too. Sarah Slimani is new to me, but I thought she did a wonderful job voicing all of the characters, especially Dawsyn. Her accent was not quite what I was expecting going in, but perfect nonetheless.

I love love loved Ryon and Dawsyn. Dawsyn was a complete bad a and I couldn't get enough of her attitude. She talked a big game and absolutely backed it up. It made me wanna go throw some axes to be completely honest. Ryon was almost adorable in his clear affection for Dawsyn from the start, I loved their banter and attempts to hide their feelings. I think one of my favorite scenes was of them cuddling to keep Dawsyn from freezing. It was hilarious and so cute at the same time.

I want to say I wish I would have read it when it came out last year, but I'm currently pretty happy I don't have to wait for Chasm after that doozy of a cliffy. By gods, I may have shrieked a teeny bit when audible started rolling the credits... It's a trilogy though, so I'm getting ready for another and preparing myself for a year of agony and re-reads.

Great performance, good story

Wonderful narration of the story! Very well done, lots of tough scenes to read out but overall I thought the narrator did a fantastic job.

The story is a solid 3.5 stars for me. It has an interesting premise, a unique plot but it kind of fell apart after the first quarter of the book. Things picked up towards the end, but the middle was kind of a mess.

I didn’t feel any particular attachment to any characters, and I was very bothered by the FMC. She’s just so unlikeable to me. Especially how she just ran off to try and kill the monarchs. Ugh.

It also bothered me how she was close to death multiple times and somehow managed to kill two Glacians with relative ease. Some of the fights weren’t super realistic like that.

The romance was done pretty well, an enemies to lovers, slow burn tale with low spice. It had a few spicy scenes but nothing too spicy.

Great characters! I loved it!

Although it does have similar undertones to other popular books in the fantasy genre, I thought the Glacian’s were unique creatures. Also, the detail of the supporting characters was really great, hilarious banter. The narrator does whisper sometimes so you may miss a few words of dialogue but other than that the performance was well read.

Beautiful

Beautifully written and beautifully performed. I rarely hear audio books that narrators are so well suited to and that can perform voices of the opposite sex in such an non-obnoxious way! I can’t wait for the rest of the series!

FINALLY, someone gets a female main character almost perfect!

Absolutely loved that the author wrote a truly empowering female and male dynamic in which these two didn’t have a co dependency on each other and they we’re both strong on their own and respected each other as true equals, which was refreshing to read. Loved the whole book! The spice level was probably a 3🌶️ I’d say, which is pretty perfect.