Rise of the Blademaster

Swordsong Series, Vol. 1

By: Brent Batla

Narrated by: Phil Thron

Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Many years have passed since the dark tide of violent and malevolent creatures spilled into the realm from an ancient portal that should never have been opened. Adamar, an elderly but legendary elven swordsman sent to track the incursion, had found a small frightened girl, Lauriel Valendril, hiding in the shattered remnants of her destroyed elven village. After taking her in as his own, he finds that her traumatic experience creates an unrivaled ambition to learn to protect herself and others, and he begins to train her in the ancient and secretive elven fighting style of the Andulari.

Through fierce determination and unrelenting practice, Lauriel unequivocally becomes one of his best students and masters the graceful but deadly technique at a very young age. Hearing murmurs of the ancient evil re-emerging and sensing that his time to stand and fight has passed, Adamar gives Lauriel a gift that has been hidden from the realm for many ages - Isilmwé, an ancient blade of power - and with it, the responsibility to unlock the true power of the blade and defend the realm.

The defenses of the realm quickly fall one-by-one and together with a wizard, warlock, healer, and fighter, Lauriel pushes forward on a quest to close the portal before all is lost. What began as a pursuit to avenge her family ultimately turns into a battle for the very survival of the realm - a battle that Lauriel has trained her entire life to fight.

©2021 Brent Batla (P)2023 Brent Batla

Good book

I love the journey this book takes the listener from sadness to joy, uncertainty to triumph. This book is well written and well worth the credit.

were do we go from here

i hope there is moor, I loved the store, how I wish I could of been there to see it myself.

Fantasticle high fantasy frolic.

This tome has it all!! Heroes and Heroines. Creatures great and small, some familiar some new and exciting. Magic and mayhem, triumph and sorrow. It has a distinct flavor of old RPG mixed with a few modern day quips if your paying attention. Dragons , Druids, Demons. Old school group building. Lastly don't get to attached to any characters . Our unruly Author must have gotten grumpy one day and started wacking people. no spoilers just fair warning. Well done. Highly Recommend.

Amazing story. I can't wait for the second book!

An amazing book filled with action, adventure, romance, and comedy. I've become so attached to these characters that I might even include them in my DND campaigns!

It's a NO !for me

I struggled with this book. overly sexualized in to many places for no reason and poorly written. To many portrayel of sexual harassment. THe flow of the book was choppy and it felt it borrowed to much from other books in the genre. The premise is interesting BUT again the overtake composition is hollow. The narration was also very poor. I suppose I should have judged it by the cover. Regretted eating my time but I then I was looking for a fluff book.

Robot or Virgin Male must have written this.

Story contradicted itself in the first 3 chapters so if you are a sticker for constancy skip the prolog. I find the mixing of modern swear words into fantasy distracting and one of the main characters likes to say F$#K often. The author describes sexual harassments incident in great detail but not the physical surroundings. The narrator is so monotone is some places that I could not even tell that there was a change in the character. In summary this is not a book I would recommend.

I really tried...

I really tried to like this book. The storyline had REAL potential. I kept stopping and restarting the book because I couldn't put my finger on the problem at first. There were several problems for me but the biggest is that I was "told" alot. I like to be shown how thoughts, feelings, and characters grow throughout the book. People meet and all of a sudden within hours/days give up their lives to go on an adventure with people they just met but consider family after one day? No show of real bonds being formed we are just told they are. It was just too much.

Monsters to the left, and right and center...

...but this is what the architecture of the great hall looks like, with a circular balcony going all the way around, offering a perfect vantage point for those wishing to view the going on at court. Meanwhile the Duchess attacks the nearest monster by sinking her manucure knife into its back, and she gets shredded for it. No problem, healing magic will soon put her to rights. This is the author's first book, and I do hope the next one is much improved. There is too much sex in it for it to be YA, but not enough of anything else to interest an adult.