Confliction Compendium

The Dragoneer Saga, Cycle One

By: M. R. Mathias

Narrated by: Christine Padovan

The Confliction Compendium is an omnibus edition of the Full Confliction Cycle of Dragoneers novels.

• The First Dragoneer
• The Royal Dragoneers
• Cold Hearted Son of a Witch
• The Confliction
• As well as the first of the Crimzon and Clover short stories.

These titles are also available separately and have many reviews on their individual pages.

©2012 Michael Robb Mathias Jr (P)2015 Michael Robb Mathias Jr

Entertaining fantasy romp!

Well developed characters and a good story are not as good when the narrator is tough to listen to. She has a strange cadence that makes it difficult to listen to.

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

horrible narrator! monotone

so bad narration. monotone and strange uptick to the end of each sentences. a computer would be less harsh on my ears. uuck :-(

Wildly imaginative fantasy

From time to time, long fantasy intimidates me. I admit that I put this on my shelf for a while after I first got it because I was leery about dedicating 24 hours of listening to a single title. Well, I finally got over it and managed to listen to "The Confliction Compendium," and I must say I'm glad I did.

What I found, once I got into it, was a wildly imaginative fantasy realm filled with creatures both familiar and completely alien (forgive the pun; you'll get it when you read it). The Sarax were particularly interesting; I thoroughly enjoyed their development and origins as they were revealed at different points in the story. Even the familiar creatures aren't stereotypical; you have orcs, goblins, ogres, and trolls but not all of them are the bad guys this time 'round.

There is plenty of action to go around, too - maybe a little too much. My mind could wander in some of the longer action scenes because they got slightly redundant. Some of the character gets cut short trying to squeeze in all of the action, and that's saying something for a 24-hour book. Some things just seem to happen suddenly without being given enough time on the page to breathe. Jenka's romance and Richard's changes (I won't say more to avoid spoilers) seemed a little too quick and without a full airing to let the paint dry, so to speak. Marcherion and Aikira don't get nearly enough development here, either.

I'm of two minds on the narration for these books. I did a little digging and it seems the three main stories were recorded a couple of years before the two short tales. The narrator does an adequate job, but in the main three books her reading has a certain sing-song quality to it. The technique world probably work for epic poetry, but it didn't work well here, in my opinion. This style seems to be either muted or gone completely by the time she records the two short stories, so I expect she has refined her technique a bit.

Overall if you're a fan of epic fantasy with large-scale battles and world-ending stakes this book will be right up your alley. Even at 24 hours it will be well worth your time.

Narrater

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, good story line.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Confliction Compendium?

The meeting of Jade and the boy.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The pace was alright, but she was trying to hard to emotions in what she was reading

narrative sounds bad

the performer sounds like she was taught by a young William Shatner. The story would be better if she just read it with some imagination on how the characters would feel

Starts great; middle is repetitive; C & C is cool

What made the experience of listening to Confliction Compendium the most enjoyable?

That all of the first 4 Dragoneers Saga stories were in one purchase plus the bonus of the short, Crimzon and Clover at the end.

What did you like best about this story?

How the Dragoneers could magically 'bond' to their dragons, and the different types of villains the author came up with. Lots of intense action - the stories are never boring!

Did Christine Padovan do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, she is a fine actress and does well with character voices. I noted The Royal Dragoneers and Cold Hearted Son of a Witch were the original recordings from early 2013 and aren't as greatly narrated as The First Dragoneer (first story and recently narrated), The Confliction and Crimzon & Clover, the bonus short story at the end.

But she does make the stories entertaining with all the different characterizations of people and even the dragons.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There's some comedic moments throughout the stories (especially in The Royal Dragoneers) that make the stories worth listening to.

great story bad narrator

great story it was very engaging for me. I could not get over the mono tone of the narrator.

There are some very good twists in these books.

There are some very good twists in these books.
The story makes you ask yourself who is really evil?
Can evil work for the good or vice versa?

One thing about the books I did not enjoy was the narration.
Christine Padovan's voice in the books made most of the male characters sound as if they were small children. The way she likes to draw out and emphasize the last word in sentences makes it feel like you're listening to a sermon rather than a good book.

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

Worst narrator ever

How did the narrator detract from the book?

She was very flat in the way she read the book and the tone she used while reading completely distracts from the story.

Narrato drags out last word in every sentence!!!!!

The narrator has an annoying habit of drawing out the last word in every sentence. I cant get past the first chapter, its that annoying.