Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1

By: Jim Bernheimer

Narrated by: Christine Padovan

Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Forget everything you thought you knew about unicorns and maidens...

A unicorn is not supposed to survive the death of its rider, but Majherri did. Now he is a pariah, mistrusted by the Greater Herd. To reclaim his lost honor and status, he will entrust the remnants of his life to a new human female while unraveling the mystery of his continued existence.

Kayleigh Reese is not Battle Maiden material. She's three years older than any other recruit and has enjoyed a peaceful, nomadic life working with her artist mother. The rigors of joining the High-King's elite unicorn cavalry are clearly not for her. Now, with a bond to Majherri, she must overcome her mother's disapproval, the ire of her commanding officer and fellow trainees, and, most importantly, the secrets of her unicorn's past if she is to become a legendary warrior. To prevail, they must quickly come together as a team and unlock the powerful and dangerous magic inside them.

©2011-2015 David Wood- Gryphonwood Press (P)2011 David Wood

Resilient unicorn!

A light-hearted fantasy tale of a girl bonded to a unicorn; a unicorn that survived the death of its rider. Three.point.five for a good beginning.

Wonderful Read

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and cannot wait for the next in his series to come out.

Narration almost destroys a good story

I have been refusing to review on Audible because of the high-handed arrogant approach the company has taken with reviews. I can review on Goodreads instead where a review community is respected. However, this is a decent story, by a good author that is simply destroyed by a horrible narrator. No one will see this or care, but it ticks me off so I have to vent. Seriously - robot voices, mickey mouse voices, can't pronounce regular English words - all of this for a high fantasy. Christine Padovan made a real mess of this. Too bad - not as "snappy" as Jim Bernheimer's later series, but a nice YA poorly performed.

Meh, at least it was on sale

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Christine Padovan?

The audio version of this story might have been salvageable if someone like Kathrine Kellgren had read it. I love how Kellgren reads characters and you can tell right away who is talking. Padovan basically did two voices for this reading, one was tolerable and the other was high pitched, squeaky and annoying. If she'd just read it all in her regular voice it would have at least been less painful.

Was Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 worth the listening time?

Since I like to listen to audio books while drawing or working on something else, I at least don't feel like I wasted time. It ended up just being background noise for the most part though.

Any additional comments?

The lead character isn't the typical "Mary Sue" at least. She gets to have special powers and be better at everything than she should be, but a lot of people don't like her because of it. The reason I'd still call her a Mary Sue is that most of the characters that don't like her are portrayed as massive jerks. Basically, anyone she gets along with is good, anyone who doesn't like her is bad.
The world of the story sounds really interesting. But we don't get to find out very much about it because the main character spends too much time whining about wanting to fit in and what a poor little special snowflake she is. At the beginning of the story, I thought I might like her. By the end, if I'd been a unicorn, I'd have bucked her into oblivion.

Could have been better.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would get a different narrator.

What did you like best about this story?

It was different, and interesting.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

With every word. She was unenthusiastic with the story, monotone, and her voices for characters were laaaaaaaaame.

Any additional comments?

Hopefully they will change the narrator for the other books in the series.

good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

I want the sequel.

Would you listen to Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 again? Why?

No, the reader has a high, squeaky voice that was off-putting for me. It was cartoonish when she read some of the voices.

What other book might you compare Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 to and why?

Eragon. It is also a saga of young hero/heroine journey.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Christine Padovan?

Anyone who can do voices.

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the story. In fact, I am looking forward to the sequel that was supposed to be out last year. This book is not a stand alone novel. It is definitely the first part of a saga. There is no resolution of anything at the end of this book, but I want to know where our characters go. I did have to wonder at the lax academy standards. There was a lot of physical training, but the magic training was put off and there didn't seem to be any testing for aptitude. But, if there had been, the story would have been different. I do recommend this book.

Nice fantasy book for all ages

Warning: This book has a cliffhanger ending. Good news: The second book is finally out. Bad news: Audible doesn't have it but you can read it if you don't want to wait.

I must admit this book turned out to be a little different than I expected, but in a good way. The book is written from two points of view - Kayleigh, the rider, and Majherri, the unicorn, The books starts off with Kayleigh and Majherri meeting and then on to the academy for Kayleigh to learn to become a warrior maiden. Majherri had lost his first rider and although that usually signifies death for the unicorn he somehow survived and was able to bond with a new rider. The book continues with a lot of hardships for both Kayleigh and Majherri. It's pretty fast paced and holds your interest with magic, some surprises and some good fight scenes.

I didn't really care for the narrator. She was all right when she was just reading, but I didn't really care for any of her voices and one in particular was particularly irritating.

Great story, terrible narrator

I really like the story itself and would recommend buying the book to read but the audible version is pretty bad. The story itself ends in a cliffhanger but the second book is available to read/listen to. Unfortunately, the author still has not completed the third book after several years which is irritating.
The narrators character voices are terrible some very high and annoying and her narration is very awkward and stilted. Just read the book you’ll actually enjoy the story instead of dreading when certain characters speak because the high voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

Better Match Would Have Helped

The book read like someone's first novel, but I think a better narrator/story marriage would have helped this be a five star story. It's hard to separate the two in this story. If my eyesight had permitted, I would have enjoyed this much more if I had read the book instead of listening to it.
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