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

poor performance made it difficult to appreciate

The narrator has poor modulation making her sound almost chant like or monotone. Her inflections made it clear that she either hadn't read the book or didn't understand what she was meant to express. Her reading voice sounds forced and the high pitched nasal character voices were childish. Sorry, for the negative review, but you should know.

A Horse Lover's Book-- An Enchanting Fantasy

I really enjoyed this book. I worried a little after reading some of the reviews. The high pitched voice was a little much, but nothing I couldn't handle. If you've ever been a child who wanted to see or hug a unicorn you will LOVE this book. I'm not as much of a horse lover as my sister, but I couldn't resist the description. I got this title so she could listen to it as well as myself. I can hardly wait for her to read it. My sister made not just myself but everyone around her see the beauty in horses everywhere. I listened to it first to make sure it was clean enough and it is! There are a couple of mentions of sexual overtones and that was it. Great read for all ages. Don't know that it will stay that way in the whole series, but this book is great. I hope he is able to keep it fairly clean.

This book reminds me a little of the Dragon Riders of Pern, but a lot more happens in this book than ever happens in one of those. The link with the unicorns is somewhat similar, I think.

Kayleigh is a great main character. She goes through a lot and is really tested. I've read other books with somewhat similar themes, but this book never felt old or too familiar. There is quite a twist at the end that was not altogether unexpected-- in part, but the whole was different than I expected. I will say it does leave you with your mouth hanging open saying WHEN will the next book come out!! It can't come out too soon for me.

need to see more from this guy

loved this guys work and would like to see a lot more
if i see aney more of his books it's a safe bet i will get them too :)

Great story told in great style and variety!

Where does Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I rank it at the top of the fantasy genre of stories. It is so different than other audiobooks about unicorns. I have never heard a story about unicorns where the unicorns had the same emotions and traits of humans! Wonderfully written with lots of details describing knights, battle maidens, battle scenes, training and fight scenes - even with some humor and romance put in here and there. Plus a surprise twist at the end!

What did you like best about this story?

The description of towns, the characters and especially of the Sacred Isle and the different battle maidens and their unicorns. The unique names and use of difficult descriptive words.

Have you listened to any of Christine Padovan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have never heard Ms. Padovan narrate an audiobook before - she did an amazing job voicing over 35 different human AND unicorn voices (male and female voices) - that is a very tough job for any narrator to do! She has a naturally sensual, deep voice that can easily portray a young girl, a gruff man or even an old woman. Ms. Padovan even changed her voice to sound like the woman with the squeaky voice on the Big Bang Theory for one of the battle maidens (probably because the maiden was described as petite and small).

Thankfully, that one high pitched voice was only in a couple of key chapters though - I credit Ms. Padovan for making a bold choice for a character but I would not have wanted to hear that character the whole time. However, I'm still giving 5 stars for the performance - the versatility, the styling and pacing kept my interest throughout the listening time.

A very detailed story with some difficult wording and phrasing (the author loves to create original names of people and places - great for the listener but I'm sure hell for the narrator) which was very admirably narrated by Ms. Padovan

I hope the publisher and author bring Ms. Padovan back again to continue this series (there is suppose to be another book soon) and keep us entertained and informed of the adventures of Kayleigh and Mahjerri.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Towards the end of the story where Mahjerri must face the evil villain - there are a couple of other moments but I don't want to ruin the surprise ending for anyone! :-)

Any additional comments?

Hope the next book comes out soon :-)

Excellent story

What did you love best about Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1?

The story just draws you in and makes you want to listen to it more and listen to the next book in the series.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The main character and her discovery of the powers that she posses.

Which scene was your favorite?

The description of the magic in the story

Fine read - want to read the next one

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I was sick when I listened to this and was looking for something light to listen to. This fit the bill. When it finished though I wanted to read the next book so it must have so it must have merits. Being sick I may be judging too harshly when I say it was OK

How could the performance have been better?

The performance was good in that the charters could be told from the "voice" the performer gave, which helps when the text does not explicitly tell you. However, it had a bored quality or heavy quality to the reading which was a little annoying when your sick but better than a too perky voice.

Story is good, reader is not

This is a good story almost ruined by a very inept, childish performance by the narrator. I wanted to change my rating to 3 stars, but I couldn't. The story was good enough to make me grit my teeth and suffer through her performance, but only a change of narrator induced me to get the 2nd book on audio. Why no one told her to just read the book well, with expression, instead of making adult, female warriors sound like 5 year olds is beyond me.

surprisingly good

I was surprised that I could not stop listening as this is not my normal style of book. Now I really want the next book or two only to find I can not buy the next book, Damn come on audible

Love this Story!

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

I really loved the story and it was a nice change from what I usually listen to. The story was over so fast and leaves you at a cliffhanger. I looked up the authors next book and I am so glad to see it will be out soon.

Have you listened to any of Christine Padovan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

She was not horrible but the high pitched voices were a little weird for me...not my favorite but the story was worth it.

Could have been much better...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This storyline in my opinion had the potential to be fantastic, but the narration slaughtered it for me. I think that is one of the worst narrations I've heard, and that's saying a lot. The woman had this monotone voice that just didn't do it for me. She even had this one character who, when I found out had been killed, I was happy since I wouldn't have to hear the awful voice for her again. I know that's awful, but another issue I had with this and I'm not sure if it was the narrator or the way it was written, but I found the transitions to action sequences happened in such a way that I had to keep going back to even catch them. I hope they get a different narrator for any subsequent books in this series.I did like the unicorn rider idea, a nice break from the dragon rider idea, though I wish they'd explained why there were no male unicorn riders .

Would you be willing to try another one of Christine Padovan’s performances?

Nope. For reasons previously stated. In fact I will probably be less likely to read a book narrated by her.