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

Fun coming of age, flawed but enjoyable reading

If you could sum up Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 in three words, what would they be?

Unicorn Rider Matures

Who was your favorite character and why?

I like Kayly (not sure how the name is spelled). I also liked her unicorn. They struggle to do the right thing even when everything is going against them.

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

Reasonably good. Her voice for some of the characters was an annoyingly childlike high pitched voice that did not seem likely for a mature female soldier. Accents work better than pitch for this kind of change.

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

I was struck by the ongoing struggle in Kayly's heart to understand and move beyond her mother's rejection of her.

Any additional comments?

Christine Padovan needs to learn how to pronounce the words. Since I am grown and know how to pronounce large words, this was only irritating. But I love recommending audiobooks to teenagers who are in the process of expanding their vocabulary. I would only recommend this one with some caveats about pronunciation. Acolyte and adulate were two words that particularly stuck out.

I love the plot, story characters, BUT...

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

EVERYTHING, I can't wait till the next book. It has everything I could want in a story plus the added bonus of 'corns!

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

Oh definatly not..she has not concept of how to read a book...the voices that she did was horrible, one character in particular that it hurt my ears. BUT if shes the one to read the next book, I will still buy because I love the story line.

good story

voices were alittle annoying on some of the characters. too high putched and sounded so much alike. had difficulty keeping characters separated.

Interesting premise, badly written and read

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

I enjoyed the story line, the premise behind the plot.

What didn’t you like about Christine Padovan’s performance?

I didn't like the accents, the changes in voice, and the overall tone of the performance. The pacing was bad, and there were often pauses in the wrong places.

Good story, horrible reader

Would you try another book from Jim Bernheimer and/or Christine Padovan?

I'd read the second book in the spirals of destiny series. I definitely wouldn't listen to it if Christine Padovan were reading. I have absolutely no desire to listen to another book she reads. Ever.

What didn’t you like about Christine Padovan’s performance?

Christine Padovan's performance was way too mechanical, extremely forced, and completely unconvincing. It was very amateur. Her awful performance kept wrenching me out of the action, and it's a credit to Jim Bernheimer's story--which was very good--that I suffered through her reading for the entire book.

Started out well, but losses focus as it progresse

I really enjoyed how the story began and was quite interested, but as book progresses story losses definition and wanders to much. I started losing my enjoyment as book got closer to the end which ends in a Cliffhanger. Narrator did a fair job but one of the voices was Soo high and wispy that it became irritating the longer I had to listen to it.

Why does not the author use contractions or sentence structure normal?

If you are an early teen girl then this is the book for you. Unfortunately, it isn’t a complete story but an intro to an epic.

The reader, not performer, strained all of the voices. None of them sounded natural. Probably should have looked up words she didn’t understand for help with pronunciation.

Good story. Terrible narration.

What disappointed you about Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1?

The story was good but I had a hard time finishing it due to the terrible narration - at times her voice sounded much like "Mr. Bill" of Saturday Night Live. Much of the rest of the time it was robotic.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1?

The story showed potential for a series finally toward the end when the main character realizes her possible abilities and focuses on a future with great adventures.

How could the performance have been better?

With another narrator I might have enjoyed this story.

For young readers

The last hour was pretty good. But the hours before that were painful. It ended with a good cliffhanger, but the narrator wasn't very good in my opinion.

Sorry, not right narrator

I would like to give the story a pretty good review, it has much promise. But I really can't... perhaps not the right narrator for this, I was unable to finish this book due to the mispronunciations that kept jerking me out of the storyline, together with ear-wrenching "voices" used for some of the characters.