Servant of the Crown

A Powder Mage Novella

By: Brian McClellan

Narrated by: Daniel Dorse

Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Captain Tamas is an ambitious young officer in the Adran army. As a commoner, he is one of very few without noble blood to hold a rank. When he challenges the son of a duke over an insult, the subsequent duel lands him in hot water with the nobility and the royal cabal of Privileged sorcerers. Tamas is soon drawn into a conflict that goes to the very highest office in the land, and his only ally is the most unlikely of people; a young noblewoman named Erika, who needs Tamas to teach her how to wield her powers as a powder mage.

©2014 Brian McClellan (P)2014 Brian McClellan

Great story, awful narration.

The story was great as any of the Powder Mage stories but this narrator was one of the worst I've heard. He literally whispers the ENTIRE STORY. It's annoying and creepy cause it feels like he's breathing hot breath in your ear the whole time. Luckily this was a short story. I don't know that I could have tolerated it for 30 or 50 hours worth of a novel.

Fantastic story. Awful narrator

The narration was poor, unintelligible, and extremely difficult to hear. The narrator sounded half asleep, and it put me to sleep! No passion, no energy.

Story was incredible though! Well written and extremely well told. I could not stop listening/reading it!

great story, not so sure about the narrator

I have fallen in love with Brian McClellan's prefer made universe. the characters, the magic, and the politics set against a Victorian-era society but without the stereotypical gender and racial roles. women are soldiers and fighters. casual descriptions of characters mention different heritage free of condescension and/ or racial privilege and stereotypes. there really is something for everyone here.the narrators, though... that could use some work. Dorse sounds like he's half asleep as he narrates, and the women are too breathy. luckily, I've listened to many of his other stories, so I was prepared to look past that for the quality of the story, which is great!

Another great McClellan story

I was fortunate enough to win this audio-book on a mini-contest on Mr. McClellan's twitter feed. I had read the first two novels in the series and absolutely enjoyed them, though I had not read any of the short-stories or novellas he had released, nor had I listened to any of his work on audio-book.

Servent of the Crown, is a novella that details Tamas' first meeting with his future wife and love Erika. There is a lot of back story here that is only hinted at in the novels, and it was fun getting to see Tamas as a young man. The similiarites between his younger self and his son are fairly obvious and it was nice to see, despite the butting heads between Tamas and his son in the two novels.

The only problem I had with this audio-book was the narration. I just felt like the narrator's voice did not match what I expected from a young Tamas. The narration was difficult to hear at times, and while the narrator has a ponderous voice, that I would expect to issue forth from a stereotypical older English gentleman of the Victorian Era, it was often spoken as if the narrator was himself moments from drifting off to sleep.

Still, that narration did little to detract from the storytelling that kept me listening. If you enjoyed either of the two main novels, or the other novellas, I highly recommend this one as a listen, though if I had the choice, I would have preferred to have read it myself.

Good story, poor narration.

My only real issue with this novella is the narrator has such and airy and low pitched voice that he adds no intensity or emotion to the performance. If recasting it were an option I would highly recommend that be done. Otherwise it's a good quick read.

Good.

I was not disappointed by this novella. Fun backstory on the characters. I'd recommend for fans of the series.

Early days

This is placed well before the previous books or even the acceptance of powder mages as a military force. It is extremely well written, however, the narrator doesn't match the tale well and one has to strain to hear things due to his reading style.

terrible narrator

I'm sure the story was great but the narrator was so terrible that I couldn't finish the book