The Bard's Blade

The Sorcerer's Song, Book 1

By: Brian D. Anderson

Narrated by: Andrew Kingston, Tamsin Kennard

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

The Bard's Blade is the start of the new Sorcerer's Song fantasy adventure series from Brian D. Anderson, best-selling author of the Godling Chronicles and Dragonvein.

Mariyah enjoys a simple life in Vylari, a land magically sealed off from the outside world, where fear and hatred are all but unknown. There, she's a renowned wine maker, and her betrothed, Lem, is a musician of rare talent. Their destiny has never been in question. Whatever life brings, they will face it together.

Then, a stranger crosses the wards into Vylari for the first time in centuries, bringing a dark prophecy that forces Lem and Mariyah down separate paths. How far will they have to go to stop a rising darkness and save their home? And how much of themselves will they have to give up along the way?

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2020 Brian D. Anderson (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Great story as usual! I love this author!

Brian's books are always great. This one is no different. This story wraps you up and carries you on a great adventure that you don't want to end!

A story to truly enjoy

This is an amazing start for a great story line. You truly fall in love with the characters and are glued to the story. I can't wait for the next book to come out.

really enjoyed it!

I won't give a synopsis of the story nor will I provide illuminating commentary on the writing and story structure; I lack these skills. I will say that I'm an avid reader of this genre and sometimes struggle to find a series that keeps me going throughout my day. This book is one of those rare gems I find on Audible; a story that is captivating and keeps me transfixed. I expect the next in the series to be just as good. The narration is also excellent !

Bard's blade audio!

I enjoyed listening to the Bard's Blade by Brain D. Anderson. It is an interesting tale about a young man who crossed a magical barrier to try and save the people he loves. It tells his story and the story of the girl he loves.

Enjoyed the story

This was a good start to the series. Not what I expected at all, so I am looking forward to the next book.

Something new

This is a new take on a journey adventure very various twists and turns along the way. Honestly, i didn't expect the story to go where it went, but the two readers made me want to continue listening, Can't wait for the next one!

Big Downer

The writing here is above average. I liked the use of magic being as low key as it was. However there were two factors that kept me from getting more than half way through before having to put the book aside.
1. The two main characters are both idiots. They walk into a new world and are naive. But they get into situations that were just implausible.
2. The villains here were just so evil it was impossible to understand why they were acting so badly or follow their motives.
The bleakness of watching these two characters stupidly fall under the sway of one evil person after another on separate story tracks just left me depressed and angry at the characters for being dolts.

Mediocre

Angsty teenage drama: check.

"Dramatic moments" and major plot points depend on characters not taking 5 minutes to catch each other up: check.

The 2 narrators individually are ok. No real complaints about their performances. Honestly the author could have just stuck with the woman narrator. She had a larger range of character voices.

The ending is entirely predictable and could have been resolved better in any of a hundred ways.

Disappointment made real.

Think would like this more if I was younger.

Yet this book felt more like a Disney cartoon than a book. The bad guys turned up to 11 and just being bad for badness sake. The main characters felt more like caricatures than characters. They kept making poor decisions and getting themselves involved in bad situations over and over. Once or twice can be explained by how sheltered they are. Yet several times over the course of a couple years of gaining experience. Oof. Was very hard to feel empathy or like them when they acted that way. Lots of eye rolling at some of the plot devices.

Much cringe. Disappointed.

Like waiting for paint to dry

I found this story incredibly boring, I lost interest after 30 minutes and fell asleep and stopped listening after 1 hour. If I ever wanted to either watch grass grow or wanted to watch paint drying on the wall then this is what I will listen to, sorry -5 out of 10