How I Built a Magic Empire, Book 1 Audiobook By Konstantin Zubov, Ben Hooson - translator cover art

How I Built a Magic Empire, Book 1

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How I Built a Magic Empire, Book 1

By: Konstantin Zubov, Ben Hooson - translator
Narrated by: Hannibal Hills
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I have been reborn from an advanced techno-magic world into a world where magic is still in its infancy.

In this new world I have the body of a young baron and my entire worldly possessions are one village—a village surrounded by monsters and hostile aristocrats on the fringes of a young, rapidly expanding empire.

The other thing I have, though, is knowledge beyond what this world has dreamt of, and nothing will stop me from building my own magic empire!

©2024 Konstantin Zubov; English translation copyright 2024 by Ben Hooson (P)2025 Tantor Media Action & Adventure Fantasy Gaslamp Magic Village
Interesting Magic System • Good Town Building • Rich Bombastic Tone • Decent Character Development • Engaging Concept

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the narrator seems to enjoy making it so literally every character sounds like a 90 year old man trying to yell. Story isnt terrible but also isnt really that good yet as of this book. probably going to skip the next ones.

narration could use work, nothing special yet

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I really wanted to return this book but I enjoyed it so much I couldn't stop listening to it. However, the narrator absolutely ruined it for me. The narrator has talent but he decided to incessantly scream. I kept repeating in my mind for him to just shut up and voice the characters. I doubt that I'll ever purchase a book narrated by this same individual unless he learns to control the shouting. I hope the author replaces the narrator for any future books in this series.

Enjoyable story ruined by narrator

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The book is alright but i found the story to be rather standard and nothing really stood out other than the crystal and cystal portals. Even then the whole portal/rift thing is pretty common in thses types of books, I didnt really learn much of the mc to care what he does in book 2. And the story is just to grow the village.

Story was kinda standard.

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Very good story. The narrator needs work on characters. A 19 year old sounding out of breath 90 year old. Almost made the book dumb. Also Russia as a nation failed before magic, doubt it would’ve helped them.

Narrator

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I read this book when it first came out and enjoyed it so decided to give the audio a try. it was OK. honestly if I didn't enjoy the story I'd have quit listening. the narrator did a terrible job. the MC is supposed to be 19 years old but the voice the narrator uses when speaking as the MC makes him sound either very old or like he's talking with his nose pinched together. a very weird voice for a teenager regardless. then for some reason he's yelling almost every bit of the MC s dialog through almost the first 3/4 of the book. his attempt at female voices is cringe worthy. the only saving grace to the narration is when he's just reading the story. he does great there. but as soon as character dialog comes around it goes downhill fast. I hope book 2 improves but I won't hold my breath on that.

good story, but

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so far the book is doing really well the progression kind of fast but that's what you expect when it comes to town building character development pre decent I'm looking forward to the next one

I like so far

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but he certainlty isn't very good. He has two significant problems. first, he talks way too slowly and he drags the syllables. it actually sounds like you are listening to the book at x.75 speed. at first, I thought I could fix this by speeding it up slightl, but alas, he will randomly speed up for a few sentences before slowing back down and it drives me insane.
Second, and this is and even more personal opinion that the previous point, I don't think he chooses good voices for the characters. especially the main character. MC is an intelligent 19 year old, but the voice sounds closer to a dull henchman.
the book itself is pretty good. the magic system is a bit too confusing, but nothing terrible. i enjoyed the story, but had to give up at the finish line because I can't bring myself to listen to the narrator for another hour.

not the worst narrator I have heard.

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The main concept behind this book has been a bit overused lately, but the ideas the author has for the magic concept and the bones of the old world that the new world is built on hasn't been used by many. I thought the author did a good job with this. The only negative thing I have to say about the book is the narration is poor, the narrator doesn't have enough diversity in his voices and all the characters sound similar. I am looking forward to the next book.

Interesting Concept

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the story itself is good and has a very interesting magic system that differs from the normal style books like these tend to have
the main character is "op" but not in the unbridled talent kind of way but in the way somone from an more advanced civilization is
the one major issue is the narrator has and odd cadence that is slower than what is "normal" setting the play back speed to 1.10x makes the cadence normal

interesting story but the narrator has an odd cadence

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The narration isn’t terrible unless you listen to it at 1.0 speed because the bombastic tone the narrator uses sounds drawn out and slurred. I found that 1.2 to 1.3 speed was more natural sounding for narration. The downside to this is a story is really only about 9 to 10 hours long which makes sense most people don’t drop a credit for a book under 10 hours. The story is pretty good if you like the Russian genre which I do. I’ll probably buy the next book but if I’m going to lose 2 to 3 hours from narration speed, I’ll probably wait till it’s on sale.

The rich bombastic tone, the narrator used most of the time.

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