Magestone

Gemfall, Book 1

De: David Burleyson

Narrado por: Callum Hale

Once, magic was everywhere.
Then, the magestones were all destroyed.
All, except one...

Grayson Fletcher has spent his entire life working as a blacksmith's apprentice in his family's forge. He knows his way around an anvil, but he suspects there's more to life than hot iron and sweaty aprons. So when he's given the chance to join the prestigious royal academy and train to become a fabled realm knight, he jumps at the opportunity.

But between the looming threat of raiders attacking his home village and finding an ancient relic with a mind of its own, there was always something to distract him from his studies. To make matters worse, a school assignment inadvertently pits Grayson and his friends up against the evil raiders, and he'll quickly learn that no amount of training could've prepared him for what lies ahead.

©2023 David Burleyson (P)2024 David Burleyson

This world David created has much potential

Writing: As my title states, I enjoyed the world that Magestone takes place in and look forward to exploring more of it in future novels. For a first book, I thought this was quite impressive. There were a few moments I felt that some of the writing took me out of the world, with some terminology choices and uncanny similarities to other works. That said, those moments were not common and I was able to reimmerse back in quite quickly.

Narration: This was my first time listening to this narrator and I found his tone and pronunciation pleasant and easy to latch onto. I felt he portrayed emotion and the gravity of different situations well. I was not a fan of some of the side character voices, but the MC, Pete, and the majority of characters were good to go. The pace he read was quite good also, for most of the book.

Overall: While it is not my go to "novel type", I enjoyed the world building and character personalities enough to continue my journey with this story. If I could give a more detailed rating, I would give the story a 4.25, writing a 3.75, and narration a 4.5.