Matabar

A Progression Fantasy Epic

De: Kirill Klevanski

Narrado por: Adam Stubbs

A forgotten people. A lost bloodline. A true Mage will rise.

Ardan Egobar is a young hunter from a remote mountain tribe. Destined for nothing more than the quiet rhythms of the wild.

But when fate drags him from his village into the heart of the New Monarchy Empire, everything changes. He steps into a melting pot of orcish mobsters, cigar-smoking dwarven bankers, and fashionforward elves—all on the brink of world war.

As Ardan grapples with his forgotten bloodline and discovers an intricate magic system, he begins a slow, compelling ascent, transforming from an innocent youth into a rising mage whose power may one day reshape history.

From Kirill Klevanski, the bestselling author of Dragon Heart, comes this epic new Progression Fantasy adventure about a young wizards rise to power, featuring a detailed magic system, expansive world-building, slow-build power progression, epic action, and unforgettable characters.

©2025 Aethon Books (P)2025 Aethon Audio

Great start

Really strong start. There is some strong world building. An expansive world has been created here. I hope it can continue to grow without becoming overcomplicated. Right now everything is cool and new. I like the MC. He is a cool character. His magic is novel and interesting. This world of guns and magic is unique and immersive. The narration was really well done.

Cool ideas but very slow progression

The book is interesting overall, but as a fan of litrpg and fantasy progression, the Matabar is way too slow of a pace for progression.
The main thing that I would have loved to be expanded upon in this book is to show more in depth progression and the awesome magic system instead of skipping over most of it and just summarizing the progress in a roundabout way.
The author together with the narrator do a great job to express the feelings of the characters.
If you enjoy slow pace adventure this is a fun book and you should check it out.
If you are looking for cool magic system where character dives into it, learns and progresses through it from zero-hero - there is some of that but it is stretched out thin over the 40 hours and relative to the books size MC using the skills and abilities is sparse - still check it out but keep that in mind.
Overall I enjoyed it, but the drag made me want to put it down a few times.
Enjoy.

worth two credits

Smart fantasy is refreshing now and then. A lot of heavy themes in this book, colonialism, racism, empire, the death of traditional life and modernization. In a nut shell, replace indigenous people with fantasy races and imagine them before world war one. I'm all in.

An EPIC to begin this series

This book is not only 40 hours for 1 credit but it's 40 hours of in depth story, amazing character development and a deep rich world. It feels like an omnibus of the first 3 books in a series with 3 distinct arcs that all wrap well.

40 hour epic fantasy first book, but too short

While the pacing was slow and at times seemed to become bogged down in unimportant details, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and can’t wait for the next one. I particularly liked how the author didn’t fallback on overused conventions and tropes, even playing with them at times, but instead stuck to the basics of likable/admirable/relatable characters, interesting world building, and good storytelling.