The Sea-Stone Sword

De: Joel Cornah

Narrado por: Genevieve Sibayan

"Heroes are more than just stories, they're people. And people are complicated, people are strange. Nobody is a hero through and through, there's always something in them that'll turn sour. You'll learn it one day. There are no heroes, only villains who win."

Rob Sardan is going to be a legend, but the road to heroism is paved with temptation and deceit. Exiled to a distant and violent country, Rob is forced to fight his closest friends for survival, only to discover his mother's nemesis is still alive, and is determined to wipe out her family and all her allies. The only way the Pirate Lord, Mothar, can be stopped is with the Sea-Stone Sword - yet even the sword itself seems fickle, twisting Rob's quest in poisonous directions, blurring the line between hero and villain. Nobody is who they seem, and Rob can no longer trust even his own instincts.

Driven by dreams of glory, Rob sees only his future as a hero, not the dark path upon which he draws ever closer to infamy.

©2014 Sammy Smith (P)2017 Sammy Smith

Tries too Hard

This book maintains an overriding theme that Heroism is bad. Although this does not make a book in and of itself bad, it is not something many fantasy readers including myself are hoping for. Therefore I have tried as best I can to eliminate my personal bias from this review.

The narrator does a good job switching voices. Her natural accent lets her change easily from low class to sophisticated or educated. There are man rich areas discussed and ech character is also rich enough to be deserving of a story in it's own right. Unfortunately all of this richness is wasted.

The author seems to be almost obsessed with showing the virtues of Nobility, Courage, and Heroism as futile, self-serving, and ultimately more destructive than helpful. Additionally anyone who survives long enough to serve as a mentor to or give an opinion on heroism, has been abused or otherwise traumatized, such that their viewpoints are wrapped and twisted. Because of this all of the rich areas and characters are touched on only long enough to serve as disposable object lessons or examples to that end. Unfortunately, since this is repeated throughout the book, it does not allow the audience to form any proper attachments to these people or places and it makes even the most intense moments of the book dull and anti-climactic as the author's theme repetition makes the outcomes of any encounter predictable.

A good story but it never hooked me

Any additional comments?

This is one I probably would have liked better if I had read it instead of listened to it. As is often the case with me, I had a hard time keeping my mind from wandering. I found the protagonist a little annoying in the beginning. He's a child who keeps insisting he's the greatest fighter in the world and that he could kick everyone's butt. The only thing he was missing was Scrappy Doo's puppy power battle cry. After getting slapped around for the dozenth time, he finally admits he isn't all that just yet. I liked the narrator's voice. She did a great job reading and instilling emotion into all of her characters, but as a female narrator, her range of voices was limited, so it could be a little difficult to differentiate characters, but not overly so. She did a good job of changing inflection and speech pattern, enough for most people to manage.

ok

I think this story maybe wasn't what I was looking for- a bit darker than I was expecting. I did like the action/adventure and the characters were interesting, the story well written and the narration was really well done.


I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. The fact that I was gifted this book had no influence over my opinion of it.

Different, but kinda overwhelming.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author / narrator / publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book takes the typical "becoming a hero" story and completely changes the treatment. Instead of seeing a "band of brothers" going on a quest and defeating monsters and saving the day and becoming legends, we see the grim reality side of the quest to rise above the mundane. It explores the struggle between good n evil, not only in the world outside but within every one of us. It shows how even if you start with good intentions and give it everything you've got, the outcomes might now always be under your control or be what you expected it to be. We see good turning into evil and struggling to regain some resemblance of civility.

All that said, it does get overwhelming. The numerous turn of events and epic struggles the characters go through weigh heavy on your mind. It is sorta depressing really. You wish the world was a little more cheery. But that would've probably defeated the mood of the storytelling.

I guess people who like to read about struggles in life and grey characters will absolutely love this heavy book. It was sorta too much for me.

A good but dark and brooding fantasy story

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This is a very grim look at an adventure story. The story is well written, but things take a turn for the worse for the main character so often it becomes a bit too dark and broody for me. That is most likely what the author was going for, but I like my dark and broody to be balanced by snark and humor so it's not so heavy on the pallet. The narrator did a decent job on the voices, but her voice was a bit too breathy for me for Rob. In my head, I expected a much gruffer voice a fighter like the main character. Again, that's just my opinion.