A Kingdom of Courage and Cruelty

The Levanthria Series, Book 3

By: A.P Beswick

Narrated by: Aaron Smith, Michela Schulthies

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Tormented by a curse and his own misdeeds, can a fallen knight claim redemption by saving a realm on the verge of ruin?

Orjan Varega suffocates under a crisis of faith. Trapped in the form of a fearsome lizard man by an ancient Elven spell, the once-renowned knight sleeps rough, drinks hard, and struggles to survive as a bounty hunter. But after a boy who offers him food falls prey to ruthless thugs, the protective fighter comes to the child’s aid and gains a formidable enemy.

As a brutal faction calling themselves the Wyverns terrorizes the land, Orjan agrees to bring them down in exchange for a sorceress’s help ending his enchantment. But when he’s blackmailed into entering vicious gladiatorial pits, he fears each vile clash takes him one step closer to truly becoming a monster. With his brutality unleashed for the bloodlust of crowds, can he cling to his inner hero and claw Eltera back from the brink?

A Kingdom of Courage and Cruelty is the fast-paced third book in the Levanthria fantasy-retelling series. If you like complex characters, gritty action, and dark tales, then you’ll love A.P Beswick’s battle to the death.

©2023 A.P Beswick Publications (P)2023 A.P Beswick Publications

Author's best

This was the best Levanthria book so far. I am actually anticipating a book again and it makes me so happy the magic of books is back.

Awesome!

Love this book wish it was longer! Need more of this world! Can’t wait for the next in the series!

irritating(Spoilers)

Orjan was beyond agitating. He's always been such a defeatist and nihilist who succumbs to whatever defeat is inflicted on him, instead of resolving himself and attacking those who ridicule him he wallows in self pity and loath. By the end we now know that he rescued Morgana from her pillaged village but is seen as a failure and outlasted for his "failure". Instead of defying their arrogant ignorance he accepts the label and shame, leading to his drinking and gambling. Finally he starts getting on the straight path to "redemption" and take Lathe as his squire. He is of course then defeated by Jareb and once again spirals. He is ridiculed by others who he could easily defeat but again accepts shame and ridicule. Of course Jareb is one of the best fighters throughout so it's not particularly fair to compare himself, he was also unwilling to fight whilst Jareb took pleasure in it. Of course Orjan stars crying again and he tells Lathe that he is unworthy of being his charge and releases him. He ends up on that island a gambling drunk and gets the opportunity to once again redeem himself but foolishly drinks the water and becomes cursed. Not sure how he became separated from his newfound crew but he did, probably out of shame again and left looking to hide. Again he has the chance to redeem himself but instead of using his position with Morgana and his cursed body to fight he gives into his shame and does the dirty work for the Ws. He's killing people and breaking legs, all ot would really take is taking the kid up to the castle for safe keeping and killing a handful of scum. On the end it's really Morgana that allows him to redeem himself even making him a lord. If not for Morgana he would have ended up dead as well as the kid. The other guy already dead and his wife raped before she ultimately killed herself. I still think he is unworthy and only Morgana a better character. She is of course not a particularly good person and is even evil but I find her less irritating. She sometimes does something that she regrets only for her apathy to take over and so she appears cold hearted. Throughout, she does most for her own self gain but seems to sometimes regret hurting the innocent and seems to focus on hurting those who deserve it. When she wanted to experiment on others she took from delinquent tax payers or thieves, all who have good reason to break the law but have done so regardless. Considering it's for the war effort I believe their actions are somewhat justified, that was until I learned that the war may actually be less about self defense and more about conquest. Nearly all characters have their flaws and that's what makes them so interesting. Jareb was a greedy vile man who while acting out of self interest gained the support of others. Vireo was a good man who was victimized by Jareb and his wife then Morgana and became callous. Morgana was victimized as a child and shows some empathy before apathy envelops her and her self interest supercedes any one else's, going as far as hurting others and manipulating them. Orjan can be a great Warrior and leader but as soon as his followers outcast him he wallows in shame and self pity, he needs someone to worship him or he crumbles. Zerina was also victimized and is now ruthless against anyone who shows any hostility towards magic. Ulrik was too timid to fight those who wished to harm him which reminds me, if Orjens claws killed Ulrik then his claws should have killed many others but I guess that's a plot hole left to be explained or filled in. Anyways, hope no one has read all of this and if so, hope u agreed with some of my thoughts.

Best of a "meh" series

This is the best Levanthria book by far. The first book was disappointing after being successfully enticed by the author's Instagram marketing. I was, nonetheless, curious where the story would go. Book 2 had a better story but the climax was less exciting than other parts of the book. Still, I trudged on out of curiosity and i am glad i did. This book finally ignited a fire into the story and characters and i am really looking forward to the next book. The author's writing is REALLY improving. Good on him and keep up the good work!

Love Love Love this one!

Start to finish I couldn’t stop listening to this one. Adventure, War and all things magical. My new favorite!

Great story, not a fan of the female narrator

The man should receive three stars in the female should receive one.But that isn’t an option here. She sounds like she’s reading a teenager’s school essay, not a fantasy book

The audio is complete trash

It was so difficult to listen to the narration and the narrator voice that I did not make it past chapter 6. I have tried many times to get into the series, and I do believe that it is written in a way that could be enjoyable if I had time to sit and read it, but this narration is absolutely bottom tier terrible. It’s the audio equivalent of small mammals drowning behind heavy machinery. 0/10. Book is probably a 4/5