A Leaf and Pebble

The Learner Trilogy, Book 1

By: Andrew Monroe

Narrated by: Andrew Pond

Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Two friends. A few airships. One shadowy group. A phenomenal ride through a new world rich in action and adventure.

In a land of elemental magic and Learner Skill, a gripping tale of two friends who narrowly avoid death while attending the school under the mountain takes place. As both are forced to flee before finishing their studies, they must unravel and attempt to thwart a plot to plunge their homeland into war after ages of peace.

Balteris is an enormous peninsula with an impassable causeway leading to an unknown land. The seas around it are filled with mysterious and deadly creatures keeping the inhabitants penned into the region. Naturals, people who have an inborn talent for elemental manipulation make up a portion of the otherwise regular population. But an even smaller percent of the people study Skill, and are therefore called Learners. This study allows the Learner to manipulate raw willpower into a powerful energy force.

Two of these people, Nil, a Learner, and Volant, a Natural, are forced to abandon their respective studies to save their own lives and uncover a mysterious group that has been slowly plotting to turn Balteris' five city-states into war-mongering kingdoms. Along the way, they must learn to survive, grow in their powers, and fight back against the government who thinks they helped murder their classmates.

©2019 Andrew Monroe (P)2020 Andrew Monroe

Captivating from beginning to end

Anyone who loves adventure and fantasy this book is for you. By chapter 2 I was captivated by the duo Nil and Volant. With each chapter I was sucked into the story and felt as if I was on their journey with them. I cannot wait until the next book comes out and I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a new book to listen to!

Pure fun and pure bromance

This book is great for anyone looking for instant action, a bit of food lust and a great bromance. Monroe keeps readers on their toes with constant adventure and intrigue. The lead characters are a joy and their relationship with each other is perfect. I can’t wait for sequels to see how the world continues to develop.

Absolutely FANTASTIC!!!

First - the reader - Andrew Brandt was absolutely astounding! It was like listening to a play! The book was truly amazing! We enjoyed listening to it so, so much! Thank you for such an imaginative adventure!

Poor effort all around

The writing was sub par. Are there no editors in this world who know the difference between a subject pronoun and an object one? Monroe’s misuse of I was so ubiquitous it was a major distraction. He also has no clear characterization in mind for any of his major characters. The protagonists were able to escape any trial without the reader having any conviction in their ability. Also movement from one scene to the next was often abrupt and without cause and relationships with lesser characters had no development. This may work in an on the fly RPG, but not in a book.
As for the narrator, he couldn’t be consistent with a character’s depiction to save the book! His emoting was inconsistent and often in opposition to the situation. His accent for the main characters was constantly changing for no apparent reason other than he couldn’t remember from one recording session to the next. I’ll be returning this one; it just is not worth the credit.

More a review for Andrew Pond

This narrator is GREAT I'm beyond impressed with how he did. He really brought the characters to life, and was a pleasure to work with.

quite boring.

I don't know if it's the narrater delivery or the story itself but I'm at chapter 17 and I'm always losing focus easily and not particularly bothered if I miss a paragraph or two. foremost audiobooks if I find myself distracted by driving or something else in the real world I will rewind the book to listen to what I missed, so that can tell you about how interesting this book is. I'm going to go and see if Audible will refund me a credit but they've been quite a stickler about that so far and I am already into chapter 17. if they don't refund the credit I will listen to the rest of the book If I can stand it and if it somehow redeems itself I will change the review.

A great escape

This book was a wonderful way to distract myself from a stressful time I’d been going through. It was a great mix of adventure, friendships and sarcasm.

Great read

This book is fantastic. I am thrilled to find a very readable and fun book.

Endless twists and turns

I had to rewind this book a few times just to make sure I heard what I heard.. Hope you dont have any plans, listening to this book will have you STUCK!

Incredible

This is is the best reading I have heard. I highly recommend to anyone of any age.