• A Sellsword's Compassion

  • The Seven Virtues, Book 1
  • By: Jacob Peppers
  • Narrated by: Steven Brand
  • Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,301 ratings)

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A Sellsword's Compassion  By  cover art

A Sellsword's Compassion

By: Jacob Peppers
Narrated by: Steven Brand
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Publisher's summary

War sweeps the land as the sons and daughters of the late King Marcus battle over who will claim their father’s throne and able-bodied men and women flock to one cause or the other in the hopes of a better tomorrow. At least, most of them.

If life has taught the jaded sellsword Aaron Envelar anything, it’s that hope is for fools and causes are a sure remedy for breathing. But when his latest job leads him to the corpse of a prince and a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the entire realm, Aaron is forced to choose sides in a war he doesn’t want, between forces he doesn’t understand.

Thrust into a world of mythical assassins, a madman with superhuman strength, and a nagging ball of light with a superiority complex who claims to be the embodiment of compassion, Aaron takes on his hardest job yet - staying alive.

This debut novel from Jacob Peppers is a new entry in the great epic fantasy tradition of Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, and Joe Abercrombie.

©2017 Jacob Peppers (P)2018 Podium Publishing

What listeners say about A Sellsword's Compassion

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The review I wish I had read upon release...

— If all you want to know is whether or not to buy this book and why I think you should, please feel free to skip down to the line break below. If you want to know why I titled this review the way I did, please read on...

Ignore the dummies. If you’re not a dummy then you know who I’m talking about... for those who aren’t sure, look at your last ten ratings; if there are more than two 5-star ratings in that list then this review will not be helpful for you. If you were able to make it through the first 3 hours of Dungeon Born without wanting to punch V.A. and D.K. in the face then you also may not find this review helpful. This review is for people who like their books to have at least been edited by the author’s 8th grade niece or a person who has read more than 5 books that don’t have pictures in them. That said, this is also not for people who trash a book just because it’s not a 5 star masterpiece. Nor is this for the people who can give a book a 1-star rating when the prose is tight, the editing flawless, and the narration professional and well recorded. To these people I ask, what happens when you get an audiobook that you don’t like but also is poorly written, unedited and even worse is narrated by Matthew Broadhead?... (I shudder just remembering the experience) How will you differentiate between a book that you just didn’t like all that much and a book that might technically have made you dumber for reading it?

...Sorry for the pre-review rant, but I am once again frustrated that I almost missed out on a good book because you can’t trust the omnipresent, subjective-only comments with 5-star ratings, and you don’t know how much weight to give the ubiquitous and sometimes misleading “meh” reviews.

Keeping all of that in mind...
-—-•-—-•-—-•-—-•-—-•-—-•-—-•-—-•

This is a good book. It’s well written and extremely well narrated. The plot is fast paced and the action zips along at a much faster clip than many of the other books in this genre. Overall, you could say that this is both its strength and a slight weakness. There was room for a little more nuance and depth within the plot, but honestly that’s what would have made an already good story into a great one rather than being a true negative. Honestly, I didn’t even notice it until I sat down to write this review and gave some serious thought as to how I was going to rate this novel.

Upon finishing the book I did feel like the author ended it where he did because it was a convenient stopping point and felt ending-ish, rather than because he had carefully crafted it that way, but again it only kept this book in the “good” category rather than the “buy extra copies to give to your friends” category. Also, I was invested in the characters, and their actions matched their motivations. Without giving any spoilers I can say that one of the character’s transitions was, in retrospect, a little hurried, but again it wasn’t a fatal flaw.

All in all, dropping a credit on this book is a no-brainer for anyone who is a fan of the genre. The negative and luke-warm reviews scared me away from this series for almost a year, and it’s another example of how unhelpful the reviews can be on Audible. I get that there’s going to be a pretty sloppy margin anytime you’re attempting to quantify the quality of something as subjective as a sword and sorcery, fantasy novel, but we should be able to do so much better.

P.S. I feel like Audible should have an additional star category for whether or not the book has been edited and the quality of the prose. It may make me sound like a stuck up, know-it-all, English nerd, but if you think that then, once again, this review probably isn’t for you.

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58 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My favorite new author.

I listen to audiobooks every day for at least 4 hours mainly historical fiction and fantasy. My favorite authors are Larry Correia, Bernard Cornwell, Jim Butcher and Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. But I've listened to alot of George Martin, Kel Kade ,Anthony Ryan, Ra Salvatore and many others this author is by far my newest favorite his characters are interesting and the dialogue is great. the story along with a solid performance by steven brand make this well worth listening to. the only down side is there is currently only about 10 hours of stories available . I can't wait for the next listen.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

What is up with this trend of incompetent protagonists?

It seems like there is a trend recently for all the protagonists to just “Forest Gump” their way through the story. I loved the movie, but come on. Why does every hero have to bumble his/her way through life while supposedly being the best “put title here” ever. I’m really tired of this theme.

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Mostly Staging for the Follow-on Books in Series

The novel contains magic but so far mostly centered on persons who have acquired one of the 7 Virtues spirit-form traits. Our protagonist, Aaron, unwantedly acquired that of Compassion or 'Co' for short. Co instills her compassion trait onto Aaron along with the ability to deaden pain for a short period of time. While Aaron makes good use of the nerve-deadening ability, he is troubled by the compassion trait.

Aaron is a recluse but is not without friends and the ability to acquire new ones and Jacob Peppers provides sufficient backstory for each along the way; likewise for the various antagonists he encounters. All of them are written in such a way to make them interesting.

There are two main plot arcs revolving around Aaron, one, his quest to save a kingdom along with one of its princesses and the other defending himself and Co from a madman driven to kill him and tear Co from him.

The various encounters during his two pursuits are interesting but involved a bit more philosophical navel-gazing dialog than seems necessary. Still, the tale unfolds in an interesting fashion. While there were many encounters, by the end of the book nothing had been fully realized and, essentially, ended with the listener/reader having a clear understanding of who the major characters are and their roles for the follow-on books in the series.

There are a few instances of sexual content but none of it graphic nor hardcore.

Steven Brand's narration is very good and enhances the listening pleasure.

The was a solid book and I look forward to continuing the series.

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17 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A wonderful collaboration between author&narrator

My second read from author Jacob Peppers. I'd gotten the Kindle edition for The Silent Blade back in April and never got around to reading it until the author gave me an Audfans audible edition fot it, after reading/listening to it I went right out & bought A Sellsword’s Compassion while it was on sale, then I went & got the Audible edition since the first narration was so good. Owning both the Kindle & Audible editions I was able to follow along while listening. Great read, great narration, Steven Brand has become the voice of Aaron Envelar! What other blurbs can I use to describe these books? Oh well, buy the book, read the books, get into a good author and some good characters as I have. On to book #2. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

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10 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

meh...

it was an okay book. But I found myself missing big chunks when I walked in another room - and other reasons - and ended up not caring enough to rewind to listen to what I missed.. Steven Brand is one of my favorite narrators, but in this book I felt like he was flat during all argument/conversation/battles etc.. I didn't know really what the mood was from one moment to the next.. idk. not BAD but not good..

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

MC is a veteran merc

who meekly does whatever he is told.... wait what?

yep you heard right, despite not having enough information to satisfy anyone. let alone a veteran mercenary. he just grumbles and obeys

if that is your idea of a good time enjoy.

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not enough meat on the bone

It was good but not great. I liked the characters and narration. Needs world-building.

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8 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Rushed

This whole story felt hurried along and the reasons for people to do what they do is barely touched upon. None of the relationships, romantic or otherwise, feel believable at all.

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7 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

patience is a virtue, but this used all of mine up

this book is worthless. somehow its trying to push having "compassion" pushed on someone is a good thing, but their writing makes it seem even more debilitating then being hamstrung.

rather then letting the character advance naturally over time learning a lesson it just seems that they are arbitrarily forced to suddenly advance along a character arc. the characters themselves are actually rather noxious and bland, the princess full of condescending compassion, acting as if she "Knows the plights of the poor filthy low born commoners" who seems even more vile and venomous then the "black hearted and damaged sellsword forced to suddenly deal with having morals!!" and the cowardly idiot of the princesses seneshal.

the story flows like cold molasses filled with glass shards, slow and disjointed, filled with continuity errors, poor writing, and just dull work. the narrator is ok, but only reads things with one voice and a slight accent on occasion.

patience is a virtue, but this book used all of mine up.

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