Becoming a Druid

Protectors of Pretanni, Book 1

By: Mike Mollman

Narrated by: James Meunier

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

A Struggle for Survival

Grahme has wanted to be a druid for as long as he can remember. Talented but headstrong, he runs afoul of a despotic, mind-controlling mage during his initiation quest. The price of failure is death. Intrigue and distrust have turned the druids against him. Haggard and hunted, he must make impossible sacrifices or lose everything.

Protectors of Pretanni: Book One

©2021 Mike Mollman (P)2022 Mike Mollman

Excellent book at every turn!

Highly recommended! The start is a bit sluggish(as expected) but picks up quickly! One can not help but feel bad and happy for Grahme as he whisps away on a journey to chase his dreams. The real conflicts ensue when his principles are challenged. The next think you know he is running for his life, treated like a slave, and... well I wont ruin the book! Go listen for yourself! I loved it. I have listened to hundreds of books and must say I very much enjoyed visualizing the magic! I can't wait to listen to them all! I am not just saying this because I met the writer either that was just a bonus!

Excellent Read

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

This was an amazing fantasy book about a boy who becomes a druid. We learned that he is given a quest in order to become a druid. There are three things that he needs to do two of them can be done fairly easily of course the other one he struggles to get the item he needs to his master, barely in time for the end of the quest , the obsidian Lord is constantly in his way and searching for the same item. He takes over anyone that he can, and is a play upon Pretanni. Even though he goes through so many trials to obtain the item, and then return the item to his master, he is victorious in the end, of course, but to what end?

A really good fantasy series. I’m really enjoying it and looking forward to reading the second book I recommend to fantasy and D&D lovers, or for anyone who would like a very good adventure.

Wonderfully Entertaining

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Review!
Grahme quest to become a Druid was so entertaining. I loved his ability to change in to animals, especially when he turns into an owl. It’s a wonderful adventure with plenty of and excitement, tension and suspense. James Meinier was perfection. The story and narration are the perfect match.

good story and great narration.

This is is pretty great story with out droning on with exposition while still doing a great job at world building and explaining the magic system.

the story has a great progression and still plays through the world building without making me want to skip forward.

An enjoyable but difficult book to review

if you enjoy reading low-reviewed novels, as I do, this one does all the right things. I'd recommend it to friends who were looking for a decent book to listen to as they drove or did the chores.
It's well written, the plot moves quickly, the characters were well written and acted logically, and at no point was I pulled from the story in irritation. It delivers on what it promises to be. In addition, the narrator is fantastic. For that I give it 5 stars.
if you want to read a good book without worrying about whether it is worth your time, this book is that in all the ways it needs to be.

The difficult part to review is somewhat complicated, and I can't entirely figure out why. At certain times, things happen and aren't satisfying. or maybe they aren't as impactful as they aught to be. this may be a style preference on my part or it may be the author didn't dig into what they meant early enough to allow those events to really flourish and drive the book emotionally. finally, I generally like soft magic, rather than hard magic. this book is sort of middle magic. The main character's magic is fairly well explained, but the villain seems to be able to do only what he minamally needs to do in order to allow the main character to take his next action, which is slightly irritating, but generally not a really significant problem for me. this means it's not always clear why or when the villain is able to do something.
Despite these misgivings, I still recommend the book.

note: the only reason I give four stars on written reviews like this is that I know I generally skip to the first non 5 star review to determine If the book is actually worth reading.

Refreshing historical fantasy!

What a solid book 1 for a refreshingly unique feeling historical fantasy series! I didn't know going in if it was going to lean more hist fic or fantasy, but on the first page we have our protagonist doing lots of fun animal transformations, so in this world Druid magic is very real (and so cool!). The setting of Britain around 300 BC well before the Romans ever came is very new to me, and with the prominent magic and overarching storyline of needing to overcome a dark mage who employs mind control magic, the overall feel is very much epic fantasy.

Maybe it was the title and the cover art combined with some discussion I'd heard about it that led me to believe it was going to be much lighter in tone than my usual dramatic sff reads, but while the single POV Grahme does have something of a sardonic internal monologue, the setting is brutal and unforgiving, and the plotting is extremely high stakes with plenty of dark and gritty events throughout the book. So on the whole, it's not a palate cleanser type light read but really something you can turn to if you're looking for dramatic adult epic fantasy with some wit to it.

The premise is that a slightly older than usual Druid apprentice (since he did not get along with his first two mentors) is sent on his Druid quest (by his much wiser third mentor) to retrieve a certain object in order to become a full Druid. The quest seems dangerous and tied to the Obsidian Mage who has been gaining power in the land recently and who the Druids are trying to oppose. As with most book 1s it took me a bit of time to feel totally immersed in the setting and hooked into the POV character, but around halfway through this slim-ish novel I was completely engaged and invested in the plot and the main character along with many of the side characters we meet along the way during the quest. Grahme is a fun kind of protagonist since he's extremely good-hearted and competent, but a bit dense when it comes to dealing with people and dangerous situations. He can be endearingly frustrating, but he was easy for me to relate to and root for.

One of the joys of the book was experiencing the Druid worldview, and I loved spending time with their insular quirky culture and sub-cultures, where religious devotion to their pantheon and being honor-bound to their oaths and protecting nature and communing with animals are all so important. There is also some tremendously dramatic action in the book, and even though it didn't make up a large proportion of the read, Mollman wrote some absolutely top-tier small-scale battles and fights full of tension and stakes.

I did this one mostly immersively since the audio narration is really solid, and the naked hardcover also felt great to read from (and looks fantastic). I'm so happy I gave this one a try and can't wait to continue on in the series!

Wonderful story with captivating narration

This was a wonderful first book for the protectors of pretanni series. I liked the world that was built up, it was complex and interesting without being too overwhelming which is important for me personally in fantasy books. The narration was EXCELLENT. Highly recommend as an audiobook.

Tell no one of this quest...

Thanks to the author for gifting me a code for the audio edition of this book! I greatly appreciate it, but that does not affect the honesty of this rating/review.

While the sort of classical adventure quest narrative isn't always my thing, I have to say that I had quite a nice time with this, even if I wasn't entirely invested in every aspect of the story.

CHARACTERS
Grahme serves as our main character for this story. As the title implies, he is in the process of becoming a Druid, but he's had a rough track record with his mentors and his future within the Druid ranks is very much in question when one of the nine Druid lords takes him under his wing. At first, I can't say that I found Grahme all that likeable. He is petulant and frequently disobeys direct orders from his superiors. He also had a bad temper. This dislike made it a little hard for me to feel too invested in the stakes that he was up against in the early parts of the quest that he is assigned to in order to prove himself worthy of being a full druid. Over the course of his journey, Grahme meets a variety of other characters from his family, other Druid clans, thieves, a mysterious merchant and people from a dark kingdom that is infamous for being home to people born with mind-control magic. Some of these were definitely more memorable and likeable than others, but my favorite side character definitely has to be Grahme's nephew who accompanies him for a decently long stretch of time. Even though it would not have made sense for the boy to have continued on the journey, I was sad when he was written out of the adventure since having him around made Grahme a lot more likeable for me. Grahme also has a romantic interest who comes in at a later part of the story and while the dynamics that created were interesting, I wasn't particularly bought into this subplot at all and actually felt like the story might have been stronger without it. One thing that works a lot to the story's benefit is that Grahme seems to mature quite a bit by the end of the story, thanks in no small part to the losses he's suffered and the trials he's endured. Seeing him grow into a much more serious and responsible person was something I found to be appropriately rewarding.

SETTING/WORLD
As the title indicates this is a story about Druids. While this type of mage isn't necessarily rare, it's also not often that Druid magic is given the spotlight in this way. The "animorphing" is handled brilliantly and I think this lesser-seen kind of magic will be a big draw for many. I also appreciated that there were other types of magic that the book explored. There is a dark mind-control magic that a number of both friendly and antagonistic characters have as well as weather and elemental magic. I wouldn't say that there are any "magic systems" in play here, but I think for a story like this, it was much better that the magic was "soft" (A.K.A. not defined to the point where it almost feels like a science).

Grahme doesn't stay in any one place for too long, but he also rarely passes through somewhere without there being some kind of episode that gives us a chance to explore it a little. While this type of storytelling where the narrative hops from one place to the next isn't always my cup of tea, I did feel like each location had a distinct vibe to it and offered interesting characters and/or environments. I definitely appreciated the variety of moving from calm woodland zones to bustling cities, dingy prisons, and dark caverns. No one place ever overstayed its welcome and the near-constant motion helped things from getting stale, though it did also keep me from developing attachments to any particular locations.

PLOT/TONE
As you might have guessed, this is sort of a classical, "go fetch a magical item of great power and return" type of setup. Due to this adventure-quest being the main narrative anchor, the story had sort of a nostalgic feel to it in the way that reading classic fantasy might. That said, the way action and magic is depicted had a much more modern vibe. It's an interesting mix that I though worked pretty well and made this feel rather special. The morality in this story was also interesting to me because on on hand, there are some characters who are very clearly "the bad guys," but then there are the Druids who aren't always the purest of the pure either. Throughout the story, we get a lot of insight into Druid politics. The "Nine Lords" are a somewhat dysfunctional bunch with infighting, deception, and general distrust. If there wasn't an "evil empire" type of threat looming over them, I am actually not sure if I would have found myself really routing for the Druid groups as much. I'd be interested to know if their moral grayness is expanded upon in future books since that might be a cool concept to play with going forward.

I had a nice time with the story overall and found the questing to be a fairly relaxing aspect of it. Unfortunately, I don't think the stakes ever felt as intense as I think they were meant to outside of a gripping heist sequence that occurs somewhat early on in the story. A lot of this is probably due to the fact that I didn't get too invested in many of the characters rather than any actual issues with the prose or pacing.

THE AUDIOBOOK
I rather liked this narrator, particularly because his voice/accent sometimes reminded me of Sam from THE LORD OF THE RINGS films. That said, I did feel like a lot of the characters sounded kind of the same. Some may also want to know that you will frequently hear him inhaling. This audible breathing is more pronounced in some chapters than others and it didn't really bother me too much, but I imagine in might drive some people crazy, so just be aware that this is a thing. On a more positive note, I have to give this guy some serious credit for performing an entire song in the middle of the book. I don't know if I've ever heard this done before, but he nailed it.

CONCLUSION
BECOMING A DRUID will be a great read for anyone who enjoys modern renditions of classical fantasy storytelling as well as those who just like druids. I found this to be a satisfying read and this world has enough potential with unexplored places and unmet peoples that I imagine the next books in the series will be just as good.

(+) Lots of awesome Druid magic with several different types of magic detailed
(+) Action and adventure throughout
(+) Some memorable characters
(+) Detailed lore pertaining to the old gods and various mystical peoples
(+) An ending that ties everything together while leaving the door open for what's next
(+) Grahme develops from an irritatingly petulant apprentice into a battle-hardened Druid
(-) A romance that didn't really do anything for me
(-) I found my attention drifting at certain parts of the story
(/) Highs and lows with the narration that will likely draw different reactions from different people

A Great Read

4.5/5

A great coming of age story with twists and turns about a head strong Druid prodigy. Grahme is strong willed and sure of his abilities. Which constantly gets him in trouble with his masters until he is given a final last ditch chance to become a Druid.

Test and given a dangerous quest he must risk his life and that of many others to prove he has what it takes to be a Druid.

At times early on I struggled with Grahme’s attitude towards others. He almost has an aggressive arrogance about him which makes sense when taken into account that his skill far outstrips not only his peers but also the majority of his masters.

I loved watching him grow and struggle throughout this story all while fighting to prove to others that he is a Druid at heart.

Great quest
A thrilling conspiracy
Well executed coming of age
And awesome druids make Becoming a Druid a great start to this series.

Great fantasy read with great characters

Fun story about a young man struggling on his quest to become a druid. Fun book with good characters!