Beggar's Rebellion

An Epic Fantasy Saga (Empire of Resonance, Book 1)

By: L.W. Jacobs

Narrated by: TJ Clark

Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The Councilate controls everything except the truth. With it, he shall destroy an empire.

Tai Kulga lost the rebellion and his best friend on the same day, stripping him of everything even as a strange power flooded his bones. When the friend returns as a spirit guide, it feels like a second chance - but his friend is not who he was, and the Councilate is not done oppressing his people. Trouble with lawkeepers lands Tai’s surviving friends in a prison camp, and he goes underground seeking the last of the rebels to convince them to break his friends free.

Along the way he meets Ellumia Aygla, runaway Councilate daughter posing as an accountant to escape her family and the avarice of the capital. Curious about the link between spirit guides and magic, her insights earn her a place among the rebels and along with Tai’s new power help turn the tide against the colonialists.

But as the rebels begin to repeat the Councilate’s mistakes, Tai and Ellumia must confront their own pasts and prejudices, before the brewing war turns them into the monsters they fight.

Experience the start of an epic-fantasy series filled with unexpected heroes, dark magic, intrigue, and nonstop adventure. Suitable for all ages, it's perfect for fans of D.K. Holmberg, Will Wight, and C.J. Aaron.

©2018, 2019, 2020 Aethon Books (P)2021 Aethon Audio

Great start to a new series

I really appreciate the pacing of this novel. It moves along at a smooth and then fast pace where it should.
Even better the emotional growth and relationship pacing is great. No I love the first person I see and getting to it in the first half of the book.

Characters that fail, get up, fail, have friends pick them up, fail, and keep going. It's just like life.

The story does take a chapter to get going learning your place around some terms etc. but it's worth it to keep reading.

The two MC's seem to have opposing abilities, idiologies, etc. and between the action of the struggles and of the characters growth they learn to work together to kick some butt.

The narrator does a great job I'm not sure why another review didn't seem to like it. It was very well done and I know the characters by voice now.

Enjoyed it.

The only thing I found a little annoying was that I felt the narrator was just a little over dramatic while narrating, however this is just my personal view, besides from that I found the narrator doing an overall good job narrating. I found the book well written and I’m curious how the story plays out.

Slow start strong finish

The narrator performance would have been a 5* except I believe there was technical issues at the beginning on the recording that did not sit well and caused me to stop and start the story multiple times.

As for the story, this reminds me of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. The overall feeling and flow of the story feels the same but unique in it's own style. Consumption of object for power, the upbringing of main characters and overall story just kept having me go back to Mistborn so while it was unique in the situation I couldn't say it stuck out as an individual story overall.

I hope in the future books the ability system goes into more detail as it seemed to be missing some keep elements that would likely help in an extended story arc.

The 2nd half of the book is to me, what sells the book. If you pick it up, don't put it on your DNF list and if you have to push through the first half where the tempo and adrenaline speed up. This is where it becomes it's own story and generates the memorable scenes.

Kept getting better and better

This has been my favorite book of the year so far. It has been fun and kept getting better and deeper. Really cool power system that reminded me a bit of mystborn series.

Solid fantasy, kinda reminded me of Mistborn

I received this book for free but the review is left of my own Accord.

The two main characters are well written and while they do grow as people from when the book began, I'm not sure how much is actual personality or outlook growth opposed to just growth in their understanding of their abilities. Either way, both are interesting in their own ways and they seem to complement each other well.
The magic system in this book, along with several other bits here or there, remind me of the Mistborn and Stormlight series, which is a good thing. I think the magic was explained well without seeming too exposition-y.
The story focuses on two different subplots and I honestly found the legal drama centered one more interesting than the other, but that probably just cause I enjoyed that character more. I liked how both stories played out and was glad to see the plots basically weaving around each other as they went.
I wasn't expecting an ending like this, so I'm eager to see where the story heads in the next book.

Read this if you like Mistborn or Stormlight magic systems.
Read this if you strong female characters.
Read this if you like little guys challenging the status quo type stories.