Black Stone Heart

The Obsidian Path, Book 1

By: Michael R. Fletcher

Narrated by: Michael R. Fletcher

Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

A broken man, Khraen awakens alone and lost. His stone heart has been shattered, littered across the world. With each piece, he regains some small shard of the man he once was.

He follows the trail, fragment by fragment, remembering his terrible past.

There was a woman.

There was a sword.

There was an end to sorrow.

Khraen walks the obsidian path.

©2020 Michael R. Fletcher (P)2020 Michael R. Fletcher

Don't bother, this is only 12% of an actual book

Let me be clear, Beneath the reiterated endlessly repeated contemplation of 'What is and or am i evil' and sex scenes. There is a book with potential. Sadly never realized.

Spends most of its time padding its runtime with repetitive moral speculation on things we already speculated last chapter. Between that and the 'sex' scenes there is very little left to enjoy. I will be trying my best to return this and get my credit back. Woefully i cannot get back the hours i spent hoping an actual book would come out of this.

Great story but terrible performance

That story was great but the narrator made it almost unbearable to listen to. I wish they chose someone with better narration skills.

author as narrator is as bad as the juvenile story

The story seems to be written by a teenager. It was really boring and simple. The action was poorly written the characters were one dimensional. The author being the narrator was another poor choice. I have liked other Michael Fletcher books and that is why I tried this one.This is his worst work.

Juvenile and gross. Idiots moving a plot forward.

Awful, awful book that was painful to listen to. The main character is a massive idiot for the sake of the plot moving forward, and the relationships he has with any woman are just gross. Skip this one. There's a good idea there but the vastly unlikable cast of characters and especially the disgusting way romance is portrayed isn't worth it. I can't believe how much I hate this book.

authors are authors, narrators are narrators.

I usually look to make sure this doesn't happen but I missed it this time. I couldn't get through the first chapter much less the whole book. that's why I gave you the benefit of the doubt on the story. You read a book like an evil Clint Eastwood.

Who were you? Who are you?

Who might you become and what will that journey demand of you?

I love this story. It asks some very compelling questions about what it means to be and how we define ourselves over the course of a lifetime. It then wraps them up in grit and grime and obsession and serves them up to you in an all you can eat buffet.

I adore author narration and this book does not disappoint. I'm so excited that someone recommended this to me.

very original story

very good book. looking forward to seeing where book 2 leads. very well written.

A Good Story! Topped with a stellar Performance

overall a good story! It does get repetitive when the main character questions his every decision but that's part of general story.

The author does an amazing job building the world and is able explain the lore easily as we journey with the MC.

The performance of the author is superb! I love how he was able to give each character voices and the emotion/passion that comes with them.

“You’re not going to understand, at least not at first.”

Jet Li’s - The One, Pokémon, Highlander....All potential influencers and inspirations yet move over Frankenstein, Fletcher has made his own monster. In a tale told so well, so twisted and dark, you couldn’t see the foreshadowing. It was everywhere. This book has you questioning, again and again, “what is evil?” “How far is too far?” “If I root for this behavior, am I evil? Graphic at times, it’s darkest moments are done off camera and leave you to your own imagination. It contains lines like...

“Maybe I can give you the stab test.”
“Stab test?”
“If you don’t die, you’re a demon.”

“Not evil. Not evil at all, I chided myself.”

“Silence reigned like a terrible god.”

And every avid reader can relate to...

“I wanted to stop here, to spend my last days reading, to lose myself in their pages.”

So Mr. Fletcher I say to you, finish the series, so I don’t have to spend my last days losing myself in THESE pages...at least not on the first read through!!!

The author made a clutch decision to narrate the book himself and also crafted and a really epic rock intro and outro. While begrudgingly listening to it he informs us that he is still Michael R. Fletcher. Which is a relief after reading the contents of this book.
He did a great job and I hope he decides to narrate again.

*I was given an advanced reader copy for an honest review.*

Fletcher's Best Novel to Date

Black Stone Heart is Fletcher's best novel to date, and that is really saying something coming from someone who can't stop talking about Beyond Redemption.

An unforgettable story; one that cuts with the sharpest of blades and heals with the finest of salves. You will not be unmoved.

Khraen may be one of the best protagonists to hit the fantasy scene since Logen Ninefingers.

I had the opportunity to read Black Stone Heart (The Obsidian Path #1) a couple of years ago before it even had a title. The fact that I still remember every aspect of this story should tell you how much of an impact it had on me; not only an immersive read, but an emotionally charged one.

Dark and Beautiful.

Someone said that Black Stone Heart is a visceral masterpiece and they were right, it's also a bloody fantastically grimalicious read from start to finish. Michael R Fletcher is the grim reaper of souls and in my opinion the King Of Grimdark. I absolutely love Michael R Fletcher writing, I knew after reading his Manifest Delusions series I was in for another beautiful dark treat with this first book of The Obsidian Path series. His worlds are dark, his characters even darker, twisted and beautifully realised, this could be his best yet that I have read so far and I still have two books to go. If you're a fan of audible books, Michael R Fletcher narrates this one himself and does it beautifully. He gives a fantastic introduction with his Mad Dopple band jamming in the background. In Black Stone Heart our main protagonist, Khraen, wakes up less than a man, after pulling himself from a shallow grave. Naked and alone he slowly pieces himself back to some semblance of who he is and was, he regains his lost memories by collecting pieces of his shattered heart that are scattered across the lands, he begins a journey of self discovery and vengeance against those who tore him to pieces which will lead him to some horrifying places, dark magic and necromancy. A journey into morality and darkness. A nicely crafted tale of a man reborn and of the paths he chooses. Dark fantasy at its best. I very highly recommend..😁🔥💀🖤

Dark brilliance

Fantastic story showing struggles between who we want to be and who we are if given the opportunity. Dark, gritty and wonderfully told

brilliant

A story of wonder and grim scenes. Everything great you'd expect from a Fletcher novel.

Black Stone Heart will never let you go

I’ve been wanting to read one of Fletcher‘s books for a while now as many of my friends praised his books, but I never quite got around to it. Lady Luck stood by my side and Black Stone Heart got sorted into our group. I took it as a sign and claimed it for myself. In the meantime the audiobook was also released and I got myself a copy of that too to speed things up. Little did I know what was waiting for me.

Black Stone Heart is the story of Khraen, a young (or old, depending on your POV) man in search of his past and the pieces of his obsidian heart. The first person POV makes Black Stone Heart a very intimate read as we tag along Khraen discovering the world and the answers to his questions through him. I generally favor books written in first person, so this aspect was a huge plus for me. There is something raw and powerful in Fletcher‘s writing that makes Khraen’s world to come alive. His thirst for collecting his memories, his hate for wizards bordering on irrational and the many form of magic than inhabit the pages.

I admit I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Khraen, which – to me – shows his complexity as a character. On one hand, I sympathized with him and rooted for him to find his memories or to find his happiness with Shalayn. But as the plot went ahead, he started to make decisions I did not quite understand. His flaws started to come out more and more as he gained his memories and his personality changed with it. It was really intriguing to see that change, I might add. The way he battled with himself, trying to balance his new and old personality. But also, he resents the people of the North for treating him badly due to his dark skin color and old superstitions, but at the same time, he holds a similar prejudice against wizards. Sure, he has a good reason to hate them, but he never stops considering that maybe, just maybe, not every wizard is a traitorous bastard.

Another interesting aspect of Black Stone Heart is Khraen’s struggling with the concept of evil. Is killing people considered evil? And if you do it for your own survival? Or for the good of your people? Does the purpose make the deed excusable? And then, what is evil anyway? What makes Khraen a really memorable character is that the reader can’t really decide on which side he falls on the evil spectrum. I don’t think he knows it either. Characters like him make the Grimdark subgenre so damn intriguing for me. Because I just can’t make up my mind about him and it’s been a while since I’ve read it. Twice in quick succession because damn, Black Stone Heart just makes its way under your skin like a bad itch you can’t get rid of.

My only issue and the reason I didn’t give this book a higher rating is Khraen’s relationships with Henka and Shalayn. I won’t go into details so I won’t spoil anything, but suffice to say, I found his feelings a bit unbelieavable and a bit forced. He told us over and over and over what he felt but it felt more like pep talking himself and not convincing either of us. Though, in retrospect, some things do make sense by the end of the book.

That being said, Fletcher has this way of f*cking with your mind, whether you like it or not. There aren’t many big surprising twists – only one that really caught me by surprise and which I should have expected. It is more character driven rather than plot and even then, the Fletcher does not make life easy for them.

Black Stone Heart will make you uncomfortable, will make you question the actions of the characters but will never let you go. Do a favor to yourself and listen to the audiobook narrated by Fletcher himself. If you won’t fall in love with his voice and wish he was reading everything to you from now on, then there is something wrong with you.

Potential is there

Good Grimdark book that leaves you wanting more. Plot was a bit thin but the main character was very interesting and the story leaves you wanting more. Worth a pop.