Blood of the Chosen

By: Django Wexler

Narrated by: Imogen Church

Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

In the second book of Django Wexler's epic fantasy trilogy about two siblings divided by magic and revolution, Gyre must travel across the Splinter Kingdoms to rally the rebels to his side, while his sister, Maya, uncovers the secrets of a powerful artifact that could change everything.

Gyre finally sees a way to overthrow the all-powerful Twilight Order. But he'll have to gain the alliance of both the ghouls and the human rebels to the south in order to even stand have a chance. And uniting them won't be so simple.

His sister, Maya, is still a soldier of the Order. But after clashing with her brother, she isn't so certain where her loyalties lie. Chasing the origins of a mysterious artifact to a long-lost library, she just might find the answers she's looking for.

Burning Blade & Silver Eye:

• Ashes of the Sun
• Blood of the Chosen

©2021 Django Wexler (P)2021 Orbit

Criminally underrated/neglected series and author

As someone who has read all the fantasy and sci-fi greats (yes, I have no life), I can confidently declare that Django Wexler is the most underrated author of both genres.

The Shadow Campaign series was riveting, one of my all time favorites. Imagine X-Men set in the time of Napoleonic Wars.

This new series is something else, the perfect blend of sci-fi and fantasy. It's a post-apocalypse setting that resulted from a great war between two hyper-advanced humanoid races. Primitive humans fought for both sides, But eventually both sides were wiped out (or so we believe) and only humanity was left, but stuck at a pseudo-Medieval tech level. Those who have some "Chosen" (one of the two hyper advanced races) blood can wield a form of elemental magic. Their organization, The Order, is what holds the remnants of humanity together.

Our two equal protagonists, brother and sister, Gyre and Maya are separated by The Order as children. They grow up to find themselves on opposite sides of a rebellion against the Order. Through their parallel struggles, the siblings encounter each other always at the end of clashing blades.

This second book in the series picks up exactly where the first left off as Gyre continues to seek allies and support for his rebellion, while Maya seeks answers to the mysterious "Corruptor", a nefarious agent with the power to hijack human minds.

The plot is fast paced, free of major holes, and keeps you invested in the two siblings. The course of events is never predictable as both protagonists have their own opposing but morally equal motivations. You're never sure whose agenda is going to come out on top.

In technical terms Wexler is about average in prose. It's workable, but definitely not his strongest quality as a writer.

The narrator is overly emotional, and makes some of the characters sounds far too young and childish.

Imogen Church is the best narrator ever

The story is great and Imogen brings it to life. I can’t wait for the next book. I’m not so much with the words.

A solid sequel

This story absolutely follows up book 1, exploring the stones introduced but left unturned in the first installment. The characterization and relationship dynamics are great and the climactic end is set up perfectly! Going right into book 3!

Wonderful

I really appreciate the recap of characters and events at the beginning. I listened to this series at 1.25 speed and that made quite a difference to me.

Django understood the assignment

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a series that goes this hard into building a complete world with lore and history and mixing it all into incredible settings and high intensity action. Bravo

Narrator plz

Take a chill pill. I've never had an audiobook where the narrator needs to just calm down for a second and be willing to narrate without so much passion. That is probably the oddest critique I've ever made of anything ever.
Edit: updating the review now that i've finished the audiobook.
I read the first book paperback and liked it enough to buy this one. I wont be buying the 3rd.
The narrator is HORRRIBLY matched for the story. Every character except varo and kit comes off as childish and uncertain with many characters having this wavering tone to the way they talk along with a quivvering voice, and the narrator has this REALLY annoying tick where she goes "talk talk talk... *inhale* talk." And she does this for every single character. I read in reviews for the first book that she sounds better suited to childrens books and that is SO true.
Django's writing style also feels lacking in some regards. For as vast as the world tries to seem it feels like it passes by with scant details in a "blink and you'll miss it" kind of way. You would think that a rebel willing to kill to resist the republic would have a lot to say about how its run with rampant corruption under the order's authority but no. The few times causes to rebel are brought up they are shallow and personal. And shallow is a good descriptor for the world in general.