Cleansed

The True Tree Chronicles, Book 1

By: G. S. Scott

Narrated by: Sean Duregger

Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

The world is in the grasp of the God of Chaos, his only mantra: Do as Thou Wilt. In the slums of Tuilar, Dirge is an apprentice to the Brotherhood of Assassins who worship the god of Death. His only friend Jacob, a jovial young man, feels at home in the world as it is, but Dirge craves structure.

When Chaos orchestrates the Cleansing, a mass slaughter of children, people stand up against him. Amid the revolt, the prophet of the forgotten God of Order appears. Drawn to the ways of Order, Dirge finds himself at odds with those who raised him. The gods of Chaos, Death, and Order clash, their followers facing off in bloody battle, and Dirge must decide whether to honor his adopted family or the calling to his heart. Jacob believes they should stay out of the fray, wanting nothing to do with any of it.

Hope and honor are Dirge’s shield as he wallows in uncertainty and remorse. The gods are at play, and the world is their game board. How can Dirge choose when men and gods alike are deceitful? The decision he makes may well damn him.

©2018 Scott Smith (P)2020 Scott Smith

Well written

Well written, though the book could have used more tension in the overall plot. The characters seem to go from one day to the next and their motivations aren’t always clear. Very talented voice artist.

Dark but enjoyable fantasy

Dark but enjoyable. I cared about the main character. I thought the narrator did a good job with the characters' voices. Looking forward to the next one!

Generic in almost every way.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. I could only get through half of the book because of how cliche everything was. The plot and characters are bland. I expected more from a world ruled by the God of Chaos, but the setting is pretty dark which was nice.

Dark Fantasy

This is a dark coming of age fantasy (not my usual listen) but held my interest due to the narration and characters. Enjoyed the characters especially Dirge, Talic, and Jacob, it has monsters and gods with violence and is very deep and dark. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Great Start to the Series

This audiobook is expertly crafted & narrated. Character development is in depth & fully immersive. The story line is very well developed. The only issue I had was there was a slight jump in time that seemed awkward. There is no truly explicit language so this book should be appropriate for teen & older listeners. A great listen & I can't wait for the rest of the series.

Nice Story Wonderful Performance

I'm not big on Fantasy stories, I have to say G.S. Scott has created a pretty cool world with loads going on. Picking sides with Gods can be tricky and messy busy. I'm a huge fan of Sean Duregger. He gets better and better with every audio book I listen too. You can tell he's a true fan of Audio Books and is defiantly owning his craft. I want Sean to read all the books now...lol. I'll continue to check out his performance and in doing so I'll continue to find to new books. I want to read more from G.S. Scott now. This would defiantly be worth your time to check this book out.

Scott and duregger pulled off a great combo

This was a gripping gritty fantasy novel. When it come to the gods of order and chaos you always get a polarity in both characters and readers. Some are drawn to order and some to chaos. It is part of what makes the characters relatable. Their choices and how it affects their lives are things that pluck at our heart strings. The author and narrator combine here to bring us that choice and it’s affects on the MC and the world he inhabits. Found this to be a great story from two voices whose world and work I enjoyed very much. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Game of Gods

This novel is marketed to those who would be interested in Game of Thrones style books and I have to say G.S. Scott honestly doesn't disappoint. The clash of beliefs, the ostracization internally and externally of Dirge when he chooses Order over Chaos is gripping, and the righteous rebellion against a God who would call for the murder of children make this book amazingly good. The character development of especially Dirge finding his heart's calling is fantastic, the conflict he has both with the people who raised him, and internally over his decisions pull you in and keep you enthralled right to the end. And of course Sean Duregger's narration is top notch as usual so that helps as well. I was given a free promotional code to review this novel, though that didn't affect any of my thoughts of this book. I think it's honestly a must read and I'm excited myself to read more about the universe that G.S. Scott created. It's worth the credit to buy, you won't regret it!

Cliffhanger!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. The world in this book was well built but oh boy, the story was a doozy! There were a lot of amazing elements in this book. The author was not afraid to throw in some blood and gore as well as some romance. There were a few characters that I absolutely hated *cough Jacob* because of their personalities and there were some that I loved. This story ended in a cliffhanger which had me scowling. You can't just leave the book hanging on that note, author. You are a cruel cruel person! Narration: it was good but I found some voices were very very similar. Towards the end, a character was introduced that had me thinking it was a previous character because of the inflection and the tone of the author. Overall, the pacing and control of the narrator was great and just the voices should have been more able to differentiate.

Not what I was expecting...

I was offered a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review... Cleansed, which is either the first book in a series or the second - depending on where you look - follows the exploits of Dirge, an Orphan who has been indoctrinated into a league of assassins at a young age. The world around Dirge is defined by the conflict between a variety of fundamentalist faith systems and when one of these, The Lord of Chaos, orders the murder of all first born as a sacrifice to it Dirge finds himself on a brutal course to defend the innocent. However, all is not quite as it seems and Dirge's journey is not a simple one. To begin with I was not all that impressed with G. S. Scott's Cleansed, probably due mainly to Scott's choice to begin his tale very early in Dirge's life and leaving me with three or four chapters in which very little seemed to happen. I didn't take much from these chapters and it seemed to me that starting later and essentially jumping into the action sooner would have been a better option, perhaps telling the earlier episodes in flashback, but this was not to be. I persevered and was glad that I did. Once the story begin to come together it comes together rather well, with interesting characters and an increasingly shifting story where no one is clearly heroes or villains. The narration was done by the usually very reliable Sean Duregger and for the first time I was in two minds about his performance with Cleansed. Usually I like his narrations a great deal but in this case I found it a little grating in parts. This was mainly due to the accents he used for many of the characters. I have to say here that I am English and in my job I routinely have meetings with people from all over the UK, so I am used to a variety of British accents (in addition to having my own of course) and none of Sean's accents seemed quite right to my ear and it was only when I consistently reminded myself that this was set in an alternative fantasy land, with inhabitants who just happened to have British sounding accents, that I managed to get past it. I imagine the vast majority of listeners will not be bothered by this in the slightest, and many will be impressed with it as Sean does quite an impressive range of accents for this tale, as well as many different characters. So I think it likely that most will disagree with my thoughts concerning his use of accents, and they may be right to; as on a second listen I may even disagree with myself! Overall Cleansed was a good experience, far better than I imagined it being and well worth your time if you enjoy dark fantasy stories. I liked it enough that I would listen to further stories in the series, and it has even made me consider seeking out something similar to read in the future in a genre I usually do not read; which to me sounds like an endorsement!

All hell is broken loose and it’s normal

The Lord of chaos has one rule do as you wish. They really have no rules and no structure and I was well. Until the Lord of chaos was a great cleanse and to start with he wants to kill all the children and for the first time in this crazy and wielding society some start to think maybe the Lord of chaos it’s not as great as we thought he Was. Durge has never felt comfortable in this world and the older you get the more he disagrees with his adoptive family, unlike his best friend Jason who is fine with the status quote. It isn’t until the brought that God of order appears that garage DOC has something to fight for and it will fit him against those he loves those cows friends. This book was so good and unlike most chaos that’s going to be a method to this madness and it will blow your mind I believe that’s going to be a book to and if so I can’t wait to read it. I really love the judge I love the world building when they said the leader was the Lord OF chaos I thought it was another book about Trump, but know this is hell real well and man is it entertaining. I thought Sean Drager who usually does such a great job did a freaking awesome job in the spot. He was good in the devils gospel but in cleansed he should win some kind of award he is one of my favorite narrator in this audiobook is a great example why. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes alternate universes with Picture perfect descriptions likable and those you love to eat it’s all in this book and I can’t think of one thing I didn’t like about it.