Crowns of Rust

Kingdoms of Sand, Book 2

By: Daniel Arenson

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

A noble leader is dead. His five children, once heirs to a bustling port, are scattered around the Encircled Sea. Their kingdom, the ancient land of Zohar, has fallen to the cruel Aelarian Empire.

As the dust settles, new fires kindle.

In a shattering world, the pieces are up for grabs. Here fleets clash at sea, and desert warriors battle among dunes and ancient ruins; cloaked conspirators gather in shadowy alleyways, vowing to slay their emperor; and a girl seeks the magic of light beyond guardians of shadow. In a land of sand and splendor, glory will go to those with the sharpest steel and the hardest hearts. One war has ended. Now the world will burn.

When the Encircled Sea storms, kingdoms are no sturdier than sandcastles. Rulers and rebels battle for golden thrones, but will they find only crowns of rust?

©2017 Daniel Arenson (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

slightly disappointing

I expected the story to advance more than it did in this second book of the series. I hope the next one has better progression.

Great book!!

I put off this book for a while because I didn’t think I would like it. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s like Game of Thrones and Dune had a baby!!! Can’t wait until book 3!!!!

Outstanding book.

Mr. Arenson has a way of writing that makes me want to know what happens next. He has developed the characters in this book and the first in the series in a way that I feel like I know them like a real person. I highly recommend this book and the first one also. I am currently working on the third in this series and I will be getting the fourth one too.

It was a good read

The story is forming into something interesting now and has a little bit more structure to it rather than the chaos in the first one

potential but misses the mark still

As with the first book, there is potential here but it's still not there...or any closer. The narrator is still good for voice work, but still puts random question marks in sentences and mispronounces words.
As for the writer, he seems to have back off his fetishes a little in this one, which is a plus. I get that this is sort of a Game of Thrones fanfic, but when you consistently kill off important characters, you get desensitized to it and stop caring about any of them. There needs to be a balance of positive and negative for it to be an enjoyable experience and much like the first, this is pretty much exclusively negative for any characters you might like.
The writer also seems to have an issue trusting his readers and repetative descriptions of characters every single time they turn up. Or constantly beating the reader over the head with the fact that certain people are related etc.
Its not bad...but it's not good. If the writer can find a better balance of mood and trust his readers more in the future it'll be a drastic improvement. If the narrator can stop putting random question marks all over the place and learn how some of the words he keeps pronouncing wrong are pronounced properly it would also be a drastic improvement because his character voice work is fantastic.
I will check out the third and hope it improves.