Crystal Awakening

An Epic Fantasy Adventure

By: Andrew Rowe, Kayleigh Nicol

Narrated by: Travis Baldree, Emily Lawrence

Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

A team of adventurers enters an epic trial of wits, magic, and monsters in this thrilling new fantasy series set within the Arcane Ascension universe.

Parties attempting to claim the treasures of the Tortoise Spire of Dalenos are usually composed of six professional climbers. But following a near-disastrous climb, Team Guiding Star Legacy finds itself two challengers short. With Nieve as the frontline fighter, Sage as the strategist, Lani as the healer, and Emiko as the spellcaster, they need a couple powerful allies to round out the squad.

The first new recruit, Hane, is a fighting and stealth specialist, while the second, Aldis, has quite the talent for teleportation magic. Though their individual reasons for scaling the spire vary—wealth, fame, favor—the team’s shared goal is thus: fight, win, ascend, and repeat. All in the hopes of one day making it to the top, where the goddess awaits to grant them the objects of their deepest desires.

To achieve this goal, they must master escalating levels of fire and ice, dangerous creatures, and confounding illusions. Whether facing a threat to their bodies, their magic, or their minds, each of the climbers accepts the risks. And bending the rules is part of the challenge. Some call this cheating; others call it winning.

But no test is ever straightforward. Because Guiding Star Legacy is being judged, and their next contest is one they aren’t meant to survive. Ascend or fall, the quest is only just beginning.

©2022 Andrew Rowe (P)2022 Podium Audio

Critic reviews

"Nicol’s fantasy novel offers a promising start to a new spinoff series, set in former role-playing game designer Rowe’s popular Arcane Ascension world...surprising elements and shocking twists [lead] to a harrowing final life-and-death battle and [set] up an intriguing premise for a continuing series....Fans of anime, RPGs, and the authors’ previous work will be eager to follow Guiding Star Legacy’s further adventures." —Kirkus Reviews

Climbers gonna chime

It's fun and exciting to see this side of the universe. Great story and told very well.

My thoughts

Didn’t really like the book all the way to the very end. But it did pull me in at the end of the book and I will listen to the next one suppose that’s how introductory books work.

very enjoyable

I enjoyed the story, the one narrator was harder to tell who was supposed to be talking at times. maybe I'm more used to narrators that have very stark differences in voices though.

Interesting end point, slog to get there.

Ends up in an interesting enough place, but it was a real slog to get through. As a big fan of the other work set in this world, it was a bit disappointing. Worth it only for a completionist, at least until we see where this is going.

Fantastic

The story and performance is amazing. The ending leaves you wanting the next book to be immediately available.

Excellent - just be prepared for tears by the end

Excellent - just be prepared for tears by the end. it's about a single trip through the Tortoise tower.

Took some getting into but worth it

I'm a fan of this entire universe, and I will say it was a little rocky jumping into the rotating points of view, especially with the characters having skills and frames of references that aren't completely familiar from the other books. After the first handful of chapters though, everything started clicking and it was a fun trip. Very dramatic and a bit darker than I feel we are used to from this universe. A good expansion.

Great expansion of the AA universe

A great new addition to expanding Arcane Ascension's universe. The coauthor did a great job writing something intriguing that followed Rowe massive magic system and pulled this off with flair.

all that being said I did not enjoy the narration from either performer. It was horribly by any means but it was hard to listen to at times and it often felt like they weren't capturing the characters very well. I hope going forward shattered legacy goes back to using Nick who does a much better job bringing the characters and story to life

An amazing climb

The characters worked so well together, and it was so cool seeing new attunements from a first person perspective. Seeing what a climb looks like for a standard group was very insightful as well. I love this world so much, can't wait to see where this journey goes!

Masterful ending

Books can be difficult to start but you read them cause you want to see the how they play out. Overtime you learn characters names. But names don't mean much until a they have done something, then they become more then a list and transform into an independent character. I didn't like this book at first or even past the half way mark. But I've read the rest of Andrew Rowe's books and I knew there would something special about this book. The ending. The ending made reading the Crystal Awakening worth it. While reading the ending all the small moments started to add up, not just in this book but also in Arcane Ascension. I love this book. When I re-read this book will be a scavenger hunt for all the happy moments, all the good times between long time freinds and new. Andrew Rowe has a talent for writing books that are just as enjoyable if not more on the second read, the Crystal Awakening is no exception.