Dragon Heart

Book 1: Stone Will

By: Kirill Klevanski, Valeria Kornosenko - introduction, J. Kharkova - translator, R. Mansurova - translator, E. Kornilova - translator

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 17 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

He was born anew in a world where martial arts were indistinguishable from magic. He only received a neuronet and meaningless desires from his past life.

What lies ahead?

He dreamed of adventure and freedom, but those dreams were taken away from him. The same way his mother, father, and sister had been taken away. They took the kingdom, they took his own destiny. But he is willing to wage a war, against the whole world if need be, to bring everything back.

Even if the army opposes him, his sword won't waver. Even if the emperor sends the legions, his step won't falter. Even if demons and gods, heroes and enemies alike are to unite against him, he won't bend to their will. His own will is iron itself, unstoppable.

His name is Hadjar, and he heeds the call of the dragon heart within him.

©2019 Kirill Klevanski (P)2019 Tantor

Filler you say?

Warning: This is a completley subjective review written 5mins before the book ends. There may be spoilers.

Before I decided to listen to Stone Will one of the so called "reviews" I looked over said that the first six hours of this book was filler, and that the author needs to learn how to write.
Considering that this is probably the first real review I've written after listening to almost 40 books on audible (with many being what I believed to be some of the best of their genre) this is the first time I've felt like I NEEDED to buckle down and write a review. Especially since it's about this intriguing work.

*SPOILER ALERT*
What made the first six hours of this book interesting to me was not the fact that the protagonist, in true Isekai style, was "transferred" (if we can call it that) to another world. That's been done a million and one times. But it's the way that it was done that caught my interest. I realized that the first part of the book is actually the beginning and ending of both his lives.

It has limited litrpg elements, while also having traditional cultivation elements. But it merges them together to create a unique relationship between the two that I rarely see, which is always a plus for me.
Although I was expecting to be dissapointed by the first six hours because of the "filler" comment. I found that I really enjoyed the entire build-up to the dragon scene. Especially when he, as an infant, could hardly ever stay awake despite his desires to... hehe.

I also like how the author portrayed the protagonist as someone who had a very unfortunate life (which may be an understatement) but has never been broken by it, and has always found a way to keep going, no matter the circumstances. This is a trait I admire about the character because there are some scenes that were hard even for me to listen to. Yet he still somehow found a way to not completely and utterly lose hope. I feel that these dark scenes were necessary because they contribute to the image of Hajad's stone/iron Will.

By the end of the book, I found myself so invested that I dreaded the fact that It had to end. And I found myself counting the hours until it did. So I decided to write a review in the hopes that people would decide to give this work a try for themselves despite what reviews may say. I did, and I wasn't disappointed.
10/10 would listen to good filler again.

decent enough

I got to say this narrator has a decent enough voice but the performance itself is incredibly poor comparative to most of the other books I've read on audible. I think the thing I hate the most is the whisper yell that the narrator uses all the fucking time. just actually yell, and then balance the audio properly don't do this whisper yell bullshit. on top of that there is very little emotion, and the reading is pretty wooden with weird timing between words.

thrilling can't wait for the next book!

a very thrilling tale of the growth of one man put through many trials and to be reborn with all the knowledge gained over a restricted and painful life. there's so much more to be said about this story. the only negative thing that I might say is the overload of information. it feels like the writer is trying to cram as much information in each sentence as humanly possible. it's not necessarily bad just sometimes overwhelming, other times it's appreciated as the story unfolds.
keep riding! I'll be looking for the next set of books. also to the translators and narrator, you guys rock!

Starts off a little frustrating

Start of book gets frustrating but loved the book overall. As a cultivation book lover would recommend but could almost skip the first chapters as they did not help story. fun book

Amazing!!

Im not done but i had to right this. This book is amazing the story, character arcs and the motivation for our protagonist were very well thought out and accomplished, i cant wait to listen to more.

Magic, War, Mystery, and RPGing

I love the RPG feel of the world where the main character improves and levels up through the fighting technics. The world is cool to get to know and the book has a great awe of atmosphere to it. There one or two boring parts but there are tons of intense and action parts to the book.

I loved the book! the only thing I did not like was that It could do without the military camp sex infomation.

Reader is great, he is enjoyable to listen to and I can fallow along without any problems, but sometimes his voice sounds monotone and throws me off while listening.

Great start to a series

Really, really, loved this book. I've enjoyed Kevin Collins's narration in other books and thought he was great here. I won't lie, the MC entry into the new world is kinda cliche, but everything outside of that is really fresh and exciting.

Interesting and odd

First, I have to mention that at times the book feels to be translated from another language to English with google translate.
This causes actual problems in the consistency of the story when the same word seems to be for example translated to power, energy and force. The translation mistakes make the complicated cultivation system and the sometimes fast paced and hectic story hard to follow.
You also start to doubt everything said and try to figure out what the author actually meant to say, only to realize the story had suddenly advanced to something new while you tried to understand what was said.

Otherwise, I love the rather OverPowered MainCharacter. The story doesn't avoid gruesome scenes or killing of important supporting characters and actions seem to have more or less permanent consequences. The MC also isn't infallible and makes quite a few misjudgments. He is also never the strongest and has to fight to survive, no matter how OP he is compared to some others.

The scope of the world makes you dream and wonder, and provide a near limitless potential to the story. The world and its inhabitants are explained and explored sufficiently.

The story seems quite fresh even though nothing really new is provided. The book also is long enough in my opinion to actually create a real standalone story.

I do recommend it.

ok.. not great.

fantasy to the extreme!!!! Dont understand why this series has great reviews... It's ok...maybe good... definitely not great...

good book but too much info it is still a good

He was born anew in a world where martial arts were indistinguishable from magic.
He only received a neuronet and meaningless desires from his past life.
What lies ahead?
He dreamed of adventure and freedom, but those dreams were taken away from him.
The same way his mother, father, and sister had been taken away.
They took the Kingdom, they took his own destiny.
But he is willing to wage a war, against the whole world if need be, to bring everything back.
Even if the army opposes him, his sword won't waver.
Even if the Emperor sends the legions, his step won't falter.
Even if demons and gods, heroes and enemies alike are to unite against him, he won't bend to their will. His own will is iron itself, unstoppable.
His name is Hadjar and he heeds the call of the dragon heart within him.