Empire of Dirt

The Echoes Saga, Book 2

By: Philip C. Quaintrell

Narrated by: Steven Brand

Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

300,000 Copies Sold Worldwide

The Echoes of Fate Will Not Be Forgotten. The Words Uttered a Thousand Years Ago Will Come to Pass, and a New Age Will Dawn....

War is set to ravage Illian. The elves sail from the east. The savage Darkakin rise from the south. Valanis, the dark elf, is finally free of his prison and eager to see his work finished. Only then will he be free of the gods who still haunt him.

A new hope rises in The Red Mountains. There, the last remaining dragons have been discovered. Gideon and Galanör, human and elf, will have to work together if they are to convince Adriel, the last of the Dragorn order, to intervene in the coming war.

Devoid of hope and unsure what road to take, Asher and his companions must decide what role they will play as the realm unravels into bloodshed. The only weapon known to rival Valanis' power is in a place the ranger has avoided for a long time, a place where, until now, neither man nor elf would dare to tread.

Civil war has shattered the empire in The Arid Lands as the slaves make their stand against the highborns. But, while revolution brews, a greater threat looms. As a thunderous cacophony of steel and savagery marches through The Undying Mountains, who will stand before this army of death....

Empire of Dirt Continues This Unmissable Epic Fantasy Series.

©2017 Philip C. Quaintrell (P)2018 Podium Publishing

One of my new favorite books (not for teens)

Echoes of Fate, a book series by Philip C. Quaintrell, is a very engrossing story. At first I wasn’t sure I would like it because the story follows many different lead characters, all with weird sounding names. I didn’t think I would be able to follow the many different story lines. However, it was not long before the stories intertwined, making it easier and much more enjoyable to follow.

My favorite aspect about this story is the path for redemption that two of the characters – Asher, the main character, and Galanor – are on. Each of these characters has had a tumultuous past. Whereas Asher has already turned from his old life as an assassin when you first meet him, Galanor is conflicted between duty, which calls him to perform unsavory actions, and his desire to be a good person. While you get to see Galanor in the before-and-after stages of his path to redemption, you meet Asher after he has turned away from the life of an assassin. However, trusting and friendship are two things foreign to Asher, and it is fun to watch his relationship with the characters develop as he struggles to live life as a better person while carrying the guilt of his past life.

Due to the content of this series, I would say it is rated R. There is intermittent use of the F-word and some fairly graphic violence (at least by my standards). However, it is the scenes in which the Darkakin torture/rape the queen of the elves that is primarily responsible for my rating the book as R. It is hard to describe these scenes; they are not graphic but there is enough description and allusions to what is going on that it is bothersome. While this did not stop me from reading the book (as you can easily skip those scenes), it does make me hesitant to recommend it to anyone but a mature audience.

Note: I continued reading the book despite the scenes with the Darkakin because I am enjoying (I’m on the last book) the path to redemption of Asher and Galanor. I also enjoy the internal struggle of the other characters who, after experiencing horrendous torture or loss, fight to retain their virtues and moral beliefs. The characters in this book experience very real, human emotions. You see them struggle to be the people they want to be despite the torture they’ve experienced or the losses they have endured. For that reason alone, the book is worth reading as you see that no matter how horrible life can get, you should always strive to be the better person, even if you don’t always succeed.

P.S. I will be adding this to my favorite books for adults.

Torture!

Wow! How disappointing. The first book was awesome. This was literally torture...torment. I couldn’t even listen to it.

Where do I begin? The rape, the beatings, regular guy loser hero, the irritating changes to the characters, I cannot even list all the stupid irritating stuff in this book. It literally felt like torture to my ears!

What was the point? You messed up the entire series.

I really think this is it for me.

Again, very disappointing.

awesome

Can't wait for the next book. The story characters and pace of action is enthralling. The narration was excelllent

once again narrator fails a good story.

I struggle with the narration. He speaks so quickly and differentiates so poorly between characters and scenes that it's a wonder anyone can follow this truly well written story. I can see why this series is so heavily discounted. Have some of OSC's people rework it and there wouldn't be a need to drop the price to sell it.

Good Story, not impressed with narrater

I liked the continued story line and the building of the characters. I dont particularly care for the narrater. I felt he was better than book one but he is not good with changing his reading to allow the reader to easily identify the change in characters talking and he doesn't always pause long enough. I sometimes got lost as to who said what and felt he was speed reading at some points. I prefer a narrator who changes is stone and style based on each character not one that simply reads the book to me.

Great story - bad narrator

Caption says it all. I feel I would have enjoyed this story more if I had read a physical copy rather than listen to the audio book. The narrator just reads it so fast and doesn’t really change the inflection of his voice for most of the characters. He doesn’t even pause for changing settings within the same chapter. So if you aren’t paying VERY close attention it is easy to miss something.

audible narration not recommended!

If you can only listen to books, avoid Mr Brand’s racy narration! His characters are difficult to follow, impossible to distinguish between them,no different emotions, could not finish the book

better than the first

there are minor things that I find inconsistent. but that's just me being a story snob. the first book was just okay to me. this book began to shine and will make me read the next.

charter research need

love the story, but battle not accurate. their is no love, friendships, remorse, etc... in battle. you service at all cost bring those close to you alone only be course it helps your survival. the rest comes after battle

Wonderful World

I really loved the story, wish the narrator had more variety to his voice though.

Can’t wait for Book 3 - Brilliant

Love the characters and pace of the book - please list the book three asap - Great books will try his other books nest

Brilliant Fantasy Series

Love these books, can't wait for the 3rd one to come on Audible. So exciting and all the characters so interesting. Journeying with them is awesome, wish I was there, although I would probably get killed but to see the dragons!!

Good listen

thoroughly enjoyed the book, felt a wee bit short compared to the last book but very enjoyable.

Fantastic second book in the Echoes of fate series

I was so sad when the audio book finished as I was so involved with the various characters the plots and the continual action, hardly ever a dull moment as with some long winded authors, from beggining to end its full of things to make you absorbed,as I said I did not want this one to end and cannot wait now for the third book that I pre ordered on Kindle but hope that they do an audio book version, listion to the first book before this as its a continuing story where the endings leave you hanging, one of my favourite audio books so far

Great story

I enjoyed it and the performance was much easier to follow than the first book.

Great

Fantastic can’t wait for the next recommend to any who are listening to the spellmomger series it is as good

Not keen on the performance

I struggled to get into the story the performance was just not what I like. I didn't get past the first few chapters. Could be a good story but I wouldn't know

Brilliant

Superb follow up the the first in the series. Pacy plot keeps the story moving forwards.

A Great Series

So far I have listened to the first two books 'Raise of the Ranger' and this one 'Empire of Dirt'. The story plot by Philip C Quaintrell is really masterful and Steven Brands performance is good as well. looking forward to starting the 3rd book 'Relic of the God'.

too many tangents

the story has too many tangents. As it go's on I have trouble remembering whose who.