Flame Dancer

Alex Khan, Book 1

By: Hercules West

Narrated by: Patrick DuBois, Hannah Blaire

Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Come, join us for a tale of mystery and adventure. A tale of discovery and romance….

Alex Khan finished his military service and enrolled in college with the money he’d earned, ready to major in history. But when a nearby lightning strike activates an ancient stone portal, Alex is torn away from Earth. He finds himself on an alien world full of wonder and danger.

Ktor is a place straight out of a medieval fantasy, populated with Humans, Elves, Orcs and other races. A place of monsters and fantastic beasts. A place of magic known as Power.

Alex wears a bracelet of ancient dzi beads. When they react with a mysterious glowing orb inside a long abandoned temple, they unlock a Power within Alex. A Power that makes him both valuable and dangerous to the rulers of Ktor.

Joined by Taiya, a beautiful Elven Elemental Dancer, Alex sets out to make his way in this strange new world. A world of endless opportunities for adventure and romance.

Instead of studying history, Alex Khan will be making history on Ktor.

Come along, stranger. Come along, friend. Come along and we will explore together!

©2022 Hercules West (P)2023 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Was good at first

This book started out pretty good solid 4 stars MC had a decent but not too detailed background, intelligent, and had common sense when in a Fish out of water situation, even brung up his military experiences to explain the things he does.... Then he forgot he was a whole grown man and became absolutely stupid. Dropped a star to 3 for the stupid heavy handed concept of - OMG if I touch someone who possess magic and not with direct skin contact we both get REALLY REALLY HORNY. This was a stupid concept and used every single time it's like the author doesn't know how a regular situation like flirting could also lead to sex something... Dropped another star because this guy this dude states he's familiar with the concepts of the other races even the isekai situation he's in and even though he agrees that getting mixed up with officials and people of power is a terrible idea he does it anyway why? Because no fking reason at all. And when it goes south he just goes "MaYbE i ShOuLd HaVe LiStEnEd" all for what just to introduce what 2- new characters later. Stop making the MC make stupid decisions just to further the plot. Then I dropped a star again because even though he's done absolutely dumb shit over and over no one says anything about it. They just bend over backwards for him just because. This went downhill fast. I don't know how to end this review rant other than telling everyone to save your credit if you actually care about stories that make sense and that isn't determined by the retardation of the MC

Fun old-style sci-fi isekai adventure with a harem

As required by U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations and Audible.com requirements, I am disclosing that I was given a free review copy of this audiobook at my request. I have listened to the audiobook, and I have voluntarily left an honest review. Receiving a review copy did not influence my rating nor my review.

Hercules West is a new author to me, which isn’t surprising given that “Flame Dancer - Alex Khan, Book 1” is his first published book! What is surprising is that his first book has been followed up with an audiobook after only three months! Perhaps the author is actually yet another new pen name for an established author, and already had experience and contacts for producing an audiobook.

Whether this is a new author or new pen name, I enjoyed the story and the narration. The story moves along quickly, and is a fun isekai adventure, though as a presumed first novel there are a few flaws that the author will likely improve upon with further experience.

MC Alex is a former Green Beret (a member of an elite U.S. Army team specializing in counterinsurgency). He self-describes as being a trained survivalist, and then quickly drinks from a mountain stream because it smells ok. Alex is also a very nice, shy, guy, not quite the confident man one might expect from a military man used to high-risk situations. Plot-wise, there are a few glitches. Minor things such as The “Prancing Mare” Inn becoming the “Dancing Mare” inn a few paragraphs later could be eliminated with better outlining and proofreading. Other things such as “I want to talk with Taija when she awakes before making a decision”, and then immediately making a decision while she’s sleeping diminishes the MC’s character.

Now, the good news for anyone hoping to enjoy this book is that these items are relatively minor, subtracting no more than perhaps a quarter star from a potential 5 star rating for the story.

The story itself, the dialogues and the characters reminded me very much of early sci-fi stories (I’m thinking of “The Star Kings: John Gordon, Book 1” by Edmond Hamilton (audiobook version narrated by Kevin Foley), and early sci-fi movies such as the classic 1956 “Forbidden Planet”. There’s a strong focus on action, with relatively little attention paid to character development and emotions. Like these two examples, “Flame Dancer” is a fun story of a man who finds himself a stranger in a strange land. Happily, the author adds the haremlit twist of the adventure including several women interested in our MC, and the “interactions” between several of those women and our MC are quite nicely described.

Both of the narrators are new to me, but each have narrated a couple other audiobooks. Patrick DuBois does a fine job, better than many of the newer male narrators. Hannah Blaire does an excellent job; her voices are different for each of her characters…many of them delightfully sensual. I will happily listen to both narrators again in the future!

I rate Flame Dancer 4.6 for the story; I look forward to more depth in the MCs in the sequels. I rate the performances 5* and the audiobook overall 5*.

Pretty good, especially for a 1st book

A new author in the harem genre and his first book. Let's get the bad or not so good comments out of the way first. The author should work on character continuity a bit more to make sure that the characters stay in character. I thought the mc stepped out of character once or twice for no obvious reason. That can hurt the overall story (it didn't hurt it this time).

However, the story itself was well told with individual characters, not cookie cutter characters. I really like the magic of the world and that it has limits. The timer limit and its subsequent downtime are pretty unique and give a sense of urgency to their use. Now we have to add in the narration team, which is where gets a plus behind whatever grade is given. Excellent job to both of you. They gave the written characters a life of their own which made the book that much better.

Great book!

Guy gets portaled to another world. Check
Meets up with a sexy fire dancer. Check
Has to have sex with her to boost each of their powers so that they can escape the bad guys that captured them. Check
Great book and a fun read.
Author and narrators did a fantastic job.
A book that fans of Portal HaremLit are going to want in their libraries.

Entertaining and fun

Came into this expecting another run of the mill harem/isekai and got more than I expected. It was fast paced and entertaining, and got me hooked on the characters and story. I can't wait for the next one and see where the story goes.

This was good.

This was fairly good. Much better than other books like this, in this genre. The only issue I have with this book is the characters background. He seems to not be that skilled in combat, though they try to explain as away, saying he mostly focused on modern military weapons. The training he should’ve received for his background should give him a lot more skills in close order combat.

Great book

I really enjoyed how Alex got know about the new world he finds himself in and learning about all the new races. I can’t wait for his adventures to continue. If you enjoy magic and adventure, you should definitely check this book out.

Enjoyable

Enjoyable concept, story and texted development. I would actually give it 4.8 star rating if I could.

Really Good Book 1

This book has alot of story packed into it. I was pleasantly surprised with everything that happens throughout the book. Hercules West is a new author to me, but if they continue to write books like this one I will have to keep my eye open for others works of theirs's. Definitely consider giving this book a chance if your a fan of the genre

The narration performance from the narration duo was great. They did a really good job with the different characters and keeping the listener engaged in the story.

Great Start

I have been reading this genre since Daniel Black series days, so I feel I have read pretty good handle on how these books go. That being said this is a great first installment. The power set he is given is interesting enough and not broken and buggy. The start of the romance part was a little quick, but expected with a length this short.

The MC isn't whiny, introspective or overly alpha. The book also starts off action heavy which I loved. It's a great isekai adventure that suffers little of the problems I feel a lot of first attempts do. If you know what you are getting into in this genre, you'll like it. Hannah Blaire did a superb job.

Disclaimer, I was given a free copy and this is an unbiased review.