Grog

By: RW Krpoun

Narrated by: A.T. Chandler

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

Grog is a brute (half Human, half Ukar) slave raised from birth to fight in the pits for the entertainment of the crowds. He is content with his role in the city, proud of his barracks, and in awe of his owner, the sour Master Horne. Life, by Grog's reckoning, is good. Then an enigmatic churchwoman enters his life, and Grog finds himself swept from the city which has been his entire world, to travel and learn amid as strange a group as he has ever seen. He knows nothing of the group's mission, just that his skills are necessary and the quest is "a good thing." But slowly, on this strange journey of both distance and spirit, Grog learns of the goal his new employer pursues, and its role in a troubled world. More importantly, he learns the value, and price, of freedom, and neither aspect is anything like what he imagined.

A fast-paced fantasy novel by the author of the popular Dream series (and 18 other novels), Grog takes the listener on a journey through an embattled Empire and a world in which things are seldom as simple as one expects.

©2020 Randall Krpoun (P)2020 Tantor

A Very Pleasant Surpriss

The narrator does a great job on this, providing a voice for the protagonist that carries throughout the whole book in the prose. Grog is an interesting and thought-provoking read, as well. The entire thing is an interpersonal character study with its own living, breathing world to explore.

Top-tier indie novel, and the audiobook makes the whole experience even better.

A new hero

Grog was a gladiator slave who lived in Fellhome his whole life. He was very content to die in the ring. One day his master, Master Horn of the Ebon Blades, sales him to Provine Sael. She is on a righteous mission to change the world and she needs bodyguards. For Grog, her mission and the world outside of Fellhome is a wonder and confusion. At the heart of the story is Grog’s pursuit of the meaning of freedom. Among the many rules of being a gladiator was the rule that when you engage Ebon Blades you get quality work. He took pride in his work. Being a member of Ebon Blades, a proper barracks of the old school was a good thing. Now with the prospect of being free he must learn how it will affect his life. Does he even want that life? He has been told that he is stupid. His value in life is the money he wins for his master and the honor he will bring by dying in a good fight. He is not stupid but ignorant because he was never taught. His adventures in academic learning, fighting off bandits, saving slaves, and finding the talisman to unite the people is humorous and entertaining. This is a unique quest adventure story told from Grog’s point of view.

Voice acting and narration are spot on

I originally read the book about a year ago and enjoyed the story and character development. Recently started listening to some audio books and the narration and voice acting added a whole new dimension to the story I hadn’t considered before. Top notch all around.

A proper book of the old school

A fantastic journey of humor and edge riding from a perspective we could use more of!

loved Grog

we listened to Grog on a family trip. we all loved Grog. Really enjoyed the readed.

I liked all of the voices except for Grog's.

Grog's voice sounded like it was almost computerized. I enjoyed the audio version, but it would have been better had Grog had a better voice.

Great story, great performance

Really enjoyed the book, and the audio. I hope the sequel gets done someday. The Ebon Blades give a quality story.

Predictable but entertaining

A solid book overall but bogged down a bit by repetition and predictability.

Theres a few phrases that are said as mantras, but after like the 50th time hearing it the point of it being a mantra no longer needs to be reiterated.

The overall plot is fairly simple, a slave is drafted into a group trying to end slavery. They fight battles, some close, others blowouts. He has a lot of new experiences and learns more about the world and they win in the end. The characters are all fairly generic, which isn't necessarily bad by itself but coupled with the predictable plot it doesnt make the story particularly compeling.

Overall its okay, there's nothing particularly bad about it, but there's also nothing that makes it stand out or memorable after finishing.

It was good, not great, but good.

Wasn't my favorite but wasn't bad. The characters were somewhat bland and not really fleshed out. It needed just a little more oomph, I don't know. but on the good side it was interesting enough that it kept my attention.
I don't know if it was the narrator or the book itself but it just seemed so... not enough.. almost there but not quite.

Crappy try of writing less intelligent character

I got 30 minutes in and had to quit.

Story follows a gladiator slave half-”orc” who’s supposedly more stupid than your average human due to his orcish heritage… only he really isn’t. Saying he’s stupid is not enough, you gotta show how he’s less than average intelligence. This ”stupid” orcman can form complex sentences and internal monolog and shows wisdom exceeding the supposedly smarter people around him. So how is he supposed to be dumb? By constantly having enough introspection to realize this himself and not being able to count to 70. Oh, but multiplication? Yeah that he can do.

Really bad writing, this. A lot of talk the talk but no walking the walk. It’s as if the author realizes every 10 pages the he is meaning to write a dumber character’s struggle with being dumber and throws in an ”I’m stupid” monolog and then promptly forgets about it until another 10 pages have passed.

As for the narration, narrator tries to sound dumber by speaking in a gruff monotone voice, but given the wisdom of the character it just sounds like a buffed up Stephen Hawkins is reading you a dull old coffee table fantasy.