Haven: The Story of Lightning

By: Roger Alderman

Narrated by: Nikki Jay

Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

On the magical island of Haven, Lightning, the young and reckless unicorn struggles to define who he is before he can become the leader his people need him to be.

Lightning must overcome a coup, led by the people his family had protected for a millennium.

Haven: The Story of Lightning is a fast-paced story full of magic, conspiracy, and exploration of the remains of a primeval world waits for the listener, enjoy.

©2018 Roger Alderman jr (P)2019 Roger Alderman

Good story

Good story full of magic and wonder. It has someone trying to live up to expectations while at the same time being true to himself. Which is something most of us can identify with.

The Story of Lightning

The description of this book really caught my eye, but I had a really hard time connecting with the story. Maybe I was trying to read to much into it? I just couldn’t keep the characters straight and that led to confusion as to what was going on.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

NOT FOR KIDS

This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by this author. I would not object to listening to another - one book does not define the author.
The concept of the book intrigues me, but there is a lot of violence as animals kill each other- the action is described as they are disemboweled, have their bones crushed and blood seeps out onto the earth. Reference is made by the stallion after he fights that he “needs his mares to -relieve tension-”. Even as an adult (and I’m not opposed to conflict or violence in books) I found the violence was too much and did not seem necessary to tell this story. Especially when it is a fantasy, and the book is not too deep. The characters are not ones I connected with. It’s feels like the violence overshadowed any character building and underlying concept of the book. The underlying concept of this being a different plane and the animals once were humans. I think the words would have been better spent explaining and expanding upon these things.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this narrator ( Nikki Jay ) and I would listen to another. Her character voices were diverse and clear. In fact, the tone was so different between characters I would swear there were three different narrators instead of one. She has a kid high voice yet did male and deep older female voices very well. It does seem a few different voices were recorded separately since the volume varies

There are no explicit sex scenes, or swearing, however I’m not sure I agree this is a book for kids as early a 8 years.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.