How I Built a Magic Empire, Book 1

De: Konstantin Zubov, Ben Hooson - translator

Narrado por: Hannibal Hills

I have been reborn from an advanced techno-magic world into a world where magic is still in its infancy.

In this new world I have the body of a young baron and my entire worldly possessions are one village—a village surrounded by monsters and hostile aristocrats on the fringes of a young, rapidly expanding empire.

The other thing I have, though, is knowledge beyond what this world has dreamt of, and nothing will stop me from building my own magic empire!

©2024 Konstantin Zubov; English translation copyright 2024 by Ben Hooson (P)2025 Tantor Media

it's a really good story

I would recommend listening to it I personally liked it a lot but I will say there's a couple things that Go against the story which seems to hurt the ratings I think

in my opinion the constant back and forth transition between the villagers and the main character is quite frustrating sometimes You're in the middle of a battle scene with the main character only to go back to what the villages are doing and talking about that day which is relatively pointless discussion I don't mind transitions it's just that it happens so much in the story this at one infuriating time in the story specifically towards the end of the book battle your left on the fringes of finding out what happened only to go back to the village 2 hours earlier to talk about what a bunch of girls are doing which just takes away from the entire anxiety of the consequences of the battle


also it's the constant life and death attacks that the main character has to constantly put up with that doesn't make much sense The first day he arrives pretty much to the next week is just constant fighting.... I understand that this is supposed to be on the fringes of civilization in the frontier so there's going to be a lot of attacks and monsters sure but it just feels too much for a story....

also the whole Go rescue the downed airship part of the story they had to travel 4 km and that entire time they constantly fought monsters which doesn't make any sense The villagers made a point in the beginning of the series that monsters didn't attack the village all that much yet for some reason it seems like everywhere the main character goes every 5 seconds there's a monster

but there's a lot that I really really like about the story as well I enjoy the main character the narrator the story and his knowledge how he has used his knowledge really well so far that the story takes place in a world that's relatively young usually we don't get these kinds of stories most of the time the story starts thousands of years after and all of a sudden cataclysm starts Right after the main character shows up like a year later I don't feel like that's going to happen in this story and it's quite nice to see a young world and thinking the main character has many years to potentially grow his town / empire

narration could use work, nothing special yet

the narrator seems to enjoy making it so literally every character sounds like a 90 year old man trying to yell. Story isnt terrible but also isnt really that good yet as of this book. probably going to skip the next ones.

Enjoyable story ruined by narrator

I really wanted to return this book but I enjoyed it so much I couldn't stop listening to it. However, the narrator absolutely ruined it for me. The narrator has talent but he decided to incessantly scream. I kept repeating in my mind for him to just shut up and voice the characters. I doubt that I'll ever purchase a book narrated by this same individual unless he learns to control the shouting. I hope the author replaces the narrator for any future books in this series.

Story was kinda standard.

The book is alright but i found the story to be rather standard and nothing really stood out other than the crystal and cystal portals. Even then the whole portal/rift thing is pretty common in thses types of books, I didnt really learn much of the mc to care what he does in book 2. And the story is just to grow the village.

Fun story but the audio is slowed down to make it longer

Enjoyed the book but the book is slowed down by 20%. Listening to it at 1.2 fixed slow speaking but when they say 12 hours of listening it’s incorrect. Listening at a slow speed is painful

not the worst narrator I have heard.

but he certainlty isn't very good. He has two significant problems. first, he talks way too slowly and he drags the syllables. it actually sounds like you are listening to the book at x.75 speed. at first, I thought I could fix this by speeding it up slightl, but alas, he will randomly speed up for a few sentences before slowing back down and it drives me insane.
Second, and this is and even more personal opinion that the previous point, I don't think he chooses good voices for the characters. especially the main character. MC is an intelligent 19 year old, but the voice sounds closer to a dull henchman.
the book itself is pretty good. the magic system is a bit too confusing, but nothing terrible. i enjoyed the story, but had to give up at the finish line because I can't bring myself to listen to the narrator for another hour.

Interesting Concept

The main concept behind this book has been a bit overused lately, but the ideas the author has for the magic concept and the bones of the old world that the new world is built on hasn't been used by many. I thought the author did a good job with this. The only negative thing I have to say about the book is the narration is poor, the narrator doesn't have enough diversity in his voices and all the characters sound similar. I am looking forward to the next book.

interesting story but the narrator has an odd cadence

the story itself is good and has a very interesting magic system that differs from the normal style books like these tend to have
the main character is "op" but not in the unbridled talent kind of way but in the way somone from an more advanced civilization is
the one major issue is the narrator has and odd cadence that is slower than what is "normal" setting the play back speed to 1.10x makes the cadence normal

Very fun story with great narration

I'm just sad I have to wait until July for the next one to come out.

The rich bombastic tone, the narrator used most of the time.

The narration isn’t terrible unless you listen to it at 1.0 speed because the bombastic tone the narrator uses sounds drawn out and slurred. I found that 1.2 to 1.3 speed was more natural sounding for narration. The downside to this is a story is really only about 9 to 10 hours long which makes sense most people don’t drop a credit for a book under 10 hours. The story is pretty good if you like the Russian genre which I do. I’ll probably buy the next book but if I’m going to lose 2 to 3 hours from narration speed, I’ll probably wait till it’s on sale.