Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure

Axe Druid, Book 4

By: Christopher Johns

Narrated by: B. J. Harrison

Length: 22 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

A General defeated. The Hells navigated. Time for the real work to begin.

Balmur has been rescued, and War has lost one of his powerhouses. What more could Zeke and his team want?

Taking the time to train and rearm themselves seems like a great idea now that they are all back together, but nothing is ever that easy. An unexpected ‘guest’ puts the growing village of Sunrise in danger, but the uneasy alliance that grows allows the group to start tracking the location of another General. Royal negotiations, his growing relationship with a certain Fae Queen, and the threat of the Drow - seems like Zeke and the crew have their work cut out for them.

Not all is as it seems, and the boys will have to be more than they ever have been if they want to survive the journey Into the Darkness.

©2020 Christopher Johns (P)2020 Mountaindale Press

To lovey dovey, and to philosophical

To many hours devoted too, how to be a better man, how to be a better version of yourself, how to live your life, how to be a good person, how to be a wonderful human being, how to be a good lover, how to be a good father. The author is trying to lecture the reader rather than entertain the reader with good writing and fantasy, Fantasy should take us out of the day to day and be fun to listen too. I rate this book one of the worst listens, because the author has decided that he wants to make us better people, show us how to behave, tell us how to live. Stop telling us how to live, and behave, worry about yourself Christopher Jones, be a writer an entertainer keep fantasy fun, this book is not fun, but filled with your dribble, and you dribble for hours upon hours. Your not a philosopher your a fantasy writer, be a fantasy writer, entertain us because we are paying good money to listen to your book. We are people who will make our own decisions, you sound like you want to make our decisions for us, teach us your wisdom, but you are not wise.

Good in all ways but one.

I really like everything about this series but the fact that the main character has more than one woman (at the same time) and the author writes both women being ok with it. The relationship makes no sense and it's wrecking the series for me.

Spoilers from here on:

It really bugged me he was seeing two people at once in previous books, but once he married Mabe he should have put an end to that nonsense. The whole situation just makes my skin crawl and has zero appeal to me. Also, if the guy actually cared about his son and getting home to him, he wouldn't be sleeping with multiple women (and possibly getting them pregnant as well) and getting married--he would be focusing on getting home. Instead he is putting down roots in this new world and then just whining about how bad he misses his son.

I gave the first few books 4 and 5 stars but I think I'm going to have to go back and rewrite those reviews to include a disclaimer that I eventually become disgusted with the series.

For the record, I'm male and happily married. I am fiercely loyal to my wife and family, and find the idea of asking my spouse to "share" me with another woman extremely disrespectful to her, so this type of relationship turns my stomach.

No matter how delicious food tastes, once you find a maggot in it, its really hard to keep it down. Same goes for this series. You can write an awesome story but if you add the wrong stuff to it, this rest of the story(no matter how good) still reminds me of the maggot you keep slipping in here and there.

another homerun

I picked up the first axe druid book to kill time. I've fallen in love with the characters and the way Johns had developed them. BJ narrated it beautifully. This story picks up after the last book seamlessly and hours the ground running. cannot wait to hear the next one.

Great Book

I have to admit this is my favorite series. It's got the military aspect that as a Veteran I love. I can't wait for more!!

awesome story!

I love this series! each book gets better and better! I can't wait to see how the group grows next!

After school special Litrpg?

This one got off the rails and just never got back on.. Not sure what happen in the writer’s personal life but the story suffered and so did the readers.. Too preachy, Too touchy-feely and don’t get me started on the creepy relationships.. Major let down all around.

Ugh

I really liked the first three books but I finally just gave up on this one. The swearing just got to be too much and the story just seemed to be on an endless loop. Wash rinse repeat and repeat ad nauseum. This book and the next one in the series have been the first audible books I have ever returned.

The trick to this series is 1.15 speed

I've been hard on this series, but the first few books I got on sale, so I've kept with it. My main complaint and some subsequent issues with the story are the i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y s-l-o-w a-n-d u-n-e-n-t-h-u-s-i-a-s-t-i-c reading of the story. That said, I found a hack for it: Just listen at 1.15 speed. This is the second book I've listened using the faster speed and it's much more interesting, keeps my attention better, and has left me wanting to listen to the next book. This is the first of the series that I've used a credit on and it was actually worth the credit. Now some recognition may be due to the author maturing his story and better editors, but *really, listen at a faster speed!*

I've bought into most of the characters and the storyline. I'm really interested in what happens next, but I've got 15 books in queue to hear and I'm out of credits, so it will have to wait. This book was worth the credit.

note: Don't forget to take the speed back down. I forgot and started listening to my next book at this speed and I thought the narrator was on meth or something. Once I took the speed back down to 1x speed, it was okay.

Another fun one

I really enjoyed it just like the last one. Looking forward to the next as well.

Great book

The series remains interesting. I will continue listening to them as long as the author keeps releasing more.

Strong escalation in this latest instalment

As you would expect from a book four in a series, this is not a suitable point to join the series, particularly since you would have missed out on three highly entertaining listens in the process.

For those returning to this series once again, this is another quality instalment in the series that delivers a strong story in it's own right, while also working well to progress the overall arc of the series itself with significant changes that push the story on nicely.

The narrator again delivers another entertaining performance with their narration that helps to draw the listener into the book even more.

Overall, this book was a very enjoyable listen and the pacing was so good that I didn't even notice it was almost a third longer than book three until looking at the entry for it on this site.

Great series

I really enjoy the Axe Druid series and I look forward to the next book.