Lilith's Shadow: Omnibus, Volume 1

By: Benjamin Medrano

Narrated by: Sarah Beth Goer

Length: 31 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

This audiobook is a collection of the first through third books of the Lilith’s Shadow series: Born a Queen, Down with the Queen, and Queen’s Move.

Lilith wasn’t meant to be a person. Created by the supervillain Shadowmind, Lilith was intended to be little more than a replacement body. Yet a rare bout of curiosity led to Lilith being allowed to be born as an individual. With Shadowmind captured and imprisoned by heroes, Lilith is able to chart her own course as she attempts to build a life for herself. Yet her life isn’t fated to be easy or safe.

With a death sentence hanging over her head and the cloud of Shadowmind’s reputation, Lilith is the target of heroes and villains alike. However, when she meets some of those superheroines who felled Shadowmind, a new emotion begins to burn within her. She never imagined that she might find love.

©2022 Benjamin Medrano (P)2022 Benjamin Medrano

Great series

I’m loving the strong heroines and the love they have for one another, protecting the innocent and life itself.


A new spin on the main character not having any social hang ups because of the way she came in to the world is really nice. Villains that are more than just the average cannon fodder or mindless destroyers of the world is great too.

The narrator is new to me but she did an amazing job with all the voices and was able to keep them straight through out the fast pace of action and witty banter.

amazing

This was super creative world building. I really enjoyed it. All the characters are well written and i appreciate most of the side characters in this series. I usually don't really care for side characters that much. Really excited see where the series goes

liked this series

Polly lesbian superheroes? sign me up! there wasn't much to complain about in the first three books and I'm glad the series came in this format.

I loved this book

This was a really different take on a hero Mc of having a super villain mother and having to discover the world herself and find herself in it

Good vs Evil (Plus some other stuff.)

So I made it to the Third book in this series hoping things would change. Hoping that the biggest faults with this story would become less blatantly obvious. However the more I read, the more the problems ended up showing. SO first I want to complain about Medrano's love of multiple perspectives. For the most part I do not mind having these multiple perspectives. I like understanding what other characters are thinking when other things are happening. However adding the perspectives of the villains and even the lesser main heroes of this book just ruins a lot of the intrigue. When I read/listen to a story I want to experience the same story the MC is experiencing. However with Medrano's style everything is played out to where their are little to no surprises. If you like this then go ahead and read this book. For people who like to be surprised and shocked, do not read this.

Spoilers!!!!!!
Now let us discuss the main problem I have with these stories. The Heroes are fricken Useless. I mean they do nothing but get destroyed by the villains. Frankly it is laughable that the villains lose every time. The heroes constantly get beaten down and their lack of any for planning leads to the torture of two heroes. Like it would be common sense to keep an eye on a hero who was clearly being targeted. However when one of their own gets attacked and her powers sealed. They just kind of leave her to her own devises. So when she inevitably get kidnapped and tortured , you are just sitting there thinking "Why are the heroes so incompetent?" I think I could have forgiven that if it was a one off thing, however it literally happens again and the heroes have no Idea. I understand that the heroes have to be reactive to be heroes, but come on!!! They have tech wizards who literally do nothing 90% of the time. Let them have gadgets that can help repel villains. Let them have an a way of detecting that their tech is being hacked. Let them have a way of keeping an eye on one another. Make it more even! Why do the villains have all of these advantages that the heroes lack? I mean when I at least think of good vs evil, Hero vs Villain. I think of a war kind of scenario where heroes typically have the upper hand due to the fact that they work together. However when you give villains all of the advantages and make the heroes so stupid and ill prepared it is hard to see them winning in anyway they do. I mean for crying out loud, the reason they save the second hero from the torture and are able to revert her back to normal is because of a villain, because apparently villains can have information networks to figure thing out. I hate to keep repeating this, but I did not see any growth when it came to the heroes becoming actually competent.

Lastly, I just want to ask why is torture so pervasive in these types of books. I don't mind reliving past traumas and the like. However sitting down and listening to a character being torture here and now, especially with how utterly pitiful the Heroes are in this story. Just makes me uncomfortable and doesn't make me want to continue. I think this story would have been more interesting if the MC would have been Blooming Orchid after her transformation. Having to live with the changes that were made to her body due to her lack of skill. Instead of a synthesized human who literally for the first two books does nothing but stand there a cower. I hate MCs who are so useless that they do nothing to help their friends. Her power is boring and isn't deserving of a MC role in the type of book Medrano has written. She would have been better suited for a villain role with her current power. So yeah those are the main reasons I have given this book the rating I have.

Just finished chapter 23...

One thing to say... EMOTE DAMN IT! Look the dialogue is a bit awkward and started but honestly that didn't contract from my enjoyment until this chapter and what should be high stress high stakes is just so clinical it's maddening