Nightblade

By: Ryan Kirk

Narrated by: Andrew Tell

Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Ryuu is a boy orphaned by violence at a young age. Found by a wandering warrior, he learns he may have more strength than he ever imagined possible.

A quiet child, Moriko is forced into a monastic system she despises. Torn from her family and the forest she grew up in, she must fight to learn the skills she'll need to survive her tutelage under the realm's most dangerous assassin.

Young, beautiful, and broke, Takako is sold to pay for her father's debts. Thrust into a world she doesn't understand and battles she didn't ask for, she must decide where her loyalties lie.

When their lives crash together in a kingdom on the brink of war, the decisions they make will change both their lives and their kingdom forever.

If they can stay alive.

©2015 Ryan Kirk (P)2015 Ryan Kirk

The return of a power in the people

What made the experience of listening to Nightblade the most enjoyable?

He does subtle differences for a few characters, but this story doesn't seem to have as much dialog as it does thinking by the characters. Before I knew it, I thought there were notable differences for the characters, even when doing a drunk speaking. The chapters are set in each characters POV so it's easy to differentiate who's who.

What about Andrew Tell’s performance did you like?

This is the first for me listening to Ryan as a narrator. Ryan's work is clear and easy to understand as a narrator. The audio is clean and smooth. There were no distractions from his voice as he told the story. Ryan started to become the voice of the story and characters for me, long before half way.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The world has those that are strong with a blade yet have a strong honor and restraints on themselves. A sort of with power comes great responsibility, and consequences when it's used. Then there is the opposite of the mindless cruelty and abuse of power and revenge. The book did have me thinking on how peace would be nice to have as the characters spoke their thoughts, and some listened to what was said.

Any additional comments?

I'd say the story is 3.5 Stars.I found that I rather enjoyed the story here. There were some slow moments in the beginning but the story finished strong. I look forward to continuing the series.

There's not much dialog early in the book. Feels as though thoughts and telling of the world through events the characters live through. We start with a prologue. I could go either way on this, keep or not. It's here as a catcher to draw you into the story. I wondered for a good bit of the book when we would learn where it was from. I think I did finally place it, but it wasn't referenced in the same manner as where I thought it fit. As we get into the book and meet our characters, I felt like there was over explaining of family and family history. My mind started wondering in these moments, which is like skimming when reading. But as the book moved on, this became less and less and we got more of the current events and worries.There is a strong sense of Oriental influence in this story from the dress to the manner of descriptions by characters to the honor of sword battle. I loved this feel to the book.

*This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com, at my request.

Better than Most Sword-slingers

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Oh yes..Any who are a fan of B.Weeks' Assassin trilogy should love this.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Nightblade?

When Takako forgave (in a fashion) her father for selling her into the sex trade.

Which scene was your favorite?

Ryu and Shigeru at the waterfall...Their skillfull (or skill-less in ryu's case) dives were a direct representation of their skills with a blade.

Any additional comments?

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

Good book but but won't get next in the series.

The Story was fun but the reader was kind of painful. He made every character sound whiny or that they had to go to the bathroom... really badly.

It was ok.

The narrator was flat with odd inflections at times, and the writing contained a lot of redundancies. The qausi-Asian setting was cool and the characters were likable. overall the book is good but not great.

I liked it, who knows if you will

the writing was quick and to the point, which was a nice change of pace for me. the story was entertaining from start to finish and I will be reading the rest of the series. narration was alright, could have been better but nonetheless still good.

better than jedi

hopeful of compitent director and producers to bring the characters and story to the big screen. I really enjoyed this tale cycles

Great content

The story is so great! i wass so lost in the multiple character quest to evolve. Every character had a story with meaning. i really enjoyed the story.
L

Great listen

I would say it was worth it well done felt like I was in the story!

good book

At first I didn't know if I would like this narrator. turndown out pretty good.

I'm a martial artist

I liked the honor of the true artists in this book. It made me reminist a bit.