Oath of Vengeance

Scion's Journey, Book 1

By: Dave Willmarth

Narrated by: Jessica Threet, Eric Jason Martin

Finn was living a good life as a blacksmith's apprentice, training hard to earn the right to become one of the Kingsguard, the elite force of one hundred knights that serve and protect the King.

He worked hard, trained hard, and often got into trouble with his best friend, Prince Galen. The two of them had been almost inseparable since they were toddlers. For Finn, life couldn't be better.

Until a force of assassins and mercenaries attacked the palace! Prince Galen and the entire royal family were murdered, along with Finn's father, the Captain of the palace guard, and his mentor, the Master Smith. One or more of the high noble families has lost patience and made their play for the throne.

Finn is forced to flee the palace, ushered to a place of safety by a loyal retainer of the royal family named MacKenzie, a dwarf who has served in the palace for nearly three hundred years. Vowing to return and wreak vengeance on those responsible for the deaths of his friends and family, Finn steps through a doorway to find himself in an entirely new world. One where magic is real, monsters of myth and legend roam the forests, and an omnipresent Guardian watches over everything he does.

Narrated in duet style.

©2024 Dave Willmarth (P)2025 Podium Audio

another amazingly fun ride by dave

voice acting was amazing. the story really different and world building top notch. I'm really looking forward to book 2 releasing on audio.

Good story, ended abruptly but not a cliffhanger

Good story. Bit different than most LitRPGs. There are two worlds link by portals that are kept secret.

The story ended abruptly at the end of a fight.

Fun story

Easy listen, fun story. What more could you ask for. Well worth the credit. Off to buy book two.

Awesome

this was really good, competent MC that strives to be better an interesting class to be honest, and some revenge story even if that's not really the focus on this book maybe later books but here it's pretty much building the foundations for revenge

Wonderfully entertaining

Dave Willmarth's book 1 of the series starts off with a bit of backstory about a kingdom ruled by a just ruler and his family that is violently overthrown with the king and, presumably, his entire family being slaughtered with only a master blacksmith's young apprentice being saved and being sent to another realm via a secret portal. The young apprentice, Vinn, is hurriedly given instructions from a mage dwarf to learn magic and become strong.

What follows is Vinn stumbling through this magical realm, barely surviving encounters from monsters and adventurers determined to end his short stay. Vinn's progression has a similar feel to it as Seth Ring's equally entertaining Titan series' Thorn MC; albeit, unfolding in different ways.

The author also introduces several supporting characters, each of which are interesting in their on right.

Both Jessica Threet and Eric Jason Martin's performances are well done but Jessica's narration of Vinn's exuberant female companion is a bit jarring due to the volume change when she speaks.

Already downloading book 2, "The Last High Lord", as I suspect others who finish book 1 will also being doing.

Great new series from an author I whom I have enjoyed many times already!

I have no dislike, I would like to continue with the series. I would also like for Mr. Willmarth to finish his "Battle born Series"!!!

Not good nor bad. Narrators only thing that kept me listening

This was an okay book. It definitely read like a Dave Wilmarth book. If you like his other books, then this may be up your ally.

But, I felt it was lacking in many areas such as character development, dialogue, and tension/drama. I think this a very Wilmarthesque, though most of books lack these.

The MC felt very vanilla with no defining characteristics and a bit overpowered.

Any dialogue that was present was mostly informational and didn’t add anything to the book, and any jokes there were fell flat.

Most of the book was the MC learning about a newish world and how it works. A bit of him blacksmithing, fighting in dungeons, and people telling him about how things work.

Majority of the characters are either mostly good or bad, no in between. The side characters are forgettable