Ordination

The Paladin Trilogy, Book 1

By: Daniel M. Ford

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

For generations, warlords fought bitterly for dominance in a land without a king, leaving a fractured, war-torn country plagued by thieves, slavers, and the servants of dark gods and darker magic.

Allystaire Coldbourne travels a treacherous path toward his Ordination as a holy knight of legend, a Paladin, a savior of the people. But to fulfill this role, he - and the unexpected allies he finds along the way - must face the demonic, sorcerous evil that stalks the land, the wrath of gods and men, and his own dark past.

©2016 Daniel M. Ford (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Great writing with a simple story.

The story of Ordination is classical, as in this is fable level of classical, with few truly original elements. Yet you could be forgiven for forgetting this with the writing. Archetypical characters are given depth and nuance without breaking the mold, and even when you can see what's coming from a mile away, you still want to read on. Still, my one major complaint is that this is an unsatisfying book 1 if only for an abrupt ending. I still recommend and plan to read the rest. Also Michael Kramer could read the yellow pages and and his wife the White Pages and I'd listen to both.

Highly recommended, but I might wait for book 2 as to not have to deal with that sudden end!

NOT fantasy. Religion.

Michael Kramer is the only reason I've listened as long as I did.
This is NOT a fantasy book. This is about religion and only about religion. The "hero" got converted from atheist to believer by an all powerful goddess that "he could not refuse if he had wanted to". Way to go... Anyway, he becomes basically a fanatic self-righteous preacher who starts a religion and has to fight against the existing religious groups that are not happy about the new power in town. From being an independent if somewhat arrogant knight he turns into this fanatic that keeps going on and on and on about said goddess, constantly wondering about what she thinks, what she wants him to do etc, that I've been wondering how he's able to still get up and pi*s without asking her first if that's OK with her. The story is not even actually interesting. At one point I thought "oh here we go, now we might get somewhere with this" but nooooooo! Back to preaching, building temples, praying and worshiping within a few sentences. Oh hell!

Hang in there for a GREAT ADVENTURE!

Ok- right away let me say that any low star or bad review must ONLY of come from impatience!!! No true fantasy lover could give this book less than 4 1/2 starzzz! This book was AWESOME! The first chapters (1-6/7) were admittedly “slow” and I even had begun to think “ugh, ok but boring” as I couldn’t yet really connect to the characters or storyline. However, like other GREAT novels, once the foundation of this book is established...wow! I would compare it to Melissa McPhail’s A Pattern of Shadow & Light series or even Brandon Sanderson’s Various series... (all of which are worth every moment)
This is not the typical coming of age fantasy although it has the goods that matter; sorcery & magic, war, gods, good vs evil all set in a medieval type world with dwarves, knights, & lords as well.
The main character is Alistar, a knight whose given up fighting for a selfish Baron. Like the other territories with overlords, the Brain hopes to continue fighting (a never ending war) hopes to become king (as do his opponents). Without thought to the lives wasted and/or used to accomplish these goals. Well, Alistar has had enough and leaves. His journey had no destination until he started recognizing “the regular folk” suffering, and for reasons he doesn’t understand himself, he begins helping and fighting for the little people (for lack of a better term & not to give away whole plot). He is rewarded for this by a goddess and I will say no more for spoiling the storyline! This is a GREAT listen and I Am downloading the 2nd book as I type this lol. I’m always looking for great listens in the fantasy genre so please send me your recommendations! I listed a couple of my own above and will add authors Anthony Ryan (both his series), David Hair (mageborn series ROCKS), Jim Butcher Codex Alera & Cinder spyres series. Ooh also The daughter of the forest series, and author Brent Weeks are incredible, along with Wheel of Time by the late great master Robert Jordan! A shoutout to what was my 1st & favorite foray into the
SCI-FI fantasy genre; that is Dan Simmons Olympos & Illium!

Starts off strong, then meanders

The story starts off strong, then meanders, then loses all focus.

Michael Kramer is top notch as always, idk what the other reviewer meant, but Michael is one of the finest narrators of our time

Ends on a cliffhanger

Overall, I enjoyed the book until the end.
There are some editing and continuity errors and it's certainly not a tightly plotted work,but things generally move along without too much dragging. The best part of the book for me was the main character, who's generally fun to ride along with (and some of the supporting characters grew on me as well).
There's some squick as a 10 year old girl is one of the faces of the Goddess (who always appears in the nude and is the "epitome of feminine beauty", though thankfully there's no explicit description of said beauty).
The thing that really killed my feelings for the book was it ending on a cliffhanger. I know it's common for some series writers to do this but it's one of my pet peeves. I loved the characters enough to want to go on more adventures with them, but an author I can't trust to finish a story is hard to overcome.

give it a chance

the first 6 chapters were kimd of slow and a little boring but once the characters were built I was totally invested and couldn't stop listening. i can't wait for the second book.

Really really good.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a book as much as I enjoyed this. Worth the credit and every minute spent listening to it.

BEST STORY IN A LONG TIME!

This was by far one of, if not, the best I've ever heard. I am sooooo ready for the second book it has me wanting more and wanting more....well done!

In line with the greats

if you like Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson Patrick rothfuss, and Kel Kade this is another great series that you'll want to tell others about

Michael Kramer is the reason I picked this book..

I am a huge Brandon Sanderson, James Islington and WOT. I found this book because of Micheal Kramer narrated it and was hoping it might be on par with these other books It wasnt. This book was not a Sanderson level book. I would give it a C. It seemed like it never really went anywhere. I wont be listening to book 2.

Vibrant, rich and developing.

What did you like most about Ordination?

Allystaire and Idgen Marte developing relationship. Idgen Martes character in general is entertaining and interesting.

What did you like best about this story?

The contrasts between the characters ideology and the way in which Allystaire is always battling himself in his decision making, this makes him feel human which also allows you to relate to him.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Mol flipping out when Allystaire bought the slaves, it felt like such a genuine reaction. This scene really brought out each character's traits to me and allowed me to think about the storytelling in a genuinely different way.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The book portrays each character very well and each actions that the characters take is well thought out and shows great planning when it comes to world development, the scene that moved me most was Idgen Marte standing in the doorway in just a shirt and her hair down, this felt like the moment that showed Idgen Marte's developing personality and comfort around Allystaire.

Any additional comments?

I feel the book really plays with your imagination and makes you ask questions of yourself which challenge your way thinking and show others in an understandable way.

Brilliant 👍

Definitely the greatest Paladin story that I've ever read and I've read quite a lot.

Michael Kramer the guy you want reading your book!

I can absolutely guarantee you I'll buy any audio book read by Michael Kramer. His voice was born for story telling as it is like the audio equivalent of the first sip of a perfect cup of tea.

This story, though a tad preachy at first was entertaining and captivating. Very different from the cookie cutter fantasy I'm used to. The characters feel real without any forced crude-ness to explain things like battleworn or broken. Thoroughly enjoyable!

yup yup yup

Everything that I want in a fantasy book.

Kramer does it again as the narrator.

Awful Narrator; depressing monotone.

NOTE: I cannot comment on the story, as the narration was so depressing and lack luster, that I had to delete the title. Narrator sounds so serious and dark, would be better for some scientific book, reading facts, than narrate a story of fantasy.

I may be spoiled by Nick Podhel, Simon Vance or Sean Runette.

I love fantasy books, the summary looked like my kinda tale, but could not stomach the dreary narration. Do not be silly like me and buy before listening to the sample!

Exciting start, my own fault

I should have looked up the word ‘paladin’ in a dictionary before buying this book. I loved the start, Alaistair is a fantastic heroic style character, well written and well performed, but as soon as he’s visited by the goddess and no longer uses his own morals, it totally lost its appeal for me. If you look up the word paladin first and it works for you then it’ll be well worth a listen as it’s gripping and exciting.

Excellent

This popped up in my recommended list and I gave it a go! Great book and as usual Kramer knocks it out of the park with narration!

Disney sadistic world.

well pirates are nice slavers not human and slaves adorable.
not to mention despicable lords and priests.
welcome to twenty century Disney take on the world of sadistic fantasy.
it looks like all crimes, sadistic bullying and vigilante trespassings are ok, as long as it's on par with the author world's point of view.

so lefty, so predictable.

as for the writing and storytelling itself, well it's just as blunt, pompous and grandiloquent as the main character itself.

Overall very enjoyable story but with 1 annoyance

Igdan Marte is a great name if you want to annoy the hell out of anyone listening to the story. Kramer is a fantastic narrator but it only took about 8 hours of hearing Igdan Marte repeated almost non-stop to really,really get on my nerves.

The story is good but oh boy did I almost start praying for Kramer to just take the text in his own hands and start calling her Igdan or Marte instead of both.

Story itself is good but there's not much else to say. Audiobook format probably made the book far less pleasant than it should be because of that one damn name.

Ordination

This was a Brilliant story I look forward to listening to the rest. I hope the remaining 2 are just as good