Portal World

By: J.L. Ender

Narrated by: Phil Blechman

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

A mysterious world is discovered with a massive, miles-wide pit torn through one continent. The planet is strewn with the remains of a fallen civilization. What happened to the locals, and what were they digging for so desperately? One young intern is about to find out....

When the expedition sent to explore inside the Pit meets with disaster, Prometheus Jones finds himself impossibly stranded on another, even stranger world, a mysterious planet in an altogether different part of the galaxy.

Struggling to find his crew, his lost sister, and his way home, Prometheus must unlock the mysteries of the pit before he finds himself so far from home, there may be no way back....

©2018 J.L. Ender (P)2018 Crimson Pulse Media LLC

Glass spiders and Samurai Salamanders

Portal world is a fine book for Young Adults. It can be appreciated by adults as well, but I can see this was skewered towards a younger audience. There is no swearing, and the violence is minimized. I think that Ender founda good balance between keeping things clean and appropriate for all ages.

The book centers on Theus, which is short for Prometheus, who is "interning" on a vessell that has a shady captain who takes them to Pit World which is off limits and not to be explored. The crew doesn't know this, and as they progress the end up ecounters an army of deadly giant spiders who bites turn you to glass. The entire party split up as they flee and Theus is seperated from his sister. As he searches for her he finds himself on another alien world. Turns out the Pit World is a gateway that can take you practically anywhere or even anywhen. When his sister is kidnapped by humaoid toads he has to take some drastic measures to get her back.

The book is filled with all kinds of fun characters from a humanoid Salamander who is a Ronin (a masterless Samurai) to a robot that looks like some old time Earth Armor from te middle ages. Ender takes you across different places as Theus seeks his sister, and introduces you to numerous races and characters. He clearly had fun writing this.
The only downside for me was the narration. I don't know what it was but there was something about his voice that just irritated me. I generally work past it if the narrator can pull off some stunning vocal tricks, but I was not impressed with the voices that he used for all the characters. They just didn't play all that well. Sorry, that did costs some stars because I would have really enjoyed this book all the more if I didn't struggle with listening to him beat up the vocalizations. I'm not saying that Phil Blechman was horrible, but he isn't a A level narrator. Maybe a level B, but that's it. No higher.

I will certainly be looking for the sequel, as we leave off with a betrayal and an unfulfilled quest. The party is split up and Theus fnds himself back home in a way that he never expected. I just hope that Ender types fast!

Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

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