Rise of the Ranger

The Echoes Saga, Book 1

By: Philip C. Quaintrell

Narrated by: Steven Brand

Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

300,000 Copies Sold Worldwide

The Echoes of Fate, a Prophecy Uttered Unto the World a Thousand Years Ago, Cannot Be Denied....

Mankind has lorded over the land of Illian for a thousand years, building on the ruins left by the elves, as if it were their birthright. A thousand years is a long time for an immortal race to see the truth of things, a truth that has remained unsaid for a millennium - elves are superior. They are faster, stronger, and connected to the magical realm in a way that man could never grasp. Illian should belong to them. 

Unaware of the shadow that looms in the east, the six kingdoms of man are fractured, unallied, and clawing at each other's gates for more power.

This isn't just war set to ravage the land, but a slaughter - the world of man cannot hope to survive.

Thrown into the heart of this war is a man known by many names; an Outlander of the wilds, an assassin, a ranger. Asher was born a thousand years ago, to a life he doesn't remember. Forty years of brutal training and killing for money has beaten the earliest years of his life away, leaving his ties to the oldest of evils a mystery to all....

Rise of The Ranger Launches an Unmissable Epic Fantasy Series.

©2018 Podium Publishing; 2017 Philip C. Quaintrell

Worth it

I loved the story. The writing is great. The only issue I had was with the narration. I could not tell which character was talking. In a conversation between two people, you can normally tell who it is because the narrator will usually have different voices for the characters but with this, it’s the same voice, and it becomes hard telling who is saying what.

Apart from that, good book worth listening to.

Fantastic story, lackluster narration

The story is great. The narrator has a pleasant voice, but never changes it for the many and varied characters. Most professional narrators are so good at subtle changes between characters that you don't have to pay much attention to who it said is speaking. This one, you have to pay close attention at every single dialogue because every man and woman sounds exactly the same. It's a blasphemy to have such a wonderful book turned into a confused jumble by a narrator who should only be narrating nonfiction.

Hfofate to say it, but read the book instead

I think I liked this. But, I should have taken heed of other's reviews. Steven Brand has the perfect voice for this story, but 2/3 of the content was lost on me! Could not tell who was saying what. The story changed to a different POV, and 3 minutes would have gone by before I understood this. I think this could have been "one of the greats", but I was way too confused about whom was speaking, where they were, and could barely keep track of the main storyline!
I think it could've been easier to follow had a companion guide been given. Having said this, I am willing to give the next book a try. And, I do hope Mr Brand will narrarate. Maybe the book will have the kinks worked out!?,

Brand has a train to catch

Speed reading with no nuances, no character differentiation , no tonal graduation, too boring, couldn’t finish

Great Story

The story is woven to keep the reader engaged and entertained. I am going to purchase the next book in the series .

One of my new favorite books (not for teens)

Echoes of Fate, a book series by Philip C. Quaintrell, is a very engrossing story. At first I wasn’t sure I would like it because the story follows many different lead characters, all with weird sounding names. I didn’t think I would be able to follow the many different story lines. However, it was not long before the stories intertwined, making it easier and much more enjoyable to follow.

My favorite aspect about this story is the path for redemption that two of the characters – Asher, the main character, and Galanor – are on. Each of these characters has had a tumultuous past. Whereas Asher has already turned from his old life as an assassin when you first meet him, Galanor is conflicted between duty, which calls him to perform unsavory actions, and his desire to be a good person. While you get to see Galanor in the before-and-after stages of his path to redemption, you meet Asher after he has turned away from the life of an assassin. However, trusting and friendship are two things foreign to Asher, and it is fun to watch his relationship with the characters develop as he struggles to live life as a better person while carrying the guilt of his past life.

Due to the content of this series, I would say it is rated R. There is intermittent use of the F-word and some fairly graphic violence (at least by my standards). However, it is the scenes in which the Darkakin torture/rape the queen of the elves that is primarily responsible for my rating the book as R. It is hard to describe these scenes; they are not graphic but there is enough description and allusions to what is going on that it is bothersome. While this did not stop me from reading the book (as you can easily skip those scenes), it does make me hesitant to recommend it to anyone but a mature audience.

Note: I continued reading the book despite the scenes with the Darkakin because I am enjoying (I’m on the last book) the path to redemption of Asher and Galanor. I also enjoy the internal struggle of the other characters who, after experiencing horrendous torture or loss, fight to retain their virtues and moral beliefs. The characters in this book experience very real, human emotions. You see them struggle to be the people they want to be despite the torture they’ve experienced or the losses they have endured. For that reason alone, the book is worth reading as you see that no matter how horrible life can get, you should always strive to be the better person, even if you don’t always succeed.

P.S. I will be adding this to my favorite books for adults.

A nice story, but not a fan of the narrator

The difficulty with a mosaic story set in a fantasy world is often the pace of introduction of new characters, locations and names of items. Here we see/hear such a story. It is incredibly difficult to follow in the beginning, but even later on in the story. I found it very hard to get my bearings and understand the narrative. This is in part due to the narrator, as he almost uses no inflections and/or change in pitch between characters. The voice itself is deep and pleasant to listen too, but often I lose who is talking. Next to this I think the story is nice, but the world itself is quite 1 dimensional and lacks the diversity and depth you might expect from a fully newly crafted world. I will give the author and narrator another try in the second part, but my expectations are low.

Book: 4 stars | Narration: 1 star

Rise of the Ranger is a better than average, fantastical novel. The characters are interesting, its plot is entertaining, and the writing is good. Steven Bland’s narration, however, is colorless, monotonous, and soporific. Even though it’s a 4-star book, his performance is the reason why this AudioBook is worthy of only 2-stars.
Note: I felt the same way about Steven Bland’s performance of Blood Song, author Anthony Ryan’s wonderful debut novel. The audio version of a great book deserves to be represented properly by great narration.

Geralt of Rivera goes to Middle Earth

I pick this book on a whim because I just finished reading the stomlight archives & wheel of Time and damn this book surprised me with how many races their are in this world and I honestly missed the whole LOTR feel and this book delivered thanks to the author and narrator for doing an awesome job I shall move on too next book.

kicking myself for not listening to it earlier

I love the entire concept, forever intriguing and immersive looking forward to the next in the series

Great book

Really enjoyed this book, straight on to the next one. good narration. Highly recommend this book

Brilliant

exciting ,had to keep listening, stayed up all night in anticipation . new and different characters.

Fantastic fantasy story

This book kept me interested from the very first chapter,the story is riviting with a variety of strong characters, mostly elves and a few humans,dragons and wizards all the things I love about a fantasy story, the pace is fast and I could not stop listioning to the story,I loved everything about Asher,such a dynamic human with a dark past that gets explained and understood as the book flows, to be honest at first I did not like the narrator Steven Brand but grew to understand his way of telling the story without useing differnt accents for the various characters,in the end I enjoyed the way he handled the story and I am now listioning to the second part which has started brilliant straight away

Good, but Not For Me

I found this book to be quite difficult to follow: So many names, difficult to understand at times leaving me a little adrift. Although I managed to get into it a long way in and finished the book, I found it too arduous to follow on.

Too fast, no connection.

Read far too quickly, fleetingly and without thought or feeling for the actual text. Unable to gain a connection as ever sentence is expressed in the same serious unthoughtful monotone.

Good story but poor narration

Unable to finish this story due to poor narration eg male and female characters have the same tone of voice - gets quite boring after a while

Brilliant Book

Where does Rise of the Ranger rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is the best book of this genre I have read so far.

What did you like best about this story?

Everything. The story, the heroes, the villains and the unlikely friendships. Loved every page.

Which character – as performed by Steven Brand – was your favourite?

Every character had its own strength. The Elves, The Mages, The Assassins, The Heroes, The Merfolk (very interesting) The dragons so beautifully described. The goodies the baddies, everything was excellent.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

Never bored for a second listening to this book. Brilliant action packed story with emotional content.

GOOD BOOK

I have over 300 audible titles and I have to say that the narration and performance of this book is one of the best I've heard. It's a compelling universe with a great story and awesome characters

Slow start but does build and improve

Struggled at first performance seemed clipped but this maybe wrting style. Improves with time. Quite a good range of characters and huge plot but nothing outstanding. This is a bit of an also ran fantasy so for but could grow on me. Fight scenes not great or well thought and fireing arrows is alays a poor sign. Wont rush for book 2 but will probably get round to it.

Great Book - the new Sanderson

Great book straight onto book two, only problem is book three not yet on the site - If you like Sanderson you will love this