Born a Queen

Lilith's Shadow, Book 1

By: Benjamin Medrano

Narrated by: Sarah Beth Goer

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

For some, hopes, dreams, and ambitions come easily. Not so much for Lilith.

Created by one of the most feared supervillains, Shadowmind, she has no past of her own and only a passing familiarity with the world as it is. With a death sentence hanging over her head due to who created her and how, she escaped into the world to see and explore, and perhaps find a meaning to her life. There, she encounters heroes and villains alike, including those who brought her maker to justice.

Gina and Rachel are superheroines in San Francisco, and freak chance brings them into contact with Lilith. As they interact, the three grow to be friends...but with villains after them, who knows what the future will bring?

©2017 Benjamin Paul Medrano (P)2017 Benjamin Paul Medrano

wow just wow

I have to admit i was very hesitant to start this series as i love everything ive ever read from benjamin medrano. However i hate myself for not starting this earlier this is a truly a masterpiece of a universe you have created and i deeply look forward to every book forward. Thank you so much. anyone who is hesitating dont listen and love it. If lesbian romance and badassery isnt your thing then move along this isnt the masterpiece you are looking for.

Polyamory and comics

As a comic nerd there are many tropes that get over used, this book seemed to play with all of them a little. The narration is robotic, and while I get that the protagonist might have an excuse for that, everyone else was lacking significant depth. With their no killing or crippling rule it removes most of the tension and uncertainty of their heroic encounters ( heroes often use it, villains rarely do that's what makes them villains). Points for the poly resolution to the love triangle, no one ever uses that and it's a refreshing change to what most media portray as the biggest conflicts in fiction, curious to see what happens if that representation turns out to be positive or a source of additional conflict ( which in real poly triads happens sometimes). Glad to see queer representation without it being a stereotype in the process.

like the story... most characters are too simple.

I really liked the story, the narrator has workable distinctive voices. What I find annoying is that most characters have being very simple such as most males come in three flavors evil stupid, good stupid and stupidly irritating. Hoping to see the next one.

Above average, has potential.

I had to adjust to the narrator. She's not the best, but far from the worst also. Once I did adjust, I was properly immersed into the story.

I read so many books about powerful characters where they frustratingly display their power so little. It leaves you feeling disappointed and unfulfilled. This was not one of those books, so kudos to the author for that.

Based on this book and reviews I've read for his other books, I've concluded this author is obsessed with lesbians, so if you're reading this review after reading his other books, be prepared for more lesbians. For what it's worth, in this story I enjoyed the lesbian element.

I look forward to listening to the next book. I probably wouldn't have bought this book if i had known the remaining were not out yet. I hate waiting for new books in a series. Also, this book could have been a bit longer with more progression.

Magic

Benjamin Medrano has an amazing talent for world building, in addition to making strong lead characters that are interesting and fascinating- when coupled with Sara Beth Goers awesome voice acting giving every character their own unique voice you get something magic to listen to.

A good story with a nice voice that tells it.

I don't listen to a lot of audible books, but I wanted to support the author more. what wasn't my surprise when I really liked Sarah's voice and the story. She gave even more emotion and depths to the characters!

Another good story by Benjamin!

As usual, I'm already looking for the sequel to this 1st book in the series. Thanks for all the captivating stories, adventures, and characters, Benjamin!
-Magon

Shaky butt Promising

I've read other books by this author and I'm tempted to say he is not a good writer, but that would be doing him a tremendous disservice. He has great story ideas and a good mind for organizing the plot. Where he lacks is in his writing of the characters. His dialogue is always awkward and the character reactions are sometimes odd. This book, despite being rewritten, was apparently one of his earlier works and these flaws really shine through. There were also some blatant contradictions in the world building that confused me a little and I was surprised the author or his editor would let them go. All the same, this book was enjoyable and the series has promise. I know the author is capable of better work, so I will definitely continue on to the next book in this series. I just hope that at some point he gets a hang of character interactions as they are the engine of any good story.

Great read

I loved this story, Lillith makes for a interesting and very likeable MC, I hope to see a lot more books in this series come out soon, keep up the high quality writing.

Fairly entertaining

The story wasn't bad, and the characters, mostly, were decent. The concept does present quite a few story possibilities, and I was fairly entertained. I'd been reading lesbian romance lately, because I love the character depth and development I tend to find in them, and the questions posed by the romantic trio in this novel were fun to explore with them. Is this a real connection? Or is it just super powers? I thought those questions could have been pursued a bit more, but I think it'll come out in the next novel, in more detail. The narrator wasn't bad, and I hope she does Book 2, for continuity, but I felt that some of her dialog was a bit stiff...admittedly, that may have been just how it was written, but some of it just didn't feel smooth or natural. She did a good job making the characters sound distinct, though, and the non-dialog was flawless. I was a little irritated with how the "heroes" invaded the Super Villainess lair in the Arctic (I think it was the Arctic) without so much as a letter of marque from someone with authority to give them any semblance of legitimacy to rend and destroy, proceeded to beat on a helpless (in that situation, since her powers weren't effective) handicapped woman, and then essentially raped her mind, trying to get what they wanted out of her. There was some vague justification about atrocities she'd committed in the past, but by their own admission, she hadn't even been active for months. From the reader perspective, it hadn't felt like she'd even done anything yet. Fortunately, there wasn't a crap-ton of this behavior all through the book, and I ended up enjoying listening to the story, through to the end. The villains were properly scary and amoral, and the romance was interesting. I'll admit, I'm a bit of an anti-statist, and people just rolling in and doing what they want just because they think they are the "heroes" bothers me. So, the way the story unfolded rankled a bit, for a while. BUT, that being said, I was intrigued by the possibilities, and I will be picking up Book 2. :)