Rune Song

By: Devin Hanson

Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price

Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

Andrew Condign has gone to the deserts of Nas Shahr in the hopes of heading off a war. The dragons of the deep desert are attacking towns and villages, stirred to violence by some unknown agent. The ancient scourge of the Incantors has risen once more, corrupted alchemists with a dark secret. 

Through all this, Andrew must discover what it means to be a Dragon Speaker while fighting for his life. His journey into the desert gets more perilous the further he travels and only the growing power of the Rune Song can save him.

©2016 Devin Hanson (P)2019 Devin Hanson

Interesting and well written, but not to my taste

First, the disclaimer.
I received a free copy of this audiobook and am leaving an honest review of my own volition.

Now, as with the previous book, I really struggled to finish and struggled even more to fairly rate this book.

But on account of the issues being a matter of taste rather than quality, I'm rating it much higher than my personal enjoyment would suggest. 

As is my wont, let me start with the narrator. 

Rhett Samuel Price has an impressively deep voice that is a pleasure to listen to. He has a good selection of voices and excellent control of vocal inflections. 

Unfortunately, his tempo remains flat throughout and he does suffer from a problem that is almost universal among very deep-voiced men: the inability to create believable feminine voices. 

Now, the story and prose. 

The book is well written, with powerful prose and good descriptions. The narrative is well presented and mostly free of errors and major plot holes. 

As with the first book, I really couldn't connect with any of the characters. I think in the end they just didn't feel real to me.

I found the additional POVs in this book distracting and unnecessary. They didn't seem to add anything to the story, but rather distracted my attention from what was happening with the main character.

Also, can we talk about figurative speech for a moment?

I normally don't mind a bit of modernism in speech in fantasy novels, so long as I can see at least a bit of sense in it.

For example, the phrase "Come at me," that Phil Tucker uses so frequently, while a touch jarring, isn't bad. I can see where such a phrase would come from. But some of the phrases used in this book were just too much. There were several, with the worst of the bunch being, "the ball was in his court."

I mean, seriously? That's an obvious basketball (or possibly tennis) reference. In a fantasy novel. In which said sport does not exist and there is no explanation as to how such a phrase could have come into being.

Apart from that, however, there are some interesting developments herein, both in terms of plot and world building. The technology of the new civilization (I'm not even going to try and spell the name) is a fascinating counter point to the mostly medieval technology of the culture we were introduced to in the first book.

If there is a clash between those two cultures in future books I'm sure it will make for a fascinating contrast.

However, let's talk about the magic system for a minute.

Okay, I'm going to assume you've read the first book so this is not a spoiler. All magic comes from dragons (more or less), in the form of both runes and dragon gas.

I think it's a little silly, but it's not as though it's new idea. I can get behind it.

So the shapes of the runes themselves are a source of power. Okay. And words spoken in the rune language can be given power by the Dragon gas or a Flux. Okay, that all makes sense.

But what about the "sayings"? Let's overlook the silliness of the term and consider what they are, exactly. Near as I can tell, a saying is nothing more than speaking a series of runes in sequence to create composite effects.

It's basically a spell.

So why are they so difficult to create? It seems really straightforward to me.

Of course, the sayings also don't seem to conform to the usual rules about dragon gas consumption. So I can't help wondering, am I just missing something? Is this something that hasn't been explained yet? Or is it an inconsistency?

Now for the ending. 

The author wrote a solid ending that tied things together and closed out the narrative nicely, while leaving a wide-open hook to the next book.

And then continued on to pursue that hook in a way that felt rushed and overly simplistic. I really can't help thinking that last plot line should have been a whole book unto itself instead of tacked onto the end of this one.

In the end, though there are a few interesting things that have piqued my curiosity, it isn't enough for me to continue the series.

However, let me reiterate, it is not that the story is bad or poorly written. It is actually very well written. The writing style and characters are simply not to my taste.

2 people found this helpful

lots of fun

had a great time reading this book and even more fun with audiobook version. the narrator did a great job with the names of places and rune words was impressive.

1 person found this helpful

a good series so far

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I thought this was a good follow up to book 1. In fact, I would definitely suggest listening/reading book 1 before digging into this one. I think you need that background in order to fully enjoy this book. I don't think it's too complex that you couldn't figure things out, but I think you'll enjoy this more with the first book in your brain already. I would definitely be open to more in this series.

1 person found this helpful

Amazing

Amazing is the only way to put it. This book was amazing and well worth the time, I will definitely be getting the rest of the series when they are released. I was lucky enough to receive this book free of charge in return for an unbiased review but for everyone else I suggest that you buy this book immediately. You will not be disappointed.

1 person found this helpful

Fantastic, can't wait for book 3!

I love this genre and this one is well written and simply a lot of fun to listen to. I will say that this is geared to a young adult/adult audience. For the parents out there checking reviews of I were to rate this like a movie it would be PG 13 to R due to graphic violence and some sexual content. This book picks up were book 1 left off and offers lots of action and fight scenes. I personally really enjoyed the narrator he has a great deep and rich voice and does a great job with the portrayal of the different characters. I would definitely recommend this series to those who love fantasy dragon books.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

1 person found this helpful

I'm hooked!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I love this series so far and can't wait to see where it goes and the audio performance of this book is amazing and a lot better than the previous book (even though that reading was still amazing) I can't wait to hear more of this series and see the future work of both the narrator and writer!

1 person found this helpful

Tiny gods!

Once again, another spectacular book written by Devin and performance by Rhett! I can't get enough of these books! I can't wait for the rest! Dragons and some of my favorite creatures! Andrew really grew a lot in power in this book, and mesmerized me with everything that happened! I love the creativity and imagination of Mr Hanson, and the way Mr. Price is able to portray these characters is outstanding!

1 person found this helpful

extremely disappointed

I was very excited to read this, but it was just boring. It went from a coming of age and being special to god mode plus private unpaid army who Apparently doesn't need to eat or a place to live. I just couldn't stand all the plot holes. Also the magic combat is boring.

1 person found this helpful

The Excellent Fantasy Continues!

This series is set in a world of magic and dragons. I highly recommend listening to book one first. As a dragon speaker, Andrew has the help of his dragon friend, Ava and his friend Jules. With their help, Andrew develops his alchemy skills further and hopes to stop a war between dragons and humans. Excellent narration by Rhett Samuel Price. Perfect voice for the dragons!

1 person found this helpful

Lovely

A lovely fantasy story about dragons and a lot of other things it was very well written and very interesting the narrator was great and overall it was a fantastic story to listen to

1 person found this helpful