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Ancient Ruins  By  cover art

Ancient Ruins

By: Benjamin Medrano
Narrated by: Gabriella Cavallero
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Publisher's summary

Sistina awakened after millennia of dormancy, her memories in tatters and born anew. Residing in the ruins of an ancient city, she finds herself drawn into a war between two elven nations and the slaver kingdom of Kelvanis when she rescues a princess from slavery.

With her domain containing hints of forgotten knowledge, Sistina becomes a dungeon, stronghold, and source of hope all at once. And perhaps, just perhaps, she could finally find love in her new life.

This is a dark fantasy novel suitable for adults.

©2017 Benjamin Medrano (P)2017 Benjamin Medrano

What listeners say about Ancient Ruins

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Great premise - Rapey and Unlikable POV characters

This concept has phenomenal potential, however that potential was squandered into mediocrity due to the amount of time the reader spends reading through boring, offensive, villainous POV characters. Weak authors want to ensure that you passionately dislike the antagonists so fall on the tasteless writer's crutch of making these characters offensively rapey. There are two problems with this. The first of which is that I dislike the author for subjecting me to this equally as much as I dislike the antagonists. The latter is that a reader should like the antagonists, but the reader absolutely MUST like every POV character - otherwise those sections are offensive, boring slogs.

I will say that while the author only seems to have 1 voice for all his characters, he adeptly sidesteps the issue by keeping our main protagonist mostly speechless and wrapped with a veil of mystery. However, by the 2nd book the communication disconnect between our protagonist and other characters ceases to be charming. All the wonderful nonverbal communication that brought life to these interactions is replaced by elementary writing such as the commonly used cringe-worthy phrase from this book: "Words hard."

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not for me at all...

The story started well and I really love the main character. But almost every other chapter is about Slavers capturing, enslaving and brainwashing women. The salve brand makes it impossible for these women to even resist commands. It's mentioned at one point that most women enslaved are given to the Orcs for sex (the reason wasn't stated). From the start I knew that rape was a part of this book but the fact that hundreds of women are enslaved and raped senselessly was something I did not expect.

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34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good, but .... yea... lesbians everywhere ...

First let me say i do not intend to keep this book. In fact as soon as i'm done with this review i plan on returning it for the credit. This is not because i think its trash, no it is a well written book. But, because i don't want it in my library, or to keep it. Just that simple.

I will break this review into Pros and Cons.

Pros
- Fascinating characters
- Intriguing and deep history and world building
- Mana based magic system that was and is really cool!
- Good bad guy writing and good guy writing (usually you only find one or the other).

Cons
- Literally every character in this book is a lesbian, and all the males are horny bastards or window dressing. Including the celibate nuns(including the high priestess of their order)... who for some reason just Embrace becoming lesbians.... like...wtf?
- The main character promises to cheat on her lover.... like... wtf? And the princess is okay with this... seriously!
- Everyone is either an elf or succubus.... or a weak human male who is there only to be the horny bad guy. Or a dwarf, randomly.... There are like three good male characters, all secondary, and all have extremely limited roles. Literally every other male character is evil.

Honestly, the sexual fantasies of the author are so frustrating because they keep getting in the way of an otherwise absolutely fantastic story! Look, if you want a lesbian main character, okay that's cool, i'll read a good story with a good female lead whos lesbian... cool.... But EVERY character is Bisexual and / or lesbian? Even the hyper conservative and SELABITE priestesses? Wtf?

Over all 4/5 because every other thing about this story is fantastic.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent elaboration of the fantasy genera

What made the experience of listening to Ancient Ruins the most enjoyable?

This book was a joy to read as the story slowly unfolded. The author does a marvelous job in atmospheric world building. At one point when a specific point was elaborated I was initially quite surprised, as I knew most of the prudent points about it already without them being stated outright. The world is also very complex, in that it is easy to lump people together into stereotyped groups, but as the story progressed, and we learn more about them, those lines begin to blur. Even the villains are shown to have motivations that humanize them.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Another boring intelligent dungeon novel.

Book Type: Audible Book
Length: 12h 53m

Have you ever wondered what would happen to an intelligent dungeon living in part of ancient elven ruins, while slavers and elves fought on and around her property, then this is your book.

Otherwise it is a remarkably bland version of the new trope of intelligent dungeons (see my review for Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests). It is better than Morningwood, but strangely enough while there is a ton of writing about women being enslaved, and forced into sexual bondage (and a whole ton of rapes) there isn't anything consenting except between two of the women characters.

That is where it lost me. It is a tired trope to rely on the horror of slaver villains and what they will do (or rapist generals) to make them a bad guy. Meanwhile there really isn't any positive sexual encounters except one really boring relationship.

I don't think I will pick up the sequels unless they hit the $3.95 or $5.95 sale, it might be ok for that. There has to be better books out there like this, if you find one let me know.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Good acting, horrible story

The story starts off decent but hits rock bottom when it goes into Rape, slavery, and brainwashing. This book made me so mad I couldn't finish it after half way through.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

feminist dribble...

So do you hate men? You think humans make the best bad guys ever? This book is for you. The reason that I decided that to give this book a try after reading the overview was the "dark fantasy" tag. Bad stuff happens in this book... a lot of bad stuff, but never to the main characters. I found myself almost goimg for the bad guys after awhile.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

I was surprised how much I like this book and look forward to the rest.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable, highly recommend

A very enjoyable rendition of a truly fantastic book. The reading was very well done, with just a few parts that I felt good have been done better. In addition, it was a purely personal reaction so other people might have very different feelings. The parts I didn't like were few and far apart, so they did not hurt the over all telling. Would highly recommend to anyone and everyone.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Some really good things but...

What I didnt like is that a solid 1/4 of this book is filled with really creepy characters that are into abusing women. Now when it's not focused on rape the story is really good, the politics are pretty interesting, and the main character is super cool.

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5 people found this helpful