Blood of the Earth

Sovereign of the Seven Isles, Book 4

By: David A. Wells

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Alexander’s costly victory at Northport provides only a brief reprieve from the onslaught of enemy forces converging on those loyal to the Old Law. Prince Phane has created a deadly new soldier - man mixed with darkness - imbued with terrible power and a purpose so sinister that that it could turn those Alexander loves most against him…or take them away from him forever. Zuhl is plundering Fellenden, killing, torturing, and enslaving the people for his own selfish purpose. He’s using the fabled Iron Oak forest to build a fleet of warships capable of dominating the oceans of the Seven Isles, ensuring his ultimate dominion over everyone, everywhere. The shades are loose in the world and starting to make their move. They intend to open the Nether Gate and plunge the world of time and substance into eternal darkness. Blood of the Earth is the story of Alexander’s struggle to preserve the Old Law against impossible odds while trying desperately to save the one person he loves most from a fate worse than death.

©2012 David A. Wells (P)2014 Podium Publishing

pwn

great series love the depth of fantasy . jetan is my favorite character warmage and jack is fun.

I love this series!

I love the series. The author, narrator, story lines ... I love it all! If they made it into a movie, I'd be first in line on opening day!!!

Blood of the Earth

Great book it’s an OUTSTANDING series and the narrators performance is definitely one of the best I’ve ever listen to!!!!👍👍

Nothing Original, But Enjoyable None The Less

I’ve been meaning to write a review of each of the book in the Seven Isles series, but just haven’t seemed to get around to it. Now that I completed it, I have decided to write a review of the entire series instead. I guess as a whole I would best describe The Seven Isles as The Wheel Of Time Lite. With much of the same concepts, evil returns to the world, as a young hero and his friends take up the unwanted duties to save mankind, the Seven Isles doesn’t have quite the depth of Robert Jordan’s novels.

Books one and two are much the same, and center around the young hero Alexander. After his brother is murdered, he returns home to find that an evil Arch Mage has arisen from the dead, and Alexander is the long lost ancestor of an ancient king, the only person who can defeat the mage. Predictably, our young hero wants nothing to do with saving the world, but the Arch Mageforces his hand by sending evil forces to kill him. The story stays exclusively with Alexander’s character in the first two books as he and his friends run for their lives. The story almost becomes comical as they are repeatedly attacked by both men and creatures. It seems that our band of heroes can only walk mere steps before another attack comes from soldiers, wizards, demons, dragons, and wild animals. At one point they are attacked by a swarming hive of bees. Each time they barely survive and must heal themselves with magic or potions. It really became a bit ridiculous the amount of times characters should have died only to healed just in time. Despite these things, for some reason I still found myself enjoying the books enough to continue.

Books three and four of the series mark a vast improvement. After two books of following only Alexander, the book suddenly opens up to include the view points of other characters. The best of these are Alexander’s new wife Isabel, and his sister Abigail. The story improves greatly from this point as plots begin to take form, and the group does less running and hiding. Alexander begins to strengthen his magic, and his friends find they have some powers as well.

Books five and six form a bit of a lull in the series as Alexander is either injured or in the custody of one enemy or another for much of the two books. He learns to project his image to anywhere in the world, and spends much of these two books helping the others from afar. The other character blossom more in this book, which was a good thing, but waiting for Alexander to return to the action got a little old. Secondary plots are given more time as Alexander is away.

The seventh and final book is by far the best of the series as our heroes prepare for and execute the final battle with evil. The final battle is drawn out nicely, and most plots are put to rest nicely so the the world may live happily ever after.

Overall, despite this story not being the most complex or original, it redeemed itself with likable characters and an overall enjoyable feel to it. Yes the good characters were good beyond the point of saints, and the evil were predictably wicked, but I found myself enjoying the series more and more as I went along. I almost gave up on this series after book two, but for some reason I found myself wanting to continue on. By the end I found the Seven Isles to be very rewarding listen.

Captivating

Wonderful series that gets better with every book. Talented writer and narrator. Can't wait for more.

Impossible obstacles

Though the story remains interesting the author continues to put forth Honestly it's distraction things out too for obstacles for the MC confront with no time to rest and so the MC fails to develop any magical ability. Honestly it's just stretching things out too for

Blood of the Earth

As often happens in a great saga a middle book swallows with its own weight. All the elements are there just fitted in a lumpy fashion. Alexander will muddle on and I yet look forward to the next book.

Innovative story, poor dialogues

The Author has a creative mind, there are actually original storylines, rare in the best of fantasy. His world also has things I have never seen before in other fantasy books. Wells get an A for creativity and originality.

Unfortunately, for me, his world is totally devoid of any humor, witty dialogue or unique characters. Dialogue is very stilted, formal and changes little based on the character speaking.
Mr. Wells characters almost always stick to the needed facts, no joking, no snarky comments, no sarcasm, no fun.

Over all I am enjoying the series and would recommend it, but for the fast moving story, not for the characters.

Yikes!

I do not have time to give this its proper review. I will just say that this is a really good addition to the story but UGH the ending! Cliffhanger does not even begin to describe it. That being said, I think there are some character inconsistencies that boggle my mind. I like the light versus dark, good versus evil, love versus despair story that is going here but I do not like when authors make characters suddenly respond in a way contrary to their personality (e.g. a logical character acts illogical).

Sound hiccups

The third book and this one that I’ve listened too has been a problem with the sound. It comes and goes at times. On my iPad as well as my iPhone. The story is continuing but, no voice. Has anyone else complained about this?