Elseerian

The Chronicles of Lumineia, Book 1

By: Ben Hale

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The assassination of heroes was once a warning... for an invasion that nearly destroyed the world. Nations were slaughtered, cities were erased from existence, and defending armies were crushed into oblivion. In weeks, all life stood on the verge of extinction. But the end did not come. Instead the black horde vanished, leaving terrified survivors... and rumors. As the centuries passed the holocaust faded into legend, and finally myth. Across the southern sea a gifted young man is completing his training. To him the war is forgotten. To the world a warning goes unheeded. And the killings have already begun.

©2012 Ben Hale (P)2013 Podium Publishing

Critic reviews

"Well written... highly detailed." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Ingenious and immersive." ( Best in Fantasy)

Immature author who makes elementary mistakes

There are lots of books whose main merit is that they pass the time. They are not great literature, but they entertain nevertheless. There are very few authors who can make characters come alive, can plot a storyline that entrances the reader, who can describe events or a scene so that they leave the page and enter the imagination. I know this, I accept it.

But the writing in this book is truly awful, even by my unexacting standards. The noise to signal ratio is overwhelming. The characters are flat and interchangeable. The dialog is riddled with "shrugs" and "chuckles" and every other kind of meaningless body language that detracts from meaningful dialog. The utterly empty phrase "without hesitation" is repeated ad nauseam. The hero has every physical accomplishment but lacks everything else: libedo, intelligence, self awareness, humor, ...

The reader does a very creditable job but the book is unsalvageable.

Action packed, but lacking depth and writing skill

I was very excited at first--this seemed to be just the book I was looking for. I was ready for a "classic" style hero "comes into his own" sort of brain candy.

At first this delivered just that sort of story. But soon it became clear that the characters were going to stay dimensional and the dialog and situations stilted, forced, and not very captivating as a result.

Didn't finish it.

good bones but completely predictable.

not one original thought or idea. I was getting past this all powerful warrior then they had a perfect prophecy for the hero and talked about the four horseman. this could have been good but there is no originality to it.