Regular price: $24.95
In a world of elves and dwarves and sprites and mages, Tane Carver is a human with no gift but his wits. Which, to be fair, did get him into the world's most prestigious university of magical technology. For a while. Until his lack of magic was discovered. And then it all came crashing down. But when a student is murdered on campus behind unbreakable wards, Tane gets a second chance. Solving an impossible crime should be easy for the man who fooled the university's best mages for years. Except he's not counting on the head constable being an old flame who isn't so fond of him anymore.
In his junior year at college, the only things on Sean's mind are doing his homework and getting out of college to get a real job. A gamer and a bit of a nerd, Sean's philosophy in life has been to keep his head down and get his work done. But when a failed kidnapping attempt leaves him with a gaping hole in his memory, his oldest friend dead, and his mother missing, Sean suddenly finds his whole world turned upside down as he's thrust into the hidden world of magic and the supernatural.
A magical serial killer is on the loose, and gelatinous, otherworldly creatures are infesting the English countryside. Which is making life for the Ministry of Occultism difficult, because magic is supposed to be their best kept secret. After centuries in the shadows, the Ministry is forced to unmask, exposing the country's magical history - and magical citizens - to a brave new world of social media, government scrutiny, and public relations.
Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction. Can Richter forge allegiances to survive this harsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of this ancient and unforgiving realm? A tale to shake "The Land" itself, measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape the future of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet the deadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, how will Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy?
For eons, conquering dungeons has been the most efficient way to become a strong adventurer. Although not everything is as straightforward as it seems. Several questions have always plagued the minds of those who enter these mythical places of power: why are there so many monsters? Where do the amazing weaponry and heavy gold coins come from? Why does the very air fill with life-giving energies? Cal has all of the answers to these age-old questions, for a very simple reason. He is a Dungeon Heart.
What happens when the haggling is done and the shops are closed? When the quest has been given, the steeds saddled, and the adventurers are off to their next encounter? They keep the world running, the food cooked, and the horses shoed, yet what adventurer has ever spared a thought or concern for the Non-Player Characters? In the town of Maplebark, four such NPCs settle in for a night of actively ignoring the adventurers drinking in the tavern when things go quickly and fatally awry.
In a world of elves and dwarves and sprites and mages, Tane Carver is a human with no gift but his wits. Which, to be fair, did get him into the world's most prestigious university of magical technology. For a while. Until his lack of magic was discovered. And then it all came crashing down. But when a student is murdered on campus behind unbreakable wards, Tane gets a second chance. Solving an impossible crime should be easy for the man who fooled the university's best mages for years. Except he's not counting on the head constable being an old flame who isn't so fond of him anymore.
In his junior year at college, the only things on Sean's mind are doing his homework and getting out of college to get a real job. A gamer and a bit of a nerd, Sean's philosophy in life has been to keep his head down and get his work done. But when a failed kidnapping attempt leaves him with a gaping hole in his memory, his oldest friend dead, and his mother missing, Sean suddenly finds his whole world turned upside down as he's thrust into the hidden world of magic and the supernatural.
A magical serial killer is on the loose, and gelatinous, otherworldly creatures are infesting the English countryside. Which is making life for the Ministry of Occultism difficult, because magic is supposed to be their best kept secret. After centuries in the shadows, the Ministry is forced to unmask, exposing the country's magical history - and magical citizens - to a brave new world of social media, government scrutiny, and public relations.
Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction. Can Richter forge allegiances to survive this harsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of this ancient and unforgiving realm? A tale to shake "The Land" itself, measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape the future of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet the deadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, how will Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy?
For eons, conquering dungeons has been the most efficient way to become a strong adventurer. Although not everything is as straightforward as it seems. Several questions have always plagued the minds of those who enter these mythical places of power: why are there so many monsters? Where do the amazing weaponry and heavy gold coins come from? Why does the very air fill with life-giving energies? Cal has all of the answers to these age-old questions, for a very simple reason. He is a Dungeon Heart.
What happens when the haggling is done and the shops are closed? When the quest has been given, the steeds saddled, and the adventurers are off to their next encounter? They keep the world running, the food cooked, and the horses shoed, yet what adventurer has ever spared a thought or concern for the Non-Player Characters? In the town of Maplebark, four such NPCs settle in for a night of actively ignoring the adventurers drinking in the tavern when things go quickly and fatally awry.
They are the fatemarked. Misunderstood. Worshipped. Hated. Murdered at birth. Their time to step into the light has come. An ancient prophecy foretold their coming, the chosen few who will bring peace to a land embroiled in a century of mistrust and war. When kings start dying, that hope and belief swiftly turns to fear. Roan Loren is one of the fatemarked, but has hidden his mark of power his entire life, fearing the damage it might cause to those around him. A great evil is coming. He can't hide anymore.
Victor Shelby ends each day wondering when his life is going to get better. His parents are dead, he struggles to pay rent, and his boss at the animal control shelter has him cleaning cages instead of working in the field. His dream of helping animals seems destined to end in a mop bucket. Then, Victor is abducted by aliens and deposited on a prehistoric world filled with hungry dinosaurs and beautiful alien women. He doesn’t know why he is here or what his purpose is, but he finds himself fighting for survival.
After three centuries trapped underground, thousand-year-old Yulric Bile, also known as The Cursed One, The Devil's Apprentice, He Who Worships the Slumbering Horrors, awakens only to find that no one believes he is a vampire. Apparently he's just too ugly. Modern vampires, he soon discovers, are pretty, weak, and, most disturbing of all, good.
The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements, where you’re restricted to 2,000 calories of badly flavored soy every day. You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world, or you can join the service. With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth.
When your fairy godmother threatens to enslave you with a curse - when a malevolent piper solves your rat problem but steals your children - when you seek revenge on the prince who turned you into a frog - who can you turn to in your hour of need? The band of scoundrels known far and wide as the Bastard Champions - the swashbuckling trio who travel a world of legend, seeking adventure and righting wrongs - as long as there's enough gold to be earned.
After being betrayed and cursed by an extremely rare spell, Oren, a powerful and influential player, finds himself as a first-level goblin! Without even a fraction of his previous power, he vows to pull through and have revenge on those who betrayed him. His thorough knowledge of the game's world and his unique ability to immerse himself entirely are his only advantages. But first, he must figure out how to survive long enough playing what is basically a low-level fodder monster!
After untold centuries of absence, the evil Ancients have returned. Their magic appears unstoppable and their hunger for conquest is insatiable. To protect the country of Nia, Duchess Nadea and Scholar Paug make a desperate journey to find a human legend: a man known to have destroyed these Ancient foes with a powerful army. But legends can lie. When Paug and Nadea revive their hero from sleep, his virtue is far from clear. Is he really their savior or their destroyer?
Minalan gave up a promising career as a professional warmage to live the quiet life of a village spellmonger in the remote mountain valley of Boval. It was a peaceful, beautiful little fief, far from the dangerous feudal petty squabbles of the Five Duchies, on the world of Callidore. There were cows. Lots of cows. And cheese. For six months things went well. Then one night Minalan is forced to pick up his mageblade again to defend his adopted home from the vanguard of an army of goblins bent on a genocidal crusade against all mankind. And that was the good news.
Audie Award, Fantasy, 2016. As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don't cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn't fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.
Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a 14th story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.
One thousand years after Earth was destroyed in an unprovoked attack, humanity has emerged victorious from a series of terrible wars to assure its place in the galaxy. But during celebrations on humanity’s new homeworld, the legendary Captain Pantillo of the battle carrier Phoenix is court-martialed then killed, and his deputy, Lieutenant Commander Erik Debogande, the heir to humanity’s most powerful industrial family, is framed for his murder.
Would you be prepared to work for free? How would you like to bust your hump for a large corporation 60-plus hours a week without a wage or a single day off for the vague promise of some mysterious perks in the distant future? You'd refuse point blank, wouldn't you? But what if the job in question was playing a state-of-the-art fantasy MMORPG game? And what if this was the only thing you're really good at? Especially considering that your in-game partner is someone really special to you - and this person already lives a virtual life?
NIKSABELLA the gnome has tinkered in the shadows for years, developing an invention that might change the world - even if she doesn't know it. She has few friends and even fewer allies in Hightower, where social and academic status is crucial. Her brother NIKSELPIK is an obstinate wizard who drinks heavily, sings dirty songs, and makes unmannerly passes at gnomestresses.
A dark addiction consumes him, giving him increased power while also pushing him closer to death. Dark, otherworldy creatures, foreign to the lands of SULLENOR, have suddenly appeared, making chaos wherever they go. In the wake of this, Niksabella must fight to protect her life and her invention, while Nikselpik engages the enemy as an unlikely counselor to Hightower's military elite.
Will the gnomish siblings find their true powers together, or perish apart? And will they overcome the wounds of their childhood before it's too late? Rough Magick is Book One in the GnomeSaga trilogy by fantasy standout Kenny Soward. It continues in Book Two, Tinkermage (December 2014), and concludes in Cogweaver (February 2015).
My life was changed when at the age of thirteen and a friend showed me Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. My first adventure into living dragons, half elven heroes, knights, princesses, and more captivated my imagination with the joy of discovery and wonder. Some of the characters, like the mage, Raistlin, had dark pasts, but the overall feeling was hopeful. Sad things happened, but you never gave up hope.
Somewhere along the years my love of Fantasy has been usurped for that of high tech battles or survival tales against monsters. I’ve also become more busy than I seem able to handle.
And then I won a book giveaway for Rough Magick (GnomeSaga #1) by Kenny Soward. I was immediately impressed by the care with which he’d wrapped his book, followed by the exquisite cover art and even some goodies in a poster of the same and a key chain mockup of a silver sprocket used for currency in their world.
The layout of the print edition is beautiful and evocative of the kind of atmosphere my thirteen year old past dreams of reliving.
Sadly, I’m no longer on that week long vacation where I could sit and read Dragons for as long as I cared for. I’m a father and husband, writing fiction on top of my job and all the in between that steals my time in fantasyland.
Rough Magick’s first chapter blew me away with potential for a phenomenal story to come. The combination of rock monsters, living ships, and the magick thriving all around as two powerful forces collide awed me with Soward’s abilities to weave a frantic and colorful first chapter. The battle’s stonekin leader, Jontuk’s motivations turned out different than we thought, and he had to slip away into an interdimensional portal. Yes, more please. Enter our heroine, Niksabella, a uniquely gifted tinkerer whose recursive mirror is more than just a power device, it can deliver Jontuk from the oppressive Baron. The tone changes from Jontuk’s point of view to Niksabella’s, switching from an intense battle to another day in the life of an outcast engineer who’d rather play with her devices than shower or socialize.
While I admired Niksabella in her passion to create at the expense of relationships and social standing, the time spent showing this dragged the story down at times. This could have been lessened had I more time to spend to reading chapters consecutively. Chapters fourteen and fifteen, where she visits the festival, are an example of times where I wasn’t feeling the sing song joviality of the book’s pacing. I didn’t get the point of some of the chapters and eventually, unfortunately, I put the book down.
After a few months, I was still stewing over wanting more story like Rough Magick provided in the battle scenes and where we saw the damaged relationship between Niksabella and her brother, Nikselpik, a mage in his own right, but with a dark addiction.
Then I discovered the audio version narrated by Scott Aiello, and I finally got the story Soward was trying to tell. Scott delivers a masterful performance, maybe in my top three for audiobooks. His voices and enthusiasm nail the sing song joviality in a way that made me eager to enjoy every second. I restarted from the beginning, and Aiello’s performance transformed the story from reading into an immersive experience strongly similar to the one I had as a young teenager. I laughed at the songs and phrases, by tick and tock for futtering sake, Soward made up to color his world. I marveled at voices that convinced me I was living with magick wielding gnomes. A possible obstruction from my busy life was removed and I was able to see parts of the story worth praising. My favorite scene is a strongly emotional one where an old father is eager to sit on his porch and enjoy the blessings of his years, his family, his food, and his zonk, when a deadly power shows up at his door.
I didn’t need Aiello’s vocal performance to appreciate Soward’s deft skill at describing magick and battles, but Aiello didn’t let up on that aspect of the experience one tick. By tick and tock, Soward’s magickal battle scenes are some of my favorite among any genre. I want to read a book cowritten by him and Jeff Salyards. That would blow me away, not that either needs work, but because they are top among their field and would present a championship level display.
The pacing through the second half of the book had much better interest. At first, I was curious about the direction of Bella’s imprisonment, and thought it dragged a little in the early parts, but the actual trial and thereafter picked up the pace in a very enjoyable conclusion. Again, Soward’s description of the destruction of the amorphs and the focus on Nikselpik’s fight against their powers was thrilling and just the kind of wonder I want from my Fantasy. The ending was well done and left me wanting to remain in Soward’s world.
I’m very glad to see Soward has completed his GnomeSaga trilogy. It’s no wonder Ragnarok Publications has teamed up with him. They are both outstanding additions to our community of Fantasy readers. If you’re looking for fun Fantasy with awesome battles, definitely pick up Rough Magick, in whatever format you prefer, but especially in the audiobook if you can.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
This is a fun, easy listen. I liked the the world the Author created and all of the names of the different things in it. I started surfing for my next listen a little more than half way through and that's never a good sign. I finish it though and I'm giving it a 4 for creativity. The narrator was excellent! He had quite a range of voices for each of the characters. I'll know what I'm in for if I get the next book, which i may do, but for now I'm going on to something else.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Wow. I got pulled in to this story and couldn't get out. I'm going to get the next one now. Narrator was awesome!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This story really exceeded my expectations. I very much enjoyed the world that Kenny has created here. It was a nice change for a fantasy novel to focus on gnomes without being campy. Legitimate epic fantasy. The story kept me engaged and it was difficult to pause as I wanted to know what happens next.
The production is excellent. One of the best I have ever heard here, and I listen to a lot of books from audible. The narrator has an impressive range of voices. Lots of feeling and inflection even when reading the description parts. I look forward to listening to more of Kenny's stories as well as stories narrated by Scott Ajello. I highly recommend this.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
This was a good story. It was better than I thought it be.Lots of action. Good characters. plus Niksalpic sounded like Jack Nickelson
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Rough Magic had some problems. Most of the characters were one dimensional and the villain's motivation was so confused, I never bought someone would come up with a scheme like he did. The mechanics of magic are glossed over, so it's clear that the reader isn't supposed to focus on it. On the other hand, the book manages to have an interesting relationship with alternate worlds; I just wish it was explored a little more. Also, some of the conflicts were interesting, if pretty confused.
Would you ever listen to anything by Kenny Soward again?
Probably not. Even if I could get past the clumsy plot, weak characters and poorly developed magic system, the literary mechanics are a bit hard to swallow. He uses over strong words for what he seems to be trying to convey and repeats himself constantly in dialogue, description, and development. The book did make me wonder if anyone else is writing steampunk any better out there. I will probably pick up another book by a different author to explore the genre.
Was Rough Magick worth the listening time?
Not really. In fact, it felt like the book could have easily been formatted for half the length if all the redundancies and plot arcs that go nowhere were removed. I probably would have tolerated the mistakes more if it had a 6 hour listening time rather than 12 and a half.
Any additional comments?
The story was heavily divided into chapters (some 41 chapters in all), which makes reading a book much more comfortable. Unfortunately, Audible does not divide audiobooks into tracks by chapter, so the convenience is actually lost in this format.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful