The Absent Gods Trilogy

By: David Debord

Narrated by: Jonathan Waters

Length: 30 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Centuries ago, the land of Gameryah was saved from the forces of the Ice King by the Silver Serpent. Now the frost marches again and three young villagers set off on a perilous quest to recover the legendary weapon. Join Shanis Malan, a rebellious young woman, Oskar Klehn, a bookish misfit, and Hierm Van Derin, an outcast second son, in a classic fantasy in the tradition of David Eddings and Robert Jordan, filled with magic, intrigue, and adventure!

This collection includes the complete Absent Gods trilogy.

The Silver Serpent

The frost creeps again. Taught the sword from childhood, Shanis Malan's only dream is to be a soldier, but a woman cannot join the Galdoran army. She thinks her dream has come true when Prince Lerryn hosts a tournament in her town, but tragedy drives her and her friends from their home and sends them on a quest for a legendary artifact that can save the world from the minions of the Ice King. Join Shanis and her friends on a perilous search for the Silver Serpent.

Keeper of the Mists

Evil rises. Destiny, or perhaps mere chance, has chosen Shanis Malan to be the bearer of the Silver Serpent, the one prophesied to bring an end to years of clan war. But as Shanis seeks to fulfill her destiny, a pretender rises in the east and enemies invade her homeland. Will she choose the path that leads her back to the place she loves, or will she accept her fate and face the Keeper of the Mists? David Debord's memorable series continues in book two of The Absent Gods!

The Gates of Iron

The Frostmarch has come! Shanis Malan must unite her broken nation and unlock the secret of the Silver Serpent. With Galdora at war, Larris must unravel a conspiracy that threatens his nation from the inside. Oskar enters the order of saikurs, but does the secret to victory over the Ice King lie hidden behind the Gates of Iron? Powerful forces collide and secrets are revealed in the thrilling conclusion to The Absent Gods!

©2017 David Wood (P)2017 Gryphonwood Press

Disjointed and no closure at the end

I say this with all the love I can. If a book is a trilogy, then that means there will only be three books in the series. You may start a new series set in the same world, but it will not be that serious at all. In fact, you can go off in divergent stories with different characters that you stole in the first series or crank out new ideas that you wanted to touch upon, but didn’t in your second. But as much as I enjoyed books, one and two and even three to a certain degree, there was just something about this that really put me off because the ending is gone.

I don’t know if something was left out of the audio file? It’s possible I don’t know, maybe the author just wrap things up, but if so, it was not good. I almost thought I had missed some thing, but then realized I had not missed anything because there was nothing there to miss. It was annoying, like swatting at an imaginary fly. You know, it buzzes around and around and you swipe your hand, but there’s nothing there. Yeah just like that.

The narration by Waters, an industry veteran, whom I have admired since I first listened to him, read Terry W Irvin, the second series, monsters, maces, and magic. He just has a stellar job as always that’s why it’s a little disappointing that this book just ended the way it did it there’s a lot of potential here for the series and Water’s narration was a Boon for it.

I really don’t want to badmouth this because I could be wrong about the missing ending like maybe there’s a chapter or 2 that’s not there should be or a missing epilogue, but I don’t want to say for certain the book just kind of ended very abruptly, and if there are going to be more books than this is not really a trilogy.

Pick a voice

Overall I enjoyed the story just one question why did Oscar have three different voice one for each book

The epilogue for book 3 is missing!

good story

but the epilogue four book 3 is missing

I wish the final epilogue told more about the characters.

really liked the story but...

not sure what happened with the ending of the audible version. it just stops. disappointing but I enjoyed the story until then.

Awesome book. Well written and great narration.

Jonathan Waters is now one of my favorite narrators. I will be listening to more David Debord books.

Good, but....

I would give this a 5 star review if not for the narrator and sound editing issues.
The narrator did a passable job in the telling. There were points that I thought perhaps English is not his first language (?) because some words were said with strange inflections. His voice was good and even, though I think he would have done well to pace things a little more engagingly. Example: there were times when a pause would have been called, for or emphasis placed on certain words to make the reading flow better. His pitch was calming when more excitement would have been better.

SPOILER ALERT!!
Lastly, the ending of this trilogy was disappointing. it just ended with "everything faded to black."
like, WTF?
After listening through all those weird skips/repeats/sound distortions that's all we get??
I hope there's a reason for the missing fourth book because that ending was garbage.

Missing the Last Chapter!

To get to the end of the book to find missing is greatly disappointing. Overall I love the story and hope that there was no other parts missing.

bad eending

books started off with a lot of details and back story but then ended abruptly. ending was rushed and ruined the series

Good story bad ending

The story was very good the characters were well rounded. However the ending is seriously Lacking in it conclusion. With no indication of further writings to finish the saga?

Disjointed story and jarring conclusion

Narration could have used a lot of help in the editing room and more direction during recording. Starting a sentence, only to get tripped up and starting again should have been edited out, yet there are plenty in there. Oddly emphasised phrasings, unusual pronunciation of words, etc.

After the third book was over I had to check to see if there were more that came after because it just... ends. There was no real conclusion.