• The Waking Fire

  • The Draconis Memoria
  • By: Anthony Ryan
  • Narrated by: Steven Brand
  • Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (2,266 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Waking Fire  By  cover art

The Waking Fire

By: Anthony Ryan
Narrated by: Steven Brand
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $27.00

Buy for $27.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling Raven's Shadow Trilogy was a perfect listen for "fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels". Now Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria....

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Trading Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from captive or hunted Reds, Greens, Blues, and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that bestow fearsome powers on the rare men and women known as the Blood-blessed.

But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate's last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.

Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered Blood-blessed who finds himself pressed into service by the Protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted lands in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an Ironship cruiser whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.

As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war - or drown in its wake.

©2016 Anthony Ryan (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A marvelous piece of imagination with plenty of twists, a refreshingly different setting, and excellent world-building. A great read." (Mark Lawrence, international best-selling author of The Wheel of Osheim)

"The Waking Fire is part Indiana Jones, part Pirates of the Caribbean, and part Mistborn. It's got wonderful, memorable characters and great action...I loved it."(Django Wexler, author of The Guns of Empire)

"A fascinating world run mostly by corporations, where much of the power comes from dragon blood, provides a compelling backdrop for this sprawling epic fantasy.... Breakneck pacing and sheer wonder keep the story compelling." (Locus)

What listeners say about The Waking Fire

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,281
  • 4 Stars
    683
  • 3 Stars
    210
  • 2 Stars
    61
  • 1 Stars
    31
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,291
  • 4 Stars
    500
  • 3 Stars
    184
  • 2 Stars
    64
  • 1 Stars
    56
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,227
  • 4 Stars
    579
  • 3 Stars
    200
  • 2 Stars
    54
  • 1 Stars
    28

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Monotone

What disappointed you about The Waking Fire?

3 strikes and your out.

Blood Song was epic
Tower Lord was a good/decent read
Queen of Fire was almost terrible
the Waking Fire....not good. Boring. No discerning voices between characters. Found myself stopping the book and doing other things. Had to force myself thru chapters

After Blood song, Anthony Ryan was on my buy immediately list.
After Waking Fire, Anthony Ryan will only be purchased if on sale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

79 people found this helpful

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

Robot VA

Just boring with no break down on what the in the world is going on for the first few chapters. Narration was freaking horrible, sounds like a robot reading the book with nothing behind the characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

59 people found this helpful

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

Narrator does not do the story Justice

Waking Fire starts off a bit awkwardly. But after your about a third of the way through the book is very entertaining. I believe alot of the bad reviews stem from the monotone narration. Steven Brand did not do this book any favors. But he did not ruin the book, as I have seen poor narration do with other decent books. I personally am looking forward to the next book in this series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

38 people found this helpful

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

Good story

What made the experience of listening to The Waking Fire the most enjoyable?

I am a fan of Anthony Ryan and enjoyed his previous efforts and I am not disappointed with this new book.

Any additional comments?

There seems to be a concerted effort by some reviewing to malign the narrator Mr. Brand. Mr. Brand has as he has before done a great job narrating. I would appreciate it if Audible looked at these reviews to make sure they are legitimate. One review was written the day it came out maligning Mr. Brand.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

21 people found this helpful

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

Poor performance

I think the narrator would be a fantastic nonfiction narrator but it is very hard to distinguish who is who in the first half of the book. I think I lost a lot due to the lack of variety in the narrators performance. Great story though. Unfortunately I may avoid Anthony Ryan in the future if he maintains this narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

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

Decent Start to a New Series

After the strong and innovative "Raven's Shadow" trilogy, Anthony Ryan breaks into a new series revolving around dragons and an original magic system. However, parts of the book get mired down in minutiae.

The book has a strong opening, throwing us right into the action and then following up with a strong scene with a central female protagonist. However, after that I admit I got truly baffled as to what the author was doing. Switching viewpoints back and forth between her and a new protagonist (Clay), we get launched on what is essentially a quest novel to find the mythical White Dragon. The pace slows to a crawl, and doesn't really pick back up until the obligatory huge battle sequences 3/4 of the book down the road.

I like the new magic system, where users gain specific abilities based on drinking dragon's blood (of course, only certain individuals have the talent). The main characters are at least mildly interesting, although Clay is more of a stereotypical hero (albeit with a thief's background). However, I just couldn't wrap my head around the world or the geopolitical structure that is going on, so for a lot of the novel I was either confused or didn't care that much. Vast parts of the world seem to be unexplored, with dragons controlling large parts of certain continents, and there seems to be ruins left from some forgotten age that nobody seems to really know about. Then there are the "Spoiled", which I couldn't determine were zombies or actual living and intelligent beings, but there seems to be more of them than there are actual functioning members of the societies, filling up huge areas of the world that are inaccessible because they will kill you if you enter.

Anyway, at the end the novel follows a fairly predictable path with some big battles and sieges, then a final confrontation with the White that I will save the spoilers from, but suffice it to say not much new ground gets trod. I'm fairly interested to see where the series goes from here, but I didn't come away with the sense of impact that I had when I read his first novel, "Blood Song".

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

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

Good story, ruined by the narrator

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The book itself is pretty good, but it's not worth the cost / credit with Steven Brand narrating it. Steven Brand simply cannot narrate a book that involves dialogue or multiple POVs.

If you’ve listened to books by Anthony Ryan before, how does this one compare?

Same issue - Blood Song is workable with Brand, as the POV never changes, so his flat monotone style is manageable. Anything more complicated, forget it.

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator.

It's too difficult to follow the dialogue between characters or the shifts in POV. Brand doesn't provide a performance, inflection, or any real narration, he just reads the book like a take-out menu.

Any additional comments?

Don't bother.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

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

Great writing

This story takes a few chapters to build the world. Once you get into it Mr. Ryan has created a great groundwork for this series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

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

Disappointing

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I was very disappointed in this book. I was about half way through the book before I felt engaged. The narrator is terrible. I found myself drifting in thoughts and would have to rewind to listen again.

What could Anthony Ryan have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Possibly a better narrator. Had I read the book as opposed to listening to it, I may have enjoyed it more.

What didn’t you like about Steven Brand’s performance?

Sad to say, he is boring.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story is not completely unfortunate. I did start to feel more interested toward the end.

Any additional comments?

Change your narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

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

The Waking Fire: The Draconis Memoria, Book 1

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes

What did you like best about this story?

Felt the story line was a bit slow at the start, however, it picked up the pace of action and entertainment to the end.

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to the next book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful