The White Tower

The Aldoran Chronicles, Book 1

By: Michael Wisehart

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Length: 20 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner - National IE Award for Fantasy.
Winner - Readers Favorite for Epic Fantasy.
Winner - Beverly Hill Award for Epic Fantasy.
RunnerUp - Kindle Book Awards for Fantasy.

They are feared, hated, hunted down, and destroyed....

....and yet they are mankind's last hope.

For a thousand years magic has been banished throughout the Five Kingdoms, and those caught wielding it are rounded up and taken to the White Tower. They are never heard from again.

Ty knows he's different. But when the bounty hunters arrive in the quiet city of Easthaven, his family reveals the shocking truth about his magical bloodline. And when an Ahvari witch hires a tribe of Northmen to capture him, Ty finds himself in the middle of a war he didn't know existed....

Armed with nothing but his will to survive, Ferrin attempts what no prisoner has ever accomplished and vows to escape the White Tower. His only hope is Rae, a gifted healer tasked with keeping the prisoners alive during the inquisitors' brutal interrogations. Will she be willing to risk her own life for that same chance of freedom....

Ayrion outworked his fellow soldiers for years to become captain of the guard. But his strength and valor alone won't be enough to stop the bloodthirsty creatures coming for his king. And when a sweeping number of the city's outcasts begin to mysteriously disappear, he realizes that the threat is closer than he knew....

War is coming, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the time of the Khul Hordes. How will humanity fight back when those with the ability to do so are being exterminated?

©2016 Michael Wisehart (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Enjoyable new epic fantasy

Rushed review: got the book solely due to the narrator (Reynolds is the best, listen to the Riyria Chronicles) and so glad I did. Good pacing, multiple story lines & protagonists to care about. I have a new fantasy favorite to add to Michael J Sullivan, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Robin Hobb) Actually, if you like Sanderson's works, you'll like this too. Will get book 2 as soon as it's out.

Borat is that you? lol...

great start to a promising, potentially amazing, Epic series... just how long a wait between each book... that is always the question. Like any good vacation you need at least 2 weeks to really enjoy it. It takes one week just to get unwound enough to finally feel adjusted to your new temporary envirnment and get that stress and anxiety release momentum.

Coming to the end of this book was like having to go home after one week. The story ended right at the point when it got its real momentum.
Maybe could have gone further into the story before ending where it did but at least we werent left hanging in the middle of a significant climax ..

recommended to fantasy fanatics...
i look forward to the next book as the way this book planted seeds for those to come i expect they will keep getting better...

The book did jump plot lines alot from chapter to chapter. if reading the book it probably wouldnt be noticed but when listening to audiobook you cant walk away while its plyaing and come back cause youll be on another plot line... minor thing. more to make potential listeners aware.

Great story telling!

I loved the many characters in this book looking forward to the next one. Great story

I really enjoy this.

apparently you can say you enjoyed a book unless you say it with. one than 15 words. so please consider this the verbose way to say... I enjoyed the book

enthralling

action and suspense from start to finish with excellent character building. superb writing and humor splashed in

It’s good but..

The story is very entertaining and the chats , if a bit one-dimensional, fit together into a compelling story...



... but the prose is at times so awful, you’ll find yourself rolling your eyes if not groaning aloud. There are places the author uses analogies or metaphors that are 1) totally not necessary and 2) really out of place.

I can’t remember a specific example but you’ll see a lot of phrases like “the blast of cold air hit him in the face like a baseball bat” what?


The brilliant Tim Gerald Reynolds makes the awkward syntax bearable— still if you can get past it, it’s a very good story

Great addition to the fantasy genre!

I did not have high expectations for this book as the author is totally unknown to me (and I read a lot of fantasy books). I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Good writing throughout and the errors in the first edition has been corrected. The version available on Audible now is the second edition. I eagerly await the second book in the series. Finally, I should mention the outstanding performance by Tim Gerard Reynolds.

A story I am comfortable sharing with my kids

I love a good story that is PG13. I love sharing a well written story with my kids.

Good potential

Has good potential but it spends so much time bouncing around that the characters themselves don’t get a lot of development to the point I find it hard to care about them. The MC is hardly even the MC as it spends so much time on everyone else. I don’t really need to know what every single character is doing at all times.

it's pretty good

Overall i enjoyed this story. it wasn't perfect, it wasn't groundbreaking, but it was entertaining. characters are decently well characterized by and large, and the plot mostly makes sense. Better than i can say of some books I've listened to. the author relies heavily on some typical tropes, stereotypes, and themes, which is both good and bad. Female characters tend to not be as proactive and effectual as male, ranging from housewife, bookworm, sex slave, evil sorceress, and one very thinly characterized assassin. and a princess with a sword, but it feels pretty shallow since she's not often a POV character and is purely reactionary. the fully actualized characters are all male.

there is a lot of torture, but it actually is used mostly to build character, and i thought it was decently well done (probably builds the best character in the story) . there are a couple other scenes that seemed unnecessary.

the bad guys are too purely evil with very token efforts to humanize. the problem is suspending disbelief for the henchmen. I'd think it'd be hard to get a bunch of average soldiers to just stand by during some of this stuff. they're supposed to be zealous against magic, but standing by and watching their leader use magic to transform children into horrific beasts, for example...

the battles are not the best writing . for two armies of soldiers the writing is decent. for street fights or gangs it's decent. when he has an army attacked by a horde of wargs and he's describing them 'in ranks' and some aspects of charges and maneuvers that sound too organized and not bestial. it felt odd, maybe some writing to emphasize their intelligence would've helped?

it was similar when characters are being attacked by giant spiders. the whole battle was weirdly paced and didn't make a lot of sense. if the sorceress was describing more as directly controlling them, it may have helped. 2 people 'holding the line' in open space is weird. 2 people is a melee, there's not really a line.

the use of magic is all over the place in it utility and effectiveness. one person throwing fireballs that are barely effective, another throws darts of ice killing many. some magic users seem like they can't be killed, others suffer the same thing and instantly die. it's not well defined the powers certain people have, nor what they can do with them. it isn't terrible, but it's an area that wasn't great.

overall a decently fun story and pretty solid writing.