The Wolf of the North, Book 1

The print version was good but it is always better to listen so you can get subtle nuances that you can miss when reading the print version. I love print but an really learning to love unabridged audio versions lately.

I am just getting into this genre and this 1st book rivals Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom. I have listened to the entire series and it was a great series so Mr. Hamilton is off to a great start.

I listened to The Millennium Series (Lisbeth Salander) by Stieg Larsson, V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, and Daniel Silva's Portrait of a Spy all of which he was great in.

Only comment I would make is I beg please, PLEASE don't make the same mistake so many audible authors make and change the narrator. Simon Vance is a phenomenal narrator and now he is the voice of the series. I know it may seem a small thing but it throws the listener, or at least it does me, off when a different narrator is reading the story.

I felt like I was part of the crowd around the fire listening as the storyteller enthralls his audience with a tale of a young lad who'll become a great warrior and all the people who will help or harm him along the way. Simon Vance is perfect as the storyteller and all the characters he portrays - I loved his rendition of everyone from the world-weary speaker (who knows how to spin a yarn) to Wolfric who is figuring out his place in the world. Have already recommended this to friends who love epic fantasy.

I loved finding out more about the world he was building and can't wait till book two to find out more about it.

The end of the book. I won't spoil it, but it's one of those moments you say "finally I was about to go into the book and do that myself just wish the second one was there too but then there wouldn't bad guy for future books".

I would have to say it was the same as my most memorable moment.

No. Not really.

I see a lot of people comparing this to Patrick Rothfuss' KingKiller Chronicles but it reminds me more of Anthony Ryan's A Raven's Shadow novels. This book started great. At first it had me hooked and I couldn't stop listening, but then probably around the second time skip I started noticing that the characters while getting older they didn't really progress and grow. They stayed the same and nothing really ever changed about their way of dealing with things and their thought process. Looking at how many years passed in the time skips you would think they would grow and mature but I didn't really feel that. So I never really cared much about any of them. They where all pretty predictable and you could tell what was going to happen chapters before it did. I just felt kinda cheated because it felt like such a great start to a good book (I think I feel that way because I went into it comparing it to KingKiller Chronicles), but that is my biggest complaint about this book and hopefully we will see more character progression in the second book.
The only other complaint I have about the book was the cussing. Now don't get me wrong I'm a fan of Stephen King so foul language in a book doesn't turn me away, but at the same time the cussing in this book just felt out of place and didn't really add anything to it. In that aspect it's kind of like Brent Weeks' Lightbringer novels where his first book is clean and then in his second book for some reason he started adding in cussing. So in these cases it feels like they are adding the bad words just so people won't mistake it as a "kids" book.
Okay, now that I ranted about the stuff I didn't like let's talk about what I liked. So like I said earlier the book started off strong and the beginning had me hook. I wanted to find out more about the characters and the world they live in (I think that's why I felt let down about the character progression, also once we see our main character out and about in the rest of the world hopefully we will see him mature more). So I'm hoping in the second book we will actually see some growth. This series has good potential and I hope it grows into a series I want to listen to and immerse myself in, but that will definitely depend on the second book. So, fingers crossed I hope that happens.
Now the narrato. I like Simon Vance's voice and if I see his name on a book, I know if I don't like the book it will not be because of the narrating. He is a little slower when reading so in some books I turn the speed up to about 1.5x but that's only in the slower parts "filler" of the books.
So, now the big question is, is this book worth a credit? I would say yes. While I was a little let down after reading the other reviews because they made it sound more like the KingKiller Chronicles than it actually was, it was overall an interesting story in which I want to find out more about the world and characters. Like I said earlier, what is going to make or break this series (at least to me) will be how the author handles the second book. I hope he does a good job on the second book. (That way I can add another world to lose myself in;) Hopefully someone will find this review helpful (it's my first time) but if not just take everything I say as the ramblings of a crazy person.

Yep! I love coming of age stories, however, a lot of them out there are annoying. The author makes their trials too easy or the main character is always the only one coming out unscathed. This is not that kind of story. The author did an excellent job of weaving a vivid world and amazing characters.

There are so many. I really like what he does at the end. Cant give it away.

His style of narration is spot on. He makes this story come alive.

I rooted for Wolfrick from the first chapter to the last.

I have listened to many stories like this one and this makes the top of the list. I cant wait for the next book to come out. I may just have to buy the paper copy and read it this weekend.

First, the narration is bar none the best I've heard on audible. The story starts off amazing, it has all the right makings of a truly epic tale. If you've noticed how dry epic fantasy has been this book will hit a cord.

I have few gripes with this book but they do exist. The author falls prey to the dumbing down of the main character to perpetuate the plot. Spends half the book to build him up and then take sit away for conveniences sake. Secondly you will notice that one character keeps leaving and returning whenever its convenient, eventually it becomes predictable and annoying. I Remeber it happening for the last time in the book and I just turned tool off my headphones and left the story unfinished for a day. It's annoying.

Other than that this book is fantastic, can't wait for the second one.

I've been in a slump lately waiting for the next installments of my favorite series and have swung and missed a few times when taking chances on new ones.

However "The Wolf of the North" was definitely a hit! It's not a complex, genre twisting fantasy tale, but rather a straightforward, well done story that was very enjoyable to listen to. I only wish it were a bit longer and I cannot wait until August when the next installment comes to Audible.

This book was great. I am ready for the next one to come out. The story was great and the performance was done by one of my favorite narrators.

narrator was perfect for the mood of this book. fantastic coming of age story. im still having looking for a book to fill the void in my soul until the 3rd kingkiller chronicle book is finished but this book definetly helped me forget about it for the moment. had a viking feel to it without the boats.

Great coming of age story,Finished the book in three days. I cannot wait for the next book!

I love how this story is constructed. It's unexpected yet satisfying. The narration is calm and convincing