Sword Sirens

Weatherblight Saga, Book 1

By: Edmund Hughes

Narrated by: Amy Soakes

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's Summary

Amongst the remnants of the ancient Saidican Empire lies Golias Hollow, an underground community of people who’ve taken refuge from the tainted surface. Completely cutoff from the outside world, the men and women of the Hollow follow the teachings of the prophet Dormiar, sacrificing a select few to the outside each year in a ceremony known as “The Choosing”. 

Aristial Stoneblood, orphan and occasional troublemaker, is one of this year’s Chosen. Along with his beautiful childhood friend, Kerys Weaver, Aristial leaves the safety of the Hollow and enters an unfamiliar world of shapeshifting swords, respawning monsters, and dangerous dungeons. It’s a new beginning, a place where intimate bonds can hold power, and the price of life is paid in magical essence. 

A post-apocalyptic, dungeon-crawling, fantasy harem adventure. 

Warning: This audiobook contains a significant amount of explicit sexual content and some adult emotional situations. Listener discretion is advised.

©2019 Edmund Hughes (P)2019 Edmund Hughes

It's meh, lost interest half way though

The main character is a boarish meat head that has the worst pick up lines. The story is pretty generic and so so. The narrator is female narrating for a male protagonist which I only thought worked with Wild Wastes. She also has a tendancy of giving the biggest men the most high pitched voice. Don't waste your credit on this one.

Please kill off the main characters......

Can not take the whining by the female lead. Makes you wish she would have just been left for dead. Main Character has nothing to offer but just stupid jokes. The voice for both is almost unbearable.

Different but good

I would have to say this is a different sort of magic story. In putting the main character of the story isn't overly powerful but still is able to survive odds that are difficult or suicidal.
Still it was a good book, slow sometimes but picked back up. Narrator needs to work on male voices other than main character though.

Mud and Blood... I'm getting off this ride!

I want to get this out there first, this is my opinion and how I feel about this book. If you enjoyed it, all power to you. There will be spoilers so if you really want this book my opinions won't matter then, otherwise you have been warned. Starting with the narrator of the story. I liked her, her voice was good and I'm not picky on how characters sound even then if the story is good the voices grow on me. I can tell she was trying and did well for what she was working with so good on her. I hope to listen to more of her work, just on better stories.

Now like so many stories it started off well enough, I started to feel for the protagonist and what he had to go through. Then it started to go down hill. The so called main leads both male and female just started to become annoying. Poor choices and bad jokes made me slowly stop caring about them to the point I didn't care what happened to them anymore at the end. The will they, won't they thing between them feels one sided, I'm guessing is being held till the next book to see if they do, but I don't care enough to want to know. I was hoping the female lead would grow into her own, that she would be able to help out and even start to fight a bit by the main character's side, but no she never changes she stays a dead weight holding the main character down causing him to have to keep an eye on her and keep her safe throughout the whole book. They even bring up going home near the end of book when that's not even possible.

As for the antagonist of the book he was written like a side note or henchman when his first introduced to the point were when he turns to be the big baddie it has no real weight to it and kind of comes out of nowhere. I thought the head bully would have been or someone else who knows the world and how it works would show up and our hero's journey could begin. I thought that he would be like a friend or partner, hell in the beginning it made it sound like he had a bit of respect for the protagonist. Yet out of nowhere he gains this hate for the protagonist and blames for some made up bull just so he can become the heel. Then he gains the same ability and powers as the main character in a shorter amount of time, while surviving a event that killed characters who live in the world and known more about it without any real explanation how he did it. At the end he cause the female lead to make a dumb decision allowing him to rob her and the protagonist of valuable items and he and his crew of two other people go happily off into the sunset as the protagonist has to scramble to stay alive as a huge storm hits. Not sure how the antagonist got some place safe that fast, but again at that point I had stopped caring.

The Last 4 hours were a pain to listen to, I kept hoping for something good to happen to turn it all around, I was really hoping this D list antagonist would be killed and the protagonist would gain more power and the real villain would have been in the shadows watching and waiting to strike. Nope it all just went downhill from being robbed by the D lister, to having a possible friend/possible love intrest given time to build up the relationship robed him and abandon him in the middle of a hostage situation, to being wounded while a storm is about to hit that would kill him and the female lead, just sealed it for me. I will not return the book like a real book I will keep it, but it will sit as a reminder to look deeper into reviews before just grabbing a book hoping to start a new series.

Meh

It’s ok, everyone sounds like a girl, and I have a personal issue, with some aspects of it towards the end, it’s ok better than his other stuff

Exciting Action, Magic & Romance

I received a free review copy.

I enjoyed the book. The main character lives underground but leaves his home in the communal cave along with his love interest. Outside, they face monsters caused by the weatherblight and other enemies. He discovers a sword siren, a sword that can manifest as a beautiful woman (or rather vice versa). The three of them make their way to a tower and must work together to survive.

The book features quite a few amorous scenes as well as exciting action. It has an interesting story with fun battles, powerful magic, and complicated relationships that have ups and downs. As far as negatives, I didn't approve of how the main character treats his love interest at times - it is somewhat harassing. I will still read subsequent books as I believe that will improve.

Good but a bit all over the place.

While I enjoyed the main plot of the story and the concept greatly. I felt there was very little explained now I realize there are multiple books and that's ok but the majority of the first part of the book felt very rushed, There was not really much in the way of explaining the back story why people are underground or why Kids get sent out to the surface It had a Giving Tree vibe Except in the reverse instead of elderly It was the children.

Other than those few points I was impressed The erotic scenes We're well written in the point of view of two eighteen-year-olds and not overly done to the extreme which was nice.

Amy Soakes did an amazing job there was definitely different infections for each character and clear-cut distinction based on who was talking which was also really nice.

Over all the story Is good It definitely has aspects from multiple books without being without being its predecessors clone.

Surprisingly great!

I’ll preface by saying that I don’t normally go for this type of story, so I am stoked I took a chance on this book. The book is very well-written. It is longer than my usual listen, but it kept me interested, which deserves a good review for that alone. I found the story unique, action-packed, and sexy. The world is very well defined, and the characters are dynamic and continue to develop as the story unfolds. One negative is the use of the term ruffians. It was used one time but that is one time too many. :)

I disagree with reviews reporting too many erotic love scenes. There are only a few, and they are essential to the plot. Also, the scenes are not as explicit as some of the reviews state and not what I would consider erotic. In fact, the acts are fairly standard. So don’t be frightened - there is no kink.

I will say the female lead is a bit whiny. Her story does not support the level of neediness she exhibits in my view. This may be due in part to the narrator’s interpretation of the character. This is not a huge problem but think it worth mentioning. Otherwise, the narrator did a fantastic job.

The cover art is beautiful and fits the characters perfectly.

Recommended!

I was gifted this audiobook at my request and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Interesting to say the least.

I felt the story was a little shallow in parts but I still found it enjoyable. The erotic portions sounded pretty good for the most part. I do look forward to listening to the rest.

A bit hard to listen to.

Lets start with the positives. The story is pretty good, definitely original. There wasn't any ridiculous monologues or overly hyped villains that talk too damn much, just a good ol survival book with some magical bits. The magic concept is a bit more traditional than most other versions out there. The characters actually had some good development, even the side characters had personality. there wasnt a point where i felt i needed to skip forward a bit.

The neg...
The biggest issue for me was the narrator. She has a lovely voice but gets severely monotone in spots. I had to relisten to those spots a couple times to understand them in the right context, like begging of the book for example. The story although unique, doesn't have a hard plot line so the story is all over the place with no clear end game, no ring in the valcano, no deathstar. Books that go in that direction are never finished, like "The Land" for example. Its good, but every journey has to have an ending or it just becomes bland. The sex was an eye roller for me. It wasnt good, but I've heard worse.

None of that is a deal breaker, so 4 out of 5.

An interesting start

When I first started listening to this book I admit I was a little confused. How in the world does the cover tie in to what is happening? Heck, how does the name even fit in. After an admittedly slow start things did start to fall into place, though, and I was able to get into the story. It's a bit slow, but it's the first book and a lot of setting had to be explained. Ultimately I give the book credit for being the closest book I've ever read to explaining how a world could evolve into something that really resembled a video game. If I find myself with credits to burn I just might continue the series; I see a lot of potential.

Meh!

I was given a code for this book, where by I promised to leave an honest and voluntary review on audible once I'm done.

I couldn't really get into this book, it didn't grab my full attention, I may retry in the future.
The narration is ok.
It's got some Adult content which is quite full on.
Overall it's a one time listen to in my opinion.

Pretty darn good overall

The story was a little strange at first but once you get through the first chapter and the quick pace of the chapters at the beginning it's a darn good story with enough suspense and drama to carry through. 4 stars.

Really bad

Really bad, on very level. I read fan fiction that's better than this. I would go in to more detail but were you start its so epically awful.