Sword in the Stars

The Myridian Constellation, Volume 1

By: Wayne Thomas Batson

Narrated by: Dave Cruse

Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

The difference in their uncanny eyes could not be easily discerned. In the rays of the setting sun, both Aravel's and Morlan's eyes appeared gold. In the pale moonlight...yellow. Seemingly the same. Such inscrutable likeness is the way of things with identical twins. 

But all who knew the two brothers well noted unmistakable differences, peculiarities more experienced than seen. Those who stood before King Aravel's gaze felt the glad firelight of a cozy inn. But those who fell under Morlan's stare felt the gleam of winter moonlight on the cold, white stone monuments in a boneyard. 

From the best-selling author of the Door Within Trilogy comes an epic tale of two powerful kings whose rivalry threatens to tear the world of Myriad apart. Into this chaos of treachery and war strides ex-assassin Alastair Coldhollow, whose quest for redemption leads him to the one foe he cannot defeat with a thrust of his sword. Everything may hinge on an age-old prophecy, but after thousands of years, will the Sword appear in the Stars at last? 

With the aid of Abbagael Rivynfleur, a not-so-naive girl from the forest villages, Alastair will tread forgotten roads, face legendary creatures, and meet mysterious new races of people, all in an effort to find Myriad's Halfainin. So begins the sweeping seven-volume Myridian Constellation. Listen to discover what happens when the Sword is in the Stars and the moon is blood red....

©2017 Wayne Thomas Batson (P)2018 Wayne Thomas Batson

Christian, Allegorical High Fantasy

The Sword in the Stars by Wayne Thomas Batson is the first book in a Christian allegorical fantasy set in a medieval-like world.

Once an assassin, Alastair Coldhollow has pledged his life to God. He knows his destiny is to call out the Halfainin, a prophesied warrior, and when the Sword appears in the stars, he knows the time is come for the prophecy to be fulfilled. But as the prophecy unfolds (or doesn't?), it isn't as straightforward as he had imagined.

Wow. This book was extremely rich in detail, depth, and planning. It was very well-written, and I loved it, especially because it was an allegory.

Alastair was the main character, but there were many other point-of-view characters and much going on besides his story. The major plot was a war between light and dark, the people of God and the people of the Dark Lord whose desire is death for everyone. There were kings, politics, unique characters, battles, betrayals, redemption, a little bit of romance, prophecies, and much more in the complex, creative world - everything that makes for a great high fantasy. Tying it all together within the battle of light and dark was the prophecy of the Halfainin who would conquer the Dark Lord once and for all. But since this is an allegory, if you know the story of Jesus Christ, you know that the great prophesied warrior-king didn't come in, guns blazing and conquering the world ... at least, not yet. And the way this series captured all of that is one of the things I loved about this story.

Threaded into the story was the theme of redemption. Alastair was a man with an extremely dark past. Obeying the Dark Lord, he led raids to murder entire villages of innocents and became addicted to an extremely addictive, illegal drug. But Alastair found hope in God and left it all behind (though he still struggles sometimes with the drug). However, he isn't certain he can believe that God can redeem him from ALL of it. Some of the leading God-followers don't even believe Alastair can be redeemed of his atrocities. But he puts his hope in the Halfainin and waits for the day he can ask the prophesied warrior in person about forgiveness. (And since we believe the Apostle Paul was forgiven for his evil, Alastair, if he were real, would also be forgiven.)

I read this book as an audiobook. I really enjoyed the narrator, and he did a great job with some of the voices and the inflection.

On the whole, this book was very good. It was definitely dark, though, with a lot of violence and maybe a little too many details about the enemies' horrific evil. I'd recommend it to adults, not teens. But I really enjoyed it for all the reasons I listed above.

I received a complementary copy of this audiobook from the author. I was not compensated for writing a review. All opinions are my own.

loved it. look forward to the next book.

I love this author. glad to find him on audiobooks. look forward to more fun.

To Dark

My only problem is it is just too dark. I don’t like books to concentrate heavily on the darkness and wickedness.

Grand audio adaptation

The storyline is superb, especially for Christian readers who may note the allegorical references to the Gospel history. The lore at the beginning of each chapter both displays good taste and aids the reader in understanding some of the background of the world of Miriad.

Having read this in book form initially, I thought that the characters voices were a little dubious (save that of the main character), but as I listened I decided that the narrator had indeed chosen well the voices for the characters! I would recommend this book for anyone mid-teens and older!

Amateurishly written…

I haven’t read much in the way of the Christian allegory style, but this one comes off as a little heavy handed and obvious, and gives me an idea why Tolkien disliked allegory. Worse, the writing is amateurish, as if written by a teenager putting together his first novel. The dialogue feels unnatural and forced half the time, and the descriptions go from dark and serious to downright silly at the drop of a hat. The narrator is OK, but not great. I made it a third of the way through the story before I just couldn’t bear to listen to any more. I will be returning this one for a refund.

I thought the story was really goog

I really like how the author of this book writes his stories, and he always leaves a cliffhanger.

Where has this series been all my life?!

I'm very picky about the stories I read, like Anton Ego from Ratatouille except for books instead of food.

I need characters, plot, pacing, and theme- everything needs to be thoughtful full of purpose and light for me to like it- and this story was all that and more. So full of hope, perfect for these times!

Every time baby Telwyn did ANYTHING, I felt immense pleasure imagining and recalling Jesus was a real baby like that once too. As a Christian I felt encouraged and I encountered new color and magic in my walk with Christ.

Apart from the allegory though, it's just good storytelling. The villain was nefarious, pretty dark, I hated every second of him and Cythral and that's entirely the point. As dark as they were, so full of light was the prophecy. Every choice had purpose and no decision on the part of the author felt wasted.

I was totally bought into the magic world. :) Narrator did a great job!!!

The level of satisfaction I felt with this beautifully written story and its execution of uplifting themes was unparalleled. Quickly shot up to one of the most well crafted stories I've ever read, praise be to God!

Enjoyed the story from beginning to end

I loved everything about the book. made me think of Lord of the Rings...well written with engaging and complex characters in an increasingly complicated world.

Clean reading for all ages!

It's hard to find clean reading these days, but this is one you can count on! Great story and one I can recommend to all my friends with teenagers and my own grandchildren. Thank you, Wayne Batson!

Slow start. Keep going though!

This turned out to be a really good book! Admittedly, it was hard to get into and a bit confusing in the beginning, but I pushed though and boy, was it worth it!

It’s definitely worth the credit AND I’m super excited the next two books are already available!