Symphony of the Wind

The Raincatcher's Ballad, Book 1

De: Steven McKinnon

Narrado por: Dan Bottomley

Longlisted for the Booknest 2018 Fantasy Awards - Best Self-Published Fantasy

Finalist in Mark Lawrence's SPFBO 2018

A bounty hunter with a death wish. A girl with fearsome powers. A kingdom on the brink of destruction.

Serena dreams of leaving her unforgiving desert home far behind in her very own airship. But when an assassin's knife meant for Serena kills her friend instead, the rebellious orphan ventures into the corrupt heart of the kingdom to discover who put a price on her head. With each new turn, she edges closer to uncovering the awful truth...and the mystical powers brewing deep within her.

After his fiancée’s death, soldier-turned-bounty hunter Tyson Gallows is eager to sacrifice his life in the line of duty. When a foreign enemy assassinates a high-ranking official, he vows to bring them to justice. On the hunt for a killer, Gallows exposes a sinister plot that proves his fiancée’s death was no accident.

Driven by revenge, Serena and Gallows must join forces to take down the conspiracy before the kingdom falls to ruin.

Symphony of the Wind is the first audiobook in a gritty epic fantasy trilogy. If you like hardened heroes, bloody action, dark magic, and monsters, then you’ll love Steven McKinnon’s visceral adventure.

Buy Symphony of the Wind to climb aboard a brutal, breathtaking thrill ride today!

©2018 Steven McKinnon (P)2019 Steven McKinnon

good elements but doesn't pull together

story was set up well but the action was too disconnected. Maybe it was just me but their wasn't enough to the characters to keep me interested. I am returning it without finishing 7 chapters in.

Interesting story

The voices just didn't click with me, with a couple being annoying. Gallows was a main character, and unfortunately had one of those voices that didn't match my vision of the man. That is the problem with audio, sometimes it can kill a book for me, and at other times, triples the enjoyment. (Riyria's Royce and Hadrian, for example is a great listening experience) The story jumped from one point of view to the next quickly, which can also be hard to follow with the audio edition (at least for me).
As for the overall story, it had a couple of characters in particular that kept me listening. Serena and Damien were both surrounded in mystery, with unknown backgrounds and powers, sparking my interest early in the narrative. Intriguing characters, along with the imaginative steampunk world, with it's good guys battling bad, made for time well spent.

Great world and story

A story full of self-discoveries and betrayals. Lots of great fight scenes, especially featuring Damien. The author did a wonderful job describing the world, scenes, characters, and emotions. It was well thought out and asked the reader to consider dystopian like themes regarding war and fighting.

*I received this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic book fantastically narrated!

This ended up being my favorite book in the 2017 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO), and so when I saw that it aquired a nice shiny audiobook version, I couldn't resist nabbing a copy! This is the sort of book that I could definitely experience more than once and love it all the same.

Dan Bottomley did a fantastic job with the narration here. He gave all my favorite characters unique voices, and really made a great story even greater.

Fantastically done!

So annoying

Couldnt keep listening to the narrators exaggerated accents. I was looking for a book read to me, not acted lamely.

hard to follow

I had a tough time keeping track of the characters & the plot. Narrator didn't help the situation with a complete blasie voice through even the most action packed scenes. By the end I just didn't care about any of the characters.

Ruined by poor reading

The story sounds like it might have had some interesting elements, but the of choices in voices for the characters left me confused from the start. It soon became clear the reader wasn't paying attention to the text, just reciting the words. I'll try this in print.

DNF

I just couldn't do it.

More than six hours in, I just couldn't find anything that made me want to continue.

First and foremost, I'm not fond of technology in my fantasy. I didn't realize going into it that this was based in a world with airships, guns, and detailed knowledge of the sciences.

The problems that made me stop listening:

The POV jumps around within chapters, sometimes within scenes, with enough frequency to keep me confused about who's doing what and to keep me from really connecting with any characters.

While there are some neat world elements, none of it is really explained, at least so far.

Although the characters are fairly well developed, none of them appealed to me personally. I couldn't bring myself to care what happens to them.