Daughter of Nothing

The Scion Chronicles, Volume 1

By: Eric Kent Edstrom

Narrated by: Nancy Peterson

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

While the powerful seek immortality, the Scions struggle for survival.

Few people know that the Scion School exists. Tucked away on a private Caribbean island, the school hosts 36 exceptionally gifted students. They train every day to prepare themselves for an immense responsibility, to lead humankind back from the brink of extinction.

At least, that's what they've been told.

Only one student - a 17-year-old named Jacey - suspects the truth. Driven by her undying loyalty to her friends, Jacey races to untangle the truth of who the Scions are...and what the headmaster truly means when he says they are bound for a great destiny.

Daughter of Nothing is the first audiobook in an amazing new series for fans of young adult dystopian fiction.

Eric Kent Edstrom - author of Starside Saga - is back with more lovable characters, thriller pacing, and shocking twists you’ll never see coming.

Start listening to The Scion Chronicles series today, narrated by Audie Award winner Nancy Peterson.

©2013 Eric Kent Edstrom (P)2018 Eric Kent Edstrom

Loved the Story!

I really loved the story, and Nancy really narrated it very well, alternating her pitch and tone really helped set the stage. Eric, you write a very good story! Keep it up, I can't wait for the next one.

Great Story - Intriguing

This book has many plot twists that will keep you guessing what happens next. It has such an interesting plot line and introduces several complex characters throughout the storyline.

The narrator did a great job overall adjusting tone and inflection for different characters however I did find the whole effect to be a bit dull. I was easily distracted due to the soft voice.

Amazing book

Love the audio book couldn't leave my kindle and listened to it before bed and it was amazong. Five star and I so reccpmed it.

A must-read!! No matter what your age.

This author has created a future world with an unique concept where the elite class of people can live forever. But how is this possible? An exciting first book in this new series. It has very endearing characters. A plot line that twists and turns and drags you into the story and, all of a sudden, you just have to keep reading faster and faster to find out what is going on, who is going to survive and what is going to happen in the end. I can't wait to read the second book!

Great story with many twists

I enjoyed listening to this story, Eric Edstrom kept my attention drawing me into the lives of the scions, wanting to know what would happen next, to where I look forward to listening to book 2 in the series.

Daughter of Nothing

Wow, Wow, Wow! I absolutely loved this story and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

As a group of gifted students are led to believe they are being prepared to lead humanity back from the brink of destruction, things don’t seem logical to Jaycee. When she and her friends begin to unravel the truth they are faced with an unimaginable situation.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

A gripping story, familiar storyline

This audiobook was really interesting. The author does a great job in initially disorienting the reader. You can't tell what is really going on at first. Here's a general description of the story without giving anything away:

This book is told from Jacie's point of view, a 17-year old girl. She is a scion, which means she is one of the select few that are being trained in a special school for children to help restore the world after a cataclysm has destroyed much of it. Or is she? After a series of events occurs, Jacie begins questioning for the first time if the world she knows is real or a lie. Raised isolated from the rest of the world, the scion school on a remote island is all she knows. She wholeheartedly believes in their mission, but should she? What really happens upon graduation? Where do they go? And why is the director of the school showing such a special interest in Jacie's progress? Obviously, these and other questions are answered in the book.

This was my first audiobook ever. At first, I felt that the narrator's voice was a bit robotic. But her voice soon warmed up and adapted according to each character's speaking parts. I think that she does a great job in making the story come alive. I didn't want to stop listening and felt as if I were watching a movie.

I greatly enjoyed the story, but there were two things that detracted from it. First off, Jacie being so clueless was driving me crazy. It's a good sign that the author is really able to show things from Jacie's point of view. You see her struggle to put together all the clues, but with limited sources to draw information from and her upbringing, she takes a long while to put the pieces together. Because of this, I think the reader is able to deduce what is going on long before the main character does. This can be a source of frustration because you want to know what happens after Jacie figures everything out, but this is delayed for a while.

The second thing that detracted from the story is that I have encountered similar storylines in other books. That means that after the story reached a certain point, I knew, more or less, what was going on and what was going to happen. Of course, the smaller details are flexible, but I wish the waiting period between figuring out what was going to happen and it actually occurring was shorter. Despite this, I enjoyed the story overall and am hooked, left wanting to see what happens in the next book.

TL;DR

Pros: great story, interesting, well-written, left hooked.
Cons: familiar storyline, slow progression of storyline in some parts.

Scions - To be or not to be

Daughter of Nothing takes place in a dystopian future. Jacey and her 36 fellows scion has been told they are bound for great destiny to bring the world back to order. Each believes that when they reach their eighteen birthdays, they will be leaving the island to help mankind.

Even with a great destiny, the senior scions are curious about their parents and how they died. In order to gain any news about the outside world, they decided to pass the information to the junior scions who will take their place on the island.

The truth does have a habit of revealing itself at intervals. With the information passed on, Jaycee started to unravel the information and gather the information of what her friends know to reveal a darker, sinister plan.

The story depicts human nature. Orphans often wonder about their biological parents. Education brings independent thinking and reasoning. As mortals, each human being longs for and searches for immortality. The author captures all of this in Daughter of Nothing. The author also captures both the antagonist and protagonist's POVs.

I love the revelations when each scions discovered the truth of what is happening to them when they reach their eighteen birthday. I would love to know what happens next and how Jaycee and her friends are going to masquerade that everything is fine on the island and to find a way to save themselves.

The narrator, Nancy Peterson did a wonderful job of portraying Jacey, Vaughen, Humprey, and Dr. Carlhagen and the other minor characters such as Sensei. Hope she stays with the series unless if is from Humprey's POV.

I was given this audiobook by the author. I have decided to write an unbiased review for the book. I was not compensated or influenced in any way for writing this review.

Dr. Carlhagen was a bad man!

Very few books make me want to skip to the end just to get some relief from the very bad guy but this book sure did. I was soooo tempted. Dr. Carlhagen was the epitome of evil genius and everything about him was icky. Jacey was in his crosshairs and the source of much tension.

This dystopian listen was excellent. It was propelled by equally excellent narration. Nancy Peterson embodied Jacey's innocence. She amped up the evil of Dr. Carlhagen. She brought the alpha male to Vaughn and Humphrey. She even delivered Cassie's mean girl.

We got a glimpse into the next book in the series and oh boy, do things get curiouser and curiouser.

Daughter of Nothing-The Scion Chronicles, Volume 1

An intriguing storyline and good characters, Narration is also really easy to listen to

"I was gifted a copy of this story and this is my honest review"