The Dagger of Adendigaeth

By: Melissa McPhail

Narrated by: Nick Podehl

Length: 29 hrs

Publisher's Summary

At long last, the reason for the blessed Adept race's decline has been discovered: powerful beings known as Malorin'athgul are disrupting the Balance and preventing Alorin's Adepts from awakening to their gifts. Who are they? Where are they? And how can they be stopped when they wield a power meant to unmake the universe itself?

In T'khendar, Prince Ean val Lorian has forsaken his companions in blood and battle to join the traitorous Fifth Vestal in T'khendar in the hopes of gaining some insight into the tragedies that plagued his return. Now, he must confront the man he's long thought of as his enemy and discover the role he is meant to play in the First Lord's darkly magnificent game.

The Vestal Raine D'Lacourte has followed his traitorous oath-brother, Björn, through six kingdoms and into the distant realm of T'khendar seeking explanation and atonement. But the condemned realm harbors shocking secrets, and Raine soon realizes he's facing his greatest enemy yet - not in Björn, but in the truth.

Elsewhere in Alorin, the young truthreader, Tanis, faces a new villain in the fiery-eyed man he followed from the café in Rethynnea; the soldier Trell struggles to reconcile his growing feelings for the girl he rescued from the river against the guilt of his unknown past; and in Tambarré, another truthreader named Kjieran van Stone treads the incense-filled hallways of the Prophet Bethamin's temple, hoping to uncover a plot of treachery and betrayal before the Prophet demands his soul.

The time has come for each player to claim his role in the First Lord's masterful game. All will be tested, but only time will tell how many can survive the dagger of Adendigaeth.

©2016 Podium Publishing; 2012 Melissa McPhail

Very good second book!

This is the type of book I search for. A long book that keeps you engaged each moment and makes me listen to it way longer than I should. Great story, great characters, keep those books coming!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

My foray into this series stops here

Any additional comments?

As others have said, the romances are very fake and stereotypical. "She needed protection, and he wanted to protect her"; she's always laying her head on his strong chest, that kind of stuff. Everything is overdramatized. The heroes suffer like no one has ever suffered, with excruciating pain like they've never felt before, until the next chapter, when the suffering is even worse. Nick Podehl's narration matched this drama, which made me start to be annoyed at him for the overdramatic reading. Also, Nick is not great at female voices, but is awesome with the men. The author uses certain phrases over and over, which start to grate. Characters I was interested in from the first book were completely ignored. They may come back later but I missed them. Liked the first one, but I'm done with this series.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

too much gay stuff, wth was up with that?

I found myself skipping every third or fourth chapter because I just don't want to listen to man on man rape. that was awful and completely unexpected. Book 1 was pretty good, this one unfortunately wasn't my cup of tea.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Eh This one fell short

Any additional comments?

First off this book is well written however I doubt I'll be continuing on to book three though because of the following:

1 - At some point when you have an author who constantly references rape you start to wonder about them... I lost track of how many times she used the word in this book. When you couple that with the fact that she reached a sadistic level of violence towards her characters I started to be put off. I understand that things aren't always supposed to go right for the characters in a story, no one wants to read a story where everything is right all the time but by the same token everything cant go wrong all the time either or you reach the other end of the spectrum in terms of believability. I mean seriously - how many more times is Alyneri going to be kidnapped?
2 - I love certain aspects of this book. Tannis and the plot surrounding him is probably my favorite.
3 - I finished this book not really feeling like the plot had moved forward much more than where book 1 ended and I cant help but wonder if book 3 will be more unending rape references so again, not sure ill continue but this book was decent and well written...

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

one of my top 5 series, right up there with Jordan

Definitely one of my favorite series. and Nick Podehl is the icing on the cake. seems like whatever he does is a really great story plus with his storytelling skills I have neelver been letdown. but this one is one of my top 5 series. great magic system, this book actually breaks it down and explains how it works

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

fantastic series.. enjoyable sequel

I read the first book, it was great. A perfect melting pot of dragons, shape shifters, magic, other dimensions, portals, time travel, you name it. The reviews for the second book made me a little unsure, but I risked a credit and it paid off !! The second one unravels whole new layers of complexity and it is soundly built on the first book. So Im wondering, did the reviewers writing the negative reviews about romance/sex etc even read the same book?? And with Nick Poedhl narrating, its even more enjoyable. A book credit well spent.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Good story complexity but simplistic characters

I shouldn't have bought this book as I nearly didn't finish the last one. It"s the lack of character depth that disappoints I think. Most of the players are as multilayered (not) as Prince Charming in a children's fairy story This is especially disappointing when the story itself is so nicely complex but apart from the old crone and the young boy I couldn't give a stuff about most of the people portrayed. if I don't care about the people I can't care about the story.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

great narration horrible story

There was too much cheesy romance and sexuality. McPhail got so distracted trying to make people sexy that she forgot to give the book a plot. What plot the story does have is scattered and torn. Again McPhail used phrases repeatedly when they are not necessary and they get overused. The magic is awesome and the story could be great but it isn't. It also felt like McPhail was trying to be Ayn Rand and she definitely is not. As always Podehl did an amazing job narrating. He is phenomenal and the only reason I was able to get through this book.

11 of 14 people found this review helpful

Romance author got lost in a scifi book.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Stick with the fantasy aspect and leave out all the romance and sex, the book drops into pure harlequin mode and stays there.

What could Melissa McPhail have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

See above

Have you listened to any of Nick Podehl’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, very solid reader, he was doing well with what he had.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Dagger of Adendigaeth?

Anything that includes "his loins, inflamed, penetrated her, feverish desire, consumed by thoughts of her.

Any additional comments?

Yeah audible gets this one back, nothing worse than picking up a scifi, and it morphs into a romance. I have two rules for blacklisting a author, Leave a cliffhanger or write a romance and hide it in a scifi cover.

13 of 17 people found this review helpful

super confusing but i want to like it

The book was just like the first one. Where character were thrown in at random and you were just supposed to know who they are and what they were all about. I still don't understand the hierarchy of this book. It makes no sense when is ref to a prince who is next in line to the thrown as lowly when there are other princes who are have no chance at the thrown. Be sides all that the story barley makes a lick of since. And i do think there is an over-archering. Enemy but he rarely even mentions them. Mean while the main characters run around in literal circles looking for each other. which is i guess is better than the first book were they were doing the same thing except they nor you knew that's what they were doing. The end of each book leaves a lot to be desired. I mean it is not satisfying at all. There is not conclusion or rap up that makes you feel like some kind of goal was reached no it just ends and you like really that's it.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Great world, clunky writing

Top marks for world building, interesting characters and plot development. A couple of week areas, e.g. There aren't many details of what/why/how the magic works nor how the characters learn it, and every scenario is wrung out for maximum possible impact which gets to be a bit much as it all becomes obvious long before the characters get around to realising/saying it. My main gripe is the language - I've never seen or heard 'thusly' used so often in prose and in my opinion it makes what is quite an interesting story overly dramatic and a bit too self important. I will probably buy the next audio book in a couple of months when I can't find anything else I'd like to get with my audible subscription.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

amazing

Where does The Dagger of Adendigaeth rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

High any book I would listen to again rates high there are so many plot lines running through the story

What did you like best about this story?

when Tanis was asking the Captain about selling the horse I was actually laughing

What about Nick Podehl’s performance did you like?

fantastic narration

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no its like game of Thrones in the depth of Character and depth of story lines it can be quite intense but if I had a few days off work I may have listened in one go.

Any additional comments?

CANNOT WAIT FOR BOOK 3

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good plot fundamentals, poor execution

I’ve found listening to this book very frustrating. Underlying the series is an interesting, intricate plot set in world rich in magic and dragons, powerful races and a variety of cultures which keeps you wanting to read more.

The execution of too much of the book is, however, adolescent, clumsy and derivative. The characters are shallow stereotypes without the intricacies of human nature that keep things interesting. The descriptions of emotions from love to lust, from hatred to self-depreciation and all of the more extreme emotions are handled with all of the sensitivity of a weepy, naive 15 year old and the total lack of creativity with regards to the languages of the races, instead using French, Italian etc and grammatically incorrectly at that, is disappointing to say the least.

All of this contributes to the narration of the story being clumsy. The lack of character nuance leads to the different people you meet being presented by the narrator as bloated caricatures of themselves, tending to the whiny and overly dramatic and gives the reading a cartoonish feel

Oh, and for pity’s sake, PLEASE learn some synonyms for “gaze”

When you’ve exhausted the other fine fantasy readings on here (Brandon Sanderson for example) then listen to these but not before

Amazing story with a Great narrator!

Nick Podehl really brings Melissa's many characters to life! I also really appreciate the very minimal errors and the continuity of the characters voices both between Cephraels hand and The Dagger of Adendigaeth, and throughout the book. Highly recommended for any fantasy fans!

Horrendous ending

Everything was great up till the last 15 minutes, talk about a contrived ending, I'll not be going on to book 3

Full of imagination

Would you listen to The Dagger of Adendigaeth again? Why?

I love this series, it takes you into the depths of fantasy and you become art of the players lives. Great book.

Top book

Great storyline, characters seem to jump out at you, as you follow the twists and turns of this compelling story, well narrated as well, keeps you hooked, already downloaded the next instalment, can't wait. Absolutely brilliant!! Top notch!!👍👍👍