The Die of Destiny

The Champion's Quest Series, Book 1

By: Frank L. Cole

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

It’s a strange and intriguing place - Hob & Bogie’s Curiosity Shoppe. It’s a gaming store, but instead of carrying the latest in cool gaming gear and gadgets, the store is filled with board games, including role-playing games featuring hundreds of miniature warriors, wizards, and monsters, models of dragons, and lots of various-sided dice.

The store windows were too tempting for 12-year-old Lucas and his foster brother, Miles, to pass by. Immediately, they’re greeted by one of the store owners named Hob, an elderly gentleman with a long, gray beard. Miles thinks he could pass for a wizard. Lucas doesn’t want to stay long, not when he’s running away from his foster home, where he doesn’t feel like he fits in.

Hob invites the boys and another girl, Jasmine Bautista, Lucas’ classmate, to play a curious RPG game called Champion’s Quest. The game does sound interesting. In it, players assume different character roles and are given dangerous challenges as they earn treasures, acquire weapons, and gain experience points to defeat harder, more menacing monsters to ultimately win.

When Vanessa from the foster home tracks them down, she insists the boys go home. As they walk out the front door, they immediately discover they’re no longer in West Virginia, but transported right into the Champion’s Quest game - a wild fantasy world of dangerous trolls, brutish minotaurs, and powerful magic.

The four kids - Lucas, a fiercely independent boy who suffers from panic attacks; Jasmine, a feisty girl who struggles to make friends; Miles, a book-smart boy with a wide-eyed innocence; and Vanessa, a perpetually grumpy 16-year-old girl - are suddenly immersed in this world as their new RPG characters.

They must work together as a team, overcome their real-world weaknesses, and believe in themselves and each other as champions if they are to outwit, outplay, and survive their foes in this ultimate quest to defeat a treacherous, three-headed monster.

Champion’s Quest: Die of Destiny is a middle-grade fantasy with themes of friendship, cooperation, perseverance, overcoming anxiety, and the emotional need to feel accepted.

©2021 Frank L. Cole (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

entry level litepg

character growth is slow and they are kind of one note, but messaging is good and feels set up for the 7 to 10 age group.

Good book!

This book was a mix between Harry Potter,The Goonies and Jumanji and the Narrator do a great job. I highly recommend this Novel!

Very good

I love this for 2 reasons:
1 No bad language no inappropriate scenes. I could let my grandkids listen to this story.
2 you don’t have to listen to all the stats, the upgrades, all that stupid stuff to just waste time. That stuff is important when you’re playing an RPG, but not when you’re listening to a story about a RPG

Next please

I liked it a lot and can't wait for the next book of the series

fabulous story.

holy cow!! i read where someone reviewed this as jumanji taking place in lotr and its soo true. adventure, surprise, brilliant story telling. to put it in a nutshell would be tough you really wouldn't get the whole of it. DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED.

Marvelous adventure!

This is one of the best adventure books I have ever read! Great story and family friendly! I hope for more!

Riveting ride!

Great characters and plot twists. I loved every minute of it I am looking forward to the next chapter.🥰

Kid's book, well-written

A lot of books supposedly targeted towards kids are just badly written adult books. Not so here. This story is carefully crafted, as are all the characters, and lovingly narrated. The violence is strictly G-rated, less than what you'd find in a Disney cartoon. My 5-star rating is based on how I think kids in the 10-12 range would find the book; adults will find it a bit boring.

Good story. Great Voice Acting

It was an easy listen with good twist and turns. It was voiced by one person. He did a great job of voicing all the characters and giving them distinctive voices. I would prefer more than one person voicing a story like this in the future. Just my personal preference. He did awesome though!

Really fun

A really nice and exciting adventure story that all ages can enjoy. The narration was really well done too.