The Drake of Ehknac

The Adventures of Carmen Delarosa, Book 1

By: Kody Boye

Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price

Length: 1 hr and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Hornblaris Mountains - home to the great Dwarven people - are a miraculous sight to behold, but beneath their towering peaks lie monstrous dangers. Carmen Delarosa, a travelling merchant's daughter, has lived within the mountains and even travelled their passages her entire life without issue. But when a drake appears along a routine trading route and slaughters an entire caravan, including her family, Carmen vows to take justice into her own hands. Alone, in the Deep Roads, and with only her wits to guide her, Carmen will attempt the impossible: to hunt, and kill, the Drake of Ehknac.

©2014 Kody Boye (P)2017 Story by Kody Boye. Narrated by Rhett Samuel Price.

Carmen Delarosa is one determined Dwarf.

This is a fairly short but good story about a Dwarf maiden named Carmen Delarosa. The story starts with her and her family on their way back to their home from a trading trip when they are attacked by a Drake. Everyone but Carmen is killed. A year later, after stewing about what happened, and having the village elders push her to the breaking point, she determines to do something about the Drake that killed her family. She gets prepared, arming herself with her family mace, gathering supplies, and chasing any rumor of its wherabouts. After she talks to a dwarf that thinks he saw the drake, she goes seeking the Drake, and when she finds it, she discovers just what it takes to get revenge for her family, and the price she will need to pay.

Carmen is a really compelling character. The horror of what happened to her family and the treatment she received in her village could have broken her. Instead, she uses it as fuel to her revenge against the Drake. For a shorter story, the setting is well described, and you have an easy time picturing it in your head. The character intereactions are well plotted, and the action scenes are well described and plotted. The narration was decent, with each character having their own voice. All in all a good start to a series of stories.

Too short

Just when I thought I might be getting a feel for the characters it was over. And I wasn't even sure why.
The narrator did an excellent job with the different voices,, always does. Maybe book 2 will have more content,
This book was given to me free of charge, and I freely gave my unbiased review.

A story of seeking revenge

This is a short story, but it packs a lot of story in just 54 pages.

Great High Fantasy

This is a classic revenge story. Dwarf Carmen DeLarosa's entire family is killed by a drake that attacked their caravan. A year later, after she comes of age, Carmen sets out to hunt down the beast.

So, I've personally never been a huge fan of these small, bite-sized stories, especially in fantasy, but this one is really well done and entertaining. The writing is tight, and most importantly, the writing is *good.* I do wish this story was a little more fleshed out, but again that comes to my size bias. The action is quick and flows well. Her motivations are clear and make sense.

This is just the first of a series, and it appears the next book is 3x the length of this one, which is good. It doesn't appear this second book is out on audio.

Price is a good, deliberate narrator whose voice just drips with gravitas. I'm not certain he's the best choice for this story, given it's exclusively from the point of view of a female dwarf, but he does a great job anyway. He's one of those guys who could narrate the instructions on a pack of ramen and make it sound epic.

My verdict: if you like your fantasy tight and quick, this is a great read or listen.

Quick fantasy adventure

Would you listen to The Drake of Ehknac again? Why?

I would listen to this again because I enjoyed the story and will want to continue on with the series. Since this is only book 1, I will probably have to listen again once I get my hands on book 2.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Carmen was really the only character in this story. Even so, she is strong, but young and still trying to come to grips with the murder of her entire family. I am interested in seeing her growth.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene was probably the first scene (which was really sad). The description of what happened with her family really sets the tone for the rest of the story.

Quick read

For the length and amount of information of this short novel, the story is decent. I had higher hopes than what was actually accomplished.

Parents: there is quite a bit of language in this book (15+ F bombs) among other less harsh word choices.

The narration was a bit muffled sounding and occasionally had an odd skipping sound but the over all performance was enjoyable.

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

not bad

enjoyed it a bit story moved quickly and could have been developed a little more

Short but sweet

With the shortness of this book, it is by necessity lacking in complexity. But for all that, the author still tells a good story.

As always, Rhett Samuel Price gives a fantastic audio performance. Other than dipping into falsetto for some of the female voices, his tones are incredible and his control of vocal inflections is impressive.

The only character that sees any real development is the main character, and she does come off as just a bit flat. But for such a short tale I can forgive that.

Over the course of her quest for vengeance things do seem to go just a bit too easy for her, and after the setup I feel the story could have benefited from a longer (perhaps LotR-eske) journey, but overall it is well constructed.

There is some colloquial language usage that did jar me out of the story a bit as it didn't feel accurate to the world, and the profanity seemed out of place.

But when we come to it, the ending does come together quite nicely. Again, I feel the main character got off a little too easy, but it's a fairly minor issue.

The larger problem, for me, is unreality of the character's internal arc. The emotional climax at the end just felt completely unrealistic to me.

Great story, mixed performance

Drake of Ehknac is short and fast-paced, and it quickly hooked me in and kept me listening. While it's not really a negative, I would've enjoyed if the story had slowed down a bit and given me a better sense of the world in which it's set. It mentions the year 1715, and I would assume this is not 1715 AD on Earth, due to the dwarves and dragons. However, Yggdrasil and Thor are mentioned, which implies a Norse setting, the name "Carmen Delarosa" definitely does not sound Norse, and the narrator uses some odd accents I can't place (not sure if that's intentional or not), so I have a hard time picturing where the story is taking place. This was a small thing though, and maybe it'll be clearer in the second book, which I do plan to read.

The narrator does a good job during all exposition and many voices, though there are a few voices for which he just pushes too far. His "little girl" voice was over the top, where a subtle shift in pitch and vocalization would've been far less distracting. Overall, pretty good, though there are these moments that pull you out of the story a bit.

Short story but definitely gets your attention!!

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This book is interesting and gets your attention. The only reason I gave 4 stars is that the story seemed rather quick and I wish the Author had given us a bit more meat to the story but for a first book I really enjoyed it.