The Fantastically Underwhelming Epic

By: Kian N. Ardalan

Narrated by: Kevin Kemp

Length: 22 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

George is a legendary hero...wait, no. George is an incredibly powerful sorcerer...also no?

Okay, fine. George is an unremarkable human bard who made a promise a long time ago. A promise that set him on a path to find the remains of Simantiar, the greatest wizard who ever lived. Though all that was left were bones, Simantiar was still very much alive and quite...underwhelming.

This is their story: The Fantastically Underwhelming Epic of a dead wizard and an average bard.

©2021 Kian N. Ardalan (P)2021 Podium Audio

Impressive debut!

I really enjoyed this debut by Kian N. Ardalan.
The world felt rich and lived in, the characters fleshed out and it had compelling prose!
I would love to see more stories in this world!

The narrator did a great job keeping me engaged and all the characters had a distinct voice.

Fantastic work

The story has so much life, the performance is absolutely fantastic with never not knowing who’s speaking at any time. The voices are great!

ok

it was an ok story i liked it but it did have dome twists i did not like. The narrator was on point very good. i can say give it a read or listen. it is worth it.

FLAWLESS

This is a must-listen for any fantasy fan. It is beautifully written and the narrator is incredible! The story is joyful and yet realistic in a unique way. I don't want to spoil anything, simply give it a listen because this was the first listen in years that I was sad to have end.

definitely enjoyed listening to it

the book have his strengths and weaknesses in my perception so the strengths are the sense of humor used the imagination the magical lands creatures and the way everything came together

some of the things that I had some difficulty with
are things such as did the story did not stitch correctly the sum of the sense to try to use did not make sense if you pay attention to the story some of the fights winning and losing it seems just the thing that they offer I needed to make it happen but they didn't make it sensible to the characters and the progression

making boundless magic been creating boundaries can be a bit challenging so perhaps some guided rules concepts ideas and building something would have been advisable

enjoy the jokes and the sense of humor but would have liked more of it

some of the depths of some of the characters could have been in a bit deeper

the narrator made the wizard sound like the old guy that is kind of a pedophile in family Guy that was slightly amusing but maybe get tiring after a while


all together it was a fascinating world that may have a lot of different ways to be expressed and grown I would have been interested to hearing more about that universe and the way the magic with the grow there and not necessarily with the need of custodials despair and lots of violence though the world many good words of wisdom there

Endearingly Underwhelming

The Fantastically Underwhelming Epic of a Dead Wizard and an Average Bard, written by Kian N. Ardalan, lives up to its title at times, yet at other times is quite a fun story... so I'm torn. Ultimately I think it's a good story, and as the chapters progress, it gets more interesting... but occasionally, it flounders, and I can't help but think some more aggressive editing could have tightened up the story.

Set in a land in a time after magic has left the world, we follow the adventure of an unremarkable bard named George. He has a life goal of finding a forgotten, maybe mythical, place where the heart's desire can be granted.

He's fairly sure it exists. He has a magical talking skull tucked away in his rucksack that proves at least part of the myth is true... so surely the rest of it is.

The skull, a long, long dead wizard named Simantiar who lived in the time of magic. The most powerful wizard who ever existed but has since lost all of his memories and subsists on a diet of snarky remarks.

The narration by Kevin Kemp was well done. I could have lived without the slight whistle behind Simantiar's voice, but after a while, it stopped bothering me as much. The characters are all quite endearing, well, most of them, and Kemp does a great job voicing them as such.

Overall, I think I'll listen to this one again in the future. It was enjoyable enough to revisit, even if there were parts I thought dragged on a bit.

Fantastically Underwhelming Epic

One of the finest listening experiences I have had the pleasure of enjoying.
Respectfully,
Benny Woodcock

Too sweet!

Leaves you hungry for more adventures. Perfect character development, sappy and thoughtful. Miss that skull

Fantastic? Yes! Underwhelming? Nope!

This story drew me into it's world, a wholly realized world with fully fleshed out characters (pun intended)! I found myself entranced with the magical aspects and laughing at the banter between the main characters as they journeyed through the dangerous forest together.


I loved how the characters' back stories were woven into the main story, it felt natural and not like a large jump or abrupt insertion of information.

The narration was phenomenal in my opinion, giving life to each character while maintaining a smooth and and comfortable narration throughout.

I hope the author allows us more opportunities to visit this world, with or without returning characters!

Slow paced

If you like a LOT of backstory, you'll love this. I found the pacing extremely slow due to constantly returning to backstory. For a while, we couldn't even get through a chapter before heading back in time.