The Five Trials

By: Mike Truk

Narrated by: Leo Barnabas

Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

My name's Noah Kilmartin. I'm from Ruddock, Ohio, and I'm absolutely, 100 percent unqualified to save the universe from the slavering demonic hordes of the super evil bitch queen Lilith. Too bad nobody asked my opinion.

All I've got to do is pass five lethal trials that'll prove I'm the universe's last chance at salvation. To do so, I'll have to lean hard on those three years of Okinawan jiu-jutsu classes I took in high school, learn to wield my new magic sword, and, oh yeah - select five women to flesh out my team, bonding with each one for arcane purposes and desperately trying to stay alive in the process.

Piece of cake. Right?

Warning and minor spoilers: The Five Trials is a book intended for mature listeners age 18 years and older. It contains graphic sex, medieval violence, and nudity. People curse, piss their pants, hack off heads, get a little dizzy and tortured, seduce each other, try to seduce each other, and get scared witless by horrors from the darkest dimensions. Most importantly, you'll meet gorgeous, powerful women, some capable for hurling lightning, others of swinging battle-axes, and one that's Noah's unrequited crush from high school. All of them are willing to enter unconventional, polyamorous harem relationships if it means saving the universe, and luckily for Noah, this time it actually does.

©2018 Mike Truk (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Loved it by the end of chapter two.

The character's and the interactions between them feel real not forced like in some stories. The disclaimer is honest but even those interactions don't seem forced just for the sake of it.

Good story and enjoyable turns

I know people have complained about a weak MC, but what development of a MC do people want after just a couple of weeks being thrown into the fire. The MC does develop in the second book and the series leaves me wanting more.

Noah Kilmartin is an idiot!!!

Ok so he’s not really an idiot. What he is, though, is a super nerdy shy guy that gets thrust into a D&D-like world with his female best friend, who also happens to be his unrequited love interest, in which he has suddenly become the savior of the universe. Is he terrified of just about everything he comes across? Yes. Does he piss his pants, twice, in fright from what he has to face? Sadly, yes. Does he run from the responsibilities he has agreed to take upon himself in order to save the universe? No. Wait, what?? No, he doesn’t. What he does is power through the fear and terror and get. It. Done!

The book is well written and decently paced. The characters are relatable. The story is a rollercoaster ride from start to finish!

Now for the bad news, and that is the narrator. He sounds almost exactly like Casey Kasim, which made me feel like he was about to start announcing the top 40 countdown. That’s not necessarily the bad part, though. The bad part is the way he narrated made me feel like I should be listening to a children’s book instead of an X-rated adult fantasy novel, and his voice transitions weren’t very good. These, all in all, seemed more like semantics in the light of the biggest issue I have with him, which is he seems to slur his speech periodically throughout the book making it sound like he was drunk during certain parts of the story. Maybe I’m hearing things, because I am slightly hearing impaired, but that’s what I hear.

All in all, I enjoyed the book immensely and am currently halfway through the second book. If you weren’t too thrilled with this book because of your idea of the way you thought the mc should act, I highly recommend you continue the series. It gets WAY better in the second book.

Keep up the good work, Mike! Noah is a character I can highly identify with!!

*Disclaimer: 4 stars solely because of the narrator and nothing to do with the story. Otherwise it would be 5!*

great story. but he main character..

the story is great. some times all over the place, in wording of worlds. but you can understand and get behind. he main character is ...well if he's made to be disliked, they got it spot on. Repeat, after crying repeat. but not horrible

meh.

The mc is cringy and the supportting characters are shallow. Ill keep going, but so far it is overall lackluster.

A Great Story

Noah wasn't really prepared to be sucked to another world and it shows. This isn't a case where our MC starts out as some super badass ninja. He's a regular guy thrown into extraordinary circumstances. This was a great start to the series and it just keeps getting better as you go through them.

Fantastical Fiction, Not your ordinary haremlit.

Where do I begin? It's not the genre that makes this audiobook what it is, nor is it the premise necessarily. Mike Truk paints a world and cast of characters that feel as though you know them. Settings are drawn as words on canvas, and Mike's use of vivid imagery transports you to where you never thought you would go. Some writing in this genre is only propelled forth by use of adult themes and Power Fantasy, but I did not feel that. Our MC is no hero, and only fills the role because he has to. Because he needs to. And while some might cry foul of certain fantastical elements seemingly happening for no reason, let me remind you Frodo was saved last minute by some damn birds on a fiery mountain, and that was turned into three movies.

In the end, I find the 5 Trials to be the LotR of haremlit, except Frodo gets a fellowship of beautiful, complex, and badass babes. Highly recommend.

Good concept so so execution

the author has a great premise here, however, the problem is it's poor execution. The issue with this book is not its storyline but the narrator itself. Hes a mediocre narrator and it is very difficult for someone to understand what's going on. What I mean by that is you can't get emotionally involved in the book because the entire time you're listening your trying to parse allow what the narrator's feelings or is trying to do with the character even to the point of being like I don't understand who I am listening to because they're Boyce's sound the same think it's quite annoying. For me it was a struggle due to the narrator I want to like this book but I can't because of the narrator and it's quite unfortunate because I feel like if it was someone else like a Jeff Hayes this wouldn't be an issue.

First chapter kind of sucks.

Slow build to adventures. Fast paced and overly articulated during "action" situations.

Rather crude with the "romantic" scenarios. Author uses words that could offeend; cock, pussy, tit, cum, and cunt.

truly amazing

this is one of the best series ive listened to. ive never had so much trouble predicting where the story would go and was blown away with mikes imagination. the narrator could use a little work on female voices in a book dominated by female characters but overall he did an amazing job as well.