The Frozen Flame: Publisher's Pack

The Frozen Flame, Books 1-2

By: Paul J. Bennett

Narrated by: Tim Bruce

Length: 24 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Contains books 1 and 2 of The Frozen Flame series.

Magic is the key...but will it save them, or consume them?

Ashes, book 1:

For Natalia, there is no choice. Trained as a battle mage, she has the potential to be the most powerful spellcaster the family has ever produced. Yet their price is too high.

Meanwhile, Athgar's life is about to change forever. On the day his village is burned to the ground, his magical potential is released by the very fire that nearly consumed him. He is driven by revenge until he learns he may not be the only survivor.

Now, Natalia is on the run from her family, while Athgar desperately hunts for his. Together, they journey across the continent, searching for clues of a conspiracy that has remained secret for years.

Will their enemies destroy them before they discover the truth?

Embers, book 2:

Natalia and Athgar are safely ensconced in the sleepy town of Ostermund when a chance encounter leads them on a trail of deceit that implicates an old ally.

After discovering who is behind the plot, they must make a choice, stay hidden or risk everything in the name of friendship!

Athgar, descendant of a vanquished people, wants only to protect that which he holds most dear.

Natalia, now secure in her powers, seeks peace, but the ever-growing shadow of the family threatens all she has fought for.

Together, they embark on a path where even their success could spell defeat, for this battle may start a war that none can stop.

Discover a land infused with magic and mystery as Paul J. Bennett's newest series, The Frozen Flame, begins. Curl up with your copy, and enjoy a spellbinding tale today!

©2019 Paul J. Bennett (P)2020 Podium Audio

this book a a recurring issue thats very annoying

there are quite a few moments when the Main characters go into shock and don't acknowledge what's going on around them which in certain situations it should have go them killed like the murder standing right in front of the MC yet the murders that have no mercy for no reason don't kill them until someone shows up then they try to kill them .
then the MC gets his things stolen from him even though he was just warned that would happen people are really weak in this book pathetically weak seriously the MC trips falls on his face breaks his nose, concusses himself then passes out WOW.

Why is 0-stars not an option?

In all fairness, he put the effort in to write a story, and came up with a plot that was, if far from original, at least written from a different perspective (orcs as the "good guys"). I'm trying to think of another positive thing to say, but it's harder than finding the proverbial Needle in a Haystack.
Listening to this book was like watching a video of someone removing 10lbs of cyst from a gaping hole in his side - It's just so awful that you cannot look away.
The narrator has 2 voices he uses: One for humans, and one for orcs. It is exactly the same voice for male and female of each species, making it often a surprise that the person speaking is actually female.
It is painfully clear that the author has precisely zero life experience. He has no concept of physics, social interactions, or love. I'm pretty sure he is also a virgin living in his Mom's basement. One example: His characters regularly praise each other as "very wise" for stating the obvious (e.g. Orc: "...our village is being attacked. we must decide whether to fight them, or run away and leave these lands forever". Main Character: "Wow. You are so smart. I didn't realize that you were such a brilliant tactician". Orc (with a smile): "That is because I am channeling all of the wisdom and experience of my Orc ancestors".) I'm paraphrasing, but that conversation actually happened in this book.
The "magic system" (if you can even call it that) is about as sophisticated as someone "dropping trou" and having a bowel movement in the middle of a busy sidewalk...and that is the best thing I can say about it.
Paul Bennet has the vocabulary of a high school sophomore, and the emotional intelligence of a 3rd grader. I honestly feel less intelligent for having listened to this.
Paul, if you read this, all I can suggest is that you go out into the world and experience some of the social interactions that you're attempting to write about. It might help.

Ok background noise at work

The writing is severely lacking, someone please mail the author a thesaurus so I don't have to listen to 'gesticulate' over and over. If you said a high schooler wrote this I would believe it as that's about the level of writing and character development in this book. It feels like this book would really improve with some proper editing for word usage and structure.

That being said it does have some good elements of world building, just enough to catch your interest here and there. Enough that it makes it frustrating the writing isn't better honestly. It is very lengthy, and the voice is calm and smooth. If you have a boring job that doesn't require much attention this book is great background noise. No need to pay close attention to it, very long so you don't have to find a replacement after one shift, but it's entertaining enough to make the day pass much faster.

I'm glad this was a free book, it wouldn't be worth the cost of a credit.

loved the book!

Great book, enjoyed it very much. narrator also very good. one of those books you want to keep listening to!

fine entertaining story delivered flawlessly

please note that the order of the books is incorrect the second book is actually the first book in the publisher pack. but it is a fine listen indeed

Warning, Sexual content.

interesting story. Skillfully written. The author did not waste time virtue signaling modern feminist woke themes, so it was no surprise in chapter 18 when he did the obvious move for most modern writers, and shoehorned in anti-christian morality in the favored form of consequence free, out of wedlock, sex between the 2 main hero characters. A trope that is as ubiquitous as it is tiring.

Very Weak

I tried to make it through the first book and could not manage it. The story is very weak, predictable, and convenient. There are good bones, but I have to assume the author just doesn’t have enough experience yet. I didn’t look the author up, but I would deduce they are very young. The writing style makes it almost impossible to immerse oneself in the story. The constant “He said”/“She said” is jarring, and the frequent attempts to insert light banter is forced and annoying. I can tolerate romance if it isn’t the main story line, but the romance in this book is like reading young fanfic.

The narrator has a very pleasant voice, but his inflections and ability to portray characters is lackluster.

Fantastic narration

The story was well written, though it’s not the most original of plots. It still kept my attention and left me wanting to hear the rest of the series. The narration was excellent, with distinctive voices and dialects for the different characters and races. Definitely recommend.

A story where everyone is an idiot

I don't know how this has the good reviews it has. True it is not the worst book I've ever read, but it is most definitely up there. The plot is pretty generic. The character development is virtually nonexistent. And not a single character has any understanding about their world. For instance:

Main character: What is your profession?
Merchant: I'm a merchant! You?
Main character: I'm a Bowyer.
Merchant: uh...what's a Bowyer?

Like. Really? How does a merchant not know where the bows he sells come from? And this isn't an isolated event either. The male main character gets a little bit of a pass because he was from a tiny village in the middle of no where. But the female main character is supposed to be educated, and she knows less than nothing. For example:

"Don't use a fork."
"why?"
"Water will run right through it, and it'll take you ages to transfer water from the well to the bucket."
"Then what should I use?"
"You should use a cup or spoon."
"But why?"
"Because they have no holes in them, and will hold water better."
"Oh I see. You're so wise."
"Yes I know, I am quite experienced."

This is a bit of a hyperbole, yes, but it's the formula of how every single interaction goes with any kind of "new" to the story task or event or item or whatever. Literally everything is spoon fed. That'd be alright if it was intended for kids, but it's most definitely not a kids or even YA book. It's super, super basic.

All that said it isn't the absolute worst. It's simple and basic. Easy to follow for the most part. And since the narrator has a fairly nice voice it makes good background noise.

Speaking of the narrator. Not the absolute worst, but damn. He is at least not monotone, and he has the right pauses and inflections (for the most part). But he has two "voices": orks, and everything else. It's so hard to follow which character is saying what because he uses the same voice for everyone. Still. Could be worse.

So overall... Yeah. It's not the worst, so I am able to finish it. But is definitely isn't good.

Amazing!!

On top of an awesome epic tale, this was a great listen. The voice actor did incredible work here! The characters all has unique voices that carried throughout the story. The races all shared the same accents. Superb listen!!

A ripping good yarn

I really enjoyed this book, the performance was a little flat though. The story line wasn't the usual run of the mill adventure which was a pleasant change

It’s was enjoyable and very stereotypical

If you like the classic story of a great mage who’s power is unmatched and everyone they meet along the way is so trusting then this is the book for you, I just found it a bit too predictable and narration was monotone. I did really enjoy the battles however as they were more descriptive

character's motivation not believable...

character's motivation not believable at any point, and seeming all characters other than the protagonists are a bit thick...

very well narrated but with awkward characters

It was nearly carried by the narrator but awkward characters ruined the story.
I think the author was trying to portray how trust can develop between people from completely different backgrounds but it just leads to awkward dialog which is difficult to work through.
I got about halfway through the first book in the series before giving up.

seems like a good story

i like the setting and the story seems good. but the writing is clumsy. after listening for six hours or so, i could no longer put up with the meaningless prattle between the protagonists.
a shame.
the narrator does a good job with weak material.

basic. but got me to sleep. no character building

2 dimensional and story seemed dependent on dialogue. not too much character or situation building. it just races along. not too sophisticated but ok for free. actually the second book teaser seemed more interesting. perhaps it improves....

OK for a free book

The actual storyline for these books is pretty good. I enjoyed that. However the delivery of that storyline I didn't enjoy as much. The sheer amount of dialogue was infuriating, especially considering it was poorly written, highly repetitive, and mostly unnecessary. Every conversation included at least one word that someone didn't understand or had never heard of before. so we had to listen to the dumb explanation for it. it was like every character in this world was stupid.
The narration was pretty dull.
I did stick it out to the end though in hopes that it did get better, but the quality stayed the same unfortunately.

I will put it out there though that the action scenes were very good. If you can put up with the unneeded dialogue then it's a decent book considering it was free.

Fantasy at it's finest

I suppose you can still call an audiobook a pageturner... Because this was amazingly written and narrated

I've not fell to sleep as quick

I have no idea on story plot or anything but the teller had me asleep in no time
even when waking I can't tell you Anything

Yes

While I think I found the story enjoyable, I had some issues. The vocabulary used isn't very broad, and there's an excessive use of the words "yes" in all conversations that could have been replaced with e.g. "indeed" "of course" "I see" and probably some other options to spice up the experience a bit.

I'm not sure whether to blame the author, reader or editor for this next one, though I suspect one of the latter. Either there's a big lack of punctuation in the book, or the reader/editor decided to disregard lots of them. Several other authors I've read, use a "big" paragraph split(shown below) to indicate a shift in perspective or time within the chapter.

------------

Though here some of those sounded like they were part of the same sentence, but they lacked coherence. I had to pause and go back on several occasions to get ahold of the story again. I could compare it to watching sports, where the commentator suddenly swapped from the end of a hockey match your were watching, to a ski jumping contest without pausing for breath. You would be momentarily stunned until you understood what just happened.

TL;DR: Yes yes yes without punctuation or paragraphs