The Kingless Land

The Band of Four Series, Book 1

By: Ed Greenwood

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Aglirta is known as the Kingless Land. Once prosperous and peaceful, it has now fallen into lawlessness, studded with feuding baronies engaged in a constant state of war. The only hope for peace lies in the legend of the Sleeping King, destined to rise and restore peace when the Dwaerindim stones are recovered.

Lady Embra Silvertree is the sorceress daughter of a bellicose baron with an eye towards world domination. She has been imprisoned by her father, who hopes to use her as a magical battery to fortify his castle. When a pair of good natured rogues attempt to steal one of her jewel encrusted gowns, they are quickly enlisted as allies to help her escape and, with the aid of a shape-shifting cleric, to seek out the Dwaerindim.

©2000 Ed Greenwood (P)2001 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Pure listening pleasure….Enthusiastically recommended.” ( Library Bookwatch)

Awkward Paused and a Good Story

Narrator would periodically pause for just long enough for me to think my app had crashed.

Not a bad start.

It's a fun read, but definitely has that first book new series feel! Still it was solid enough to make me interested in reading the next. The narrator does a very good job!

Well performed, good plot but dialog

This was a good story that was well performed but the dialog was a bit confusing at times. sometimes closer to an Old English and others more like contemporary language.
overall, I enjoyed it!

Unwanted pausing

this book would pause unexpectedly and pick up again several times throughout the play back

Hard To Follow

The story was difficult to follow because of the sudden change of scenes with no warning. I’m an avid Audible reader and I have never had this much trouble following a story.

"A few issues place this one firmly at ""average""."

The Kingless Land is a fantasy book from an older mindset and storytelling style. It's use of language very traditional to the point of being overdone and the plot points within it equally so.
It's not a bad story by any means, but there are a few audio editing choices and writing quarks that put enough of a damper on the audiobook experience to keep it at the average mark.

First off, the pacing is awkward. If a listener is trying to multitask at all while listening to this, then they might find themselves rewinding a few times because they are taken off guard by a sudden unannounced jump to other character perspectives or scenes from a character's past.  These transitions are harsh, occurring mid action scene or, in one noticeable occasion, mid sentence.

Secondly,  the narrator's audio work is all over the place. Wanda McCaddon has a pleasant enough voice, but there are random pauses that were not edited out and mess with the pacing even further. She also seems to have a bit of trouble with the range of character voices that this book seems to need. To many characters sound the same for a story that jumps around this much.

As an audiobook experience this book is recommended to listeners with a lot of patience for simpler and older fantasy adventure themes. Those looking for something with more modern language, twists, or sense of humor might want to pass on this one until it's on sale.

great story

the story was a great one and the delivery from the narrator was sensational, and just added to the story. some parts where hard to follow, but with a quick rewind I could make sense of what was said.

Not the easiest to follow at times.

This book felt chaotic and at time tough to follow. Flash backs and screen changes didn’t flow and often took time to work out what was happening to whom.

What was with the narrator

It was really hard to follow the book because the narrator didn’t do a very good job from differentiating between two different characters it would pause awkwardly too often so you thought the chapter ended or the story was over.

it's rare that I give a review !

Don't waste your time with this one !! First of all it was read too fast. Secondly the story was too confusing. Even though the characters in the narration were somewhat easy to differentiate, it was read so fast that it was confusing. So yes, I struggled to finish it !!