The Last Ranger

Ranger of the Titan Wilds, Book 1

By: J.D.L. Rosell

Narrated by: Imogen Church

Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Betrayed. Hunted. Left for dead. But not even death itself can keep the last ranger from vengeance.

Leiyn “Firebrand” is no stranger to a fight. A brash ranger of the Titan Wilds, she takes up her bow to ward against the colossal spirit creatures known as titans, ever a threat to the colonies she has sworn to protect.

But no amount of skill can guard against treachery.

When tragedy strikes the rangers’ lodge, Leiyn vows to avenge the fallen. But if she is to succeed, she must embrace a power within her she has long denied.

Power to move mountains and rivers.

Power over life and death.

She did not choose this path, but Leiyn knows her duty. For if she fails, the legacy of the rangers dies with her—and all the Titan Wilds will fall into shadow.

The Last Ranger is an epic fantasy tale full of friendship, magic, resilience, vengeance, and wonder. If you enjoy archery, fantasy rangers, and small party adventures, then start this new journey with the first book in the Ranger of the Titan Wilds series.

©2022 J.D.L. Rosell (P)2022 Podium Audio

Fantastic read

Great story, great characters, and a world I am already excited to return to. And an absolutely brilliant performance by Imogen Church.

Top notch world building

Narration was excellent. Story length was a nice length so it did not feel rushed. I thought it had a few segments that could have been clipped due to beaten over the head repetition. Like we get it, the MC is hot headed, youve said that 100x now. The World Building and deep Lore reminded me of "Whispers of Mirrowen" series.

Enchanted reader

Excellent story 👏 can't wait to devour the rest,narrator voice has lovely foreign lylt.

Great story!

I love how it shows how prejudice can be grown and possibly/hopefully shed! If you love a badass female protagonist, you’ll live this book. ;)

Fantastic Worldbuilding!

I flew through this lovely story and am more than ready for book 2 please!

Good Storyline with Depth to the Characters

There's some depth to the protagonist as she grows emotionally from childhood trauma and beliefs. This story isn't riveting but it's a good consistent storyline and the longer it goes the more I like the characters.

I’m tiered

I needed this story to take me away from the insanity in this world. Yet it’s main character has the exact character traits of as so many of hate and hurt others.

Ignorance isn’t an excuse I can accept. Maybe if there were more psychological torture in her past then maybe I could accept the torture this book brings on to me.

For now with four hours remaining in the book things are finally looking up. But I'm too tired to continue. Many people need the lessons this girl is learning. But for me, it's torture to have the main character you want to be the hero, be the villain for so so many hours.

Besides that there are a few more annoyances to this book. Words that are commonly thought of as another thing are not the same in this book, and there is no attempt to explain otherwise.

There is a little introduction to the new things made up in this universe.

And yet again, another author, who can't see the naming trap of being tied to similar sounds. It's common for writers and regular people to only think about words that start with the same letter or sound that they initially started with. Yet as has been taught in so many lectures, you need to make sure that those who stay together the longest need to have completely opposite names. I'm adding this part. Not because these names are extremely similar, but because the last 10 new books I have read or listen to have been making this mistake. And here is enough of an error to start bringing this up again in reviews.

Veneration is pretty good. Maybe quite good. I can't think at this time what they could have done to fix the naming confusion. But there are some narrators out there that understand the naming trap and emphasize different parts of a name to make them more unique. Sadly this narrator appears not to know of this, or just couldn't figure it out… in my opinion, it would have been simple.

Time for a break. I'll be back to this book to finish it for sure. If you are not mentally exhausted like I am, you should definitely get this book. Possibly in text though.

JDL Does it Again!

JDL Rosell does it again! It took me a few hours of audio to feel fully invested, but once I did, the story swept me away.

Our main protagonist, Leiyn, experiences the full gamut of loss while grappling with a life-long disdain for an entire people that grows increasingly difficult for her to reconcile. Her multi-faceted transformation throughout this journey is inspiring. While most of the general themes have been done again and again, the execution is what matters and Rosell executes with precision. I found the perfect balance of action, intrigue, and for lack of a better word, interestingness. I felt like I was along for the adventure and to be honest, wished I could have remained in places longer even if nothing else of consequence occurred. The grove of the Dryvans, for instance, was particularly intriguing. They were one of my favorite creative elements of the story. The superb narration captured their quirkiness perfectly, I hope they show up again later in the series.

I found The Last Ranger to be very much in line with Rosell’s other work, which means it contained several beautiful descriptions, the kind that encourage you to pause and soak in the moment. At other times, the immersive writing makes the experience seem effortless as the story unfolds before your mind’s eye.

Well written but tedious

This book likely could have been half as long. Everything was drawn out. I kept trying to enjoy it, but it was boring for me. It is more of an internal struggle against racism than an adventure story. The descriptions of the struggle was what kept boring me.

The reader also kept trying to make each sentence dramatic, which didn’t help. It felt like they were a radio advertiser trying to sell in each sentence. It got tiring too.

Fun and exciting

Enjoyed the story as well as the narrator I’m looking forward to the next edition!