The Lost Sentinel

Silent Sea Chronicles, Book 1

De: Suzanne Rogerson

Narrado por: George Ellington

The magical island of Kalaya is dying, along with its Sentinel.

The Assembly controls Kalaya. Originally set up to govern, they now persecute those with magic and exile them to the Turrak Mountains.

Tei, a tailor’s daughter, has always hidden her magic, but when her father’s old friend visits and warns them to flee to the mountains, she must leave her old life behind.

On the journey, an attack leaves her father mortally wounded. He entrusts her into the care of the exiles and on his deathbed makes a shocking confession.

Struggling with self-doubt, Tei joins the exiles search for their new Sentinel who is the only person capable of restoring the fading magic. But mysterious Masked Riders are hunting the Sentinel too, and time, as well as hope, is running out.

Against mounting odds it will take friendship, heartache, and sacrifice for the exiles to succeed, but is Tei willing to risk everything to save the island magic?

If you like character-based fantasy, then you’ll love The Lost Sentinel - book one in the Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy.

©2017 Suzanne Rogerson (P)2020 Suzanne Rogerson

Fresh take on high fantasy

Parents this is not for teens, while the sexual content isn’t explicit it is definitely in the grey area headed for borderline. The language is moderately heavy (no f-bombs) but when you add the sexual content with the strong allusions to intimate relations, bursting bodices, and talk of rape, plus the magic and medieval battle violence, slit throats, hanging, physical violence, drowning, suicide, assassins, etc.... It easily becomes an R rating.

The story is enjoyable and, like others have mentioned, the world building is fantastic. The POV switching was ok for the most part, but can be a bit confusing when you switch at a pivotal moment without any real warning. If you enjoyed Tolkien than this will be up your ally but not quite the same. Based off the description I expected Te to be more of a “go-getter” and less the “damsel in distress.” Maybe she grows more into that role later in the series but it isn’t terribly apparent here. I don’t mind the plethora of characters; however, the switching between their stories even when the stories started to join together was a bit burdensome from a listening standpoint—I’m sure from a kindle or physical reading vantage this would be less of a problem.

The narrator has a cool accent, differentiations are fairly clear, sound effects are interesting but a bit distracting/jarring. He is well suited to this book.

Overall an enjoyable book, I could personally do with fewer sound effects as they can be a tad overly prevalent in key parts of the story.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

AMAZING LISTEN!!!!

Thank you Suzanne for this amazing story

I don't review often but when I do its because I have found something I REALLY enjoyed. The narration of this book was one of the best performances i have heard during my audible experience. Cliffhanger but thank god book two is here!

I highly recommend this book and cant wait to listen to the next!!! Trust me its worth it.

Just listen to the sample to hear the amazing narration.

wonderful

A unique and fresh take on high fantasy, well welcomed. Lots of POV shifting however it is in a concise manner, dont worry easy to follow so you're not lost and it adds an extra layer to the story especiallywhen the pieces begin to come together. Wonderful and expansive world building beautifully displayed with no info dumps and you're not left drowning in extra seemingly useless fluff trying to figure out how it is relevant to the story. Once it hit the rising action it lagged a tad momentarily but not much and picked right back up, well built rising action and climax that culminated beautifully leaving me wanting so much more. I cant wait for the next book in the series.

The narrator was really good , perfectly suited to this story, really bringing the characters to life. He has an great voice, good vocal range and fantastic pacing. He had clear and concise enunciation. Only complaint was the spound effects.

I loved this book!

Everything about it was awesome. From the narrator to the sound effects. The storyline was very intriguing. I would definitely recommend this book

stellar performance

good story and the narrator makes even the slow parts entertaining. definitely worth it for the perfect blend of background sound effects and multiple characters enacted by one person

Epic fantasy at its finest

This book was great. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten lost in a fantasy series, and this was a welcome diversion from the real world. The first book in this series is like Tolkien meets Ursula le Guin. A hidden gem that I highly recommend for all fans of classic “sword and sorcery”

Wow, what an interesting story

I'm ready for the next book in the series in hopes that Rathnor gets bumped off before the destroys the city. it makes sense why he wants no magic in the city. it's because he wants to rule undetected.

Another perfect performance

Suzanne and George are the perfect pair. I can't wait for more! The writing and narration belong together.

YES!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I first read this book on Kindle and I loved it, I jumped at the chance to get this book on audible and to get it for free was even better! I absolutely love this book and cannot wait for the second in the series. There are so many questions that need to be answered. The narrator was really good and well suited to this story. He has an awesome voice and fantastic pacing.

Mostly a Romance

It was OK. Tei is mostly our central character but she spends a lot of time being protected by the guys, usually carried around like precious luggage. In reading the description for this book, I was looking forward to having a female lead who got stuff done. But for most of the book she is almost helpless, barely making it from scene to scene, almost always with the assistance of this guy or that dude. Then there’s the romance. It seems that any guy who spends a bit of quality time with Tei falls in love with her, so it gets a bit weird with the various male protectors who come courting.

We do get a good start to some world building at the beginning of the book. Then there’s the politics, which I felt added to the plot. Initially, there’s some definite danger and running from danger. Though there was that moment where Tei and her guys are all hiding under some shrubs along a road and Masked Riders are hunting them. I couldn’t help but think of that scene in the LotR movies where Frodo and the Hobbits are evading the Ring Wraiths, hiding off the side of the road.

After that, the romantic elements become more pronounced and that was a bit of yawn for me. The politics did keep my interest a bit longer but then got a bit predictable. I struggled a bit to get through this slump in the middle. The ending does pick up a bit as betrayal and the threat of death loams over Tei. There’s a nice little twist at the end which could make the rest of the series better.

While I can see the story has a decent arc and is written well enough, it didn’t spark anything for me. Sadly, I was bored with most of it. 3.5/5 stars.

The Narration: George Ellington has a lovely voice that is quite pleasant to listen to. However, with the story having a female lead, I jumped into this book expecting a female narrator. While Ellington had distinct voices for all the characters, his female voices needed some femininity. Then there’s the sound effects. They were odd. Oddly timed. Odd sounds. I could sometimes tell what they were right away and sometimes I was left guessing. The pacing was good and there were no real technical issues with the recording. 3.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Suzanne Rogerson. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.