The Memory Stone

By: Jeffrey Quyle

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

Theus is sold into servanthood by his poverty-stricken family and taken by his kindly master on a journey across a continent, following the course of the Landwide River. From there, he begins to learn the secrets of the memory stones, the extraordinary objects that can store information for people.

As Theus learns more about the world beyond his family's farm, learning to handle weapons and combatting the turbulent world around him, he discovers that the beautiful daughter of a high noble family, Coriae, is far beyond a commoner's reach - but he can dream.

Evil powers brewing in far-off places are spreading chaos across the world, and Theus becomes snared in troubles that seem to have nothing to do with him, until he finds that he has fallen into the center of the evil.Desperate to escape, Theus struggles to overcome the battles he's faced with. He almost seems to be back on track towards the success he has envisioned for himself. But evil is not ready to let him go so easily.

©2017 Jeffrey Quyle (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Entertaining and enjoyable

This is not a heavy duty sort of story. It’s a great story, similar in some ways to the Harry Potter stories (rated PG, I’d let my kids listen to it) but it was well done so it was a really lovely escape. I especially like the good vs evil vs crappy stuff happens sometimes and we have to deal with it and move on.

this actually books 1, and 2

I read the 4 books in like 3 nights! I also did this with this book lol. much of the swash buckling, pain, and growth of the main character you got from the books are brought to life by a good nararrator. good read and good listen!

All right, but nothing special.

So the best part of this book is the story synopsis. That sounds harsh as hell, but what I mean to say is that the premise, the setting, and the overarching plot is pretty cool - and that's what you see in the buyer's description. However, this book has some serious amateurisms that are quite hard to get past.
Pretty much all the issues with this book revolve around the main character. First and foremost is his bland personality. I can summarize his entire personality in 2 words: earnest and naive. He's so earnest that he feels absolutely no resentment at having been abandoned by his family and sold as a slave. Maybe he could have conflicted feelings or even be mislead into believing it to be his duty and eventually acknowledging the betrayal, but instead of that sort of interesting character inflection we get blandy bland do gooder. If you like generic harem anime protagonists this is your guy.
Secondly, our main character is entirely a passive protagonist. The world happens to him, he never acts on the world. This is a boring, lazy way of writing that really takes all the impact of projecting onto the main character because it stifles all of his growth. Sure he decides that he has to "stand up for whats right" but only because a girl told him to. He's literally just parroting others, not forming his OWN code. This is apparent even in the action scenes. Instead of desperately blocking and riposting an attack our main character will "see himself move" as if it were happening to another character. So there's plot reasons for that and all, but its still boring and removes any agency from our "hero".
I guess the entire premise is sort of based on some sort of way overdone chosen-one trope where hes being groomed to be a hero, but those grooming processes need profound self-reflection mixed with harsh training to be interesting. They serve as the pivotal foundation for our character. The more nuance the better. "Stand up for what's right," is not nuance, it just makes you roll your eyes and say, "get on with it."
Oh, the final issue I have here is the romantic interest. She's boring, and done poorly. Generic anime protagonist meet inconsistent generic anime tsundere. What I mean to say is that you get a bipolar girl who goes back and forth between awkward misunderstandings, outrage over nonsense, and friendliness... We're supposed to like her because of it and presume she has feelings for the main character because of it. 'nuff said.

Oh So generally I really dont care about narrators, but listened to a few of Peter Kenny's books and he drives me crazy. Every few lines, he'll arbitrarily lift his inflection. Try asking a question with an obvious ? at the end of it. Whats that? Huh? Try saying a random sentence particularly eagerly. The pitch of your voice goes up. But when you use that same sort of tone for a sentence like: "He loaded the bags onto the mule carts," it just sounds weird. Like if I read a book to you but decided to read every 4th line enthusiastically, but the rest as per normal.

The narrator is why I dropped this book. Despite that, this is the highest i've ever rated a dropped book. There is genuinely some good stuff in here, and while I wont recommend it, I definitely wont judge someone else for enjoying it.

Tired tropes and nothing new

Any additional comments?

Why does fantasy have to be so unrealistic? I don't mean the obvious things: magic, myths, gods, etc. I mean: why do people in fantasy settings have to rely on deus ex machina so much? Why can't they solve problems themselves or do things that make sense?

Here's a thing that always bothered me: it takes years, many of them, to master a martial art. Not a few days. Not a few weeks. Not even a few months. Years. Per art mastered. To even be passably good at one, you need at least many months. And if you doubt me, go down to your local boxing gym and see how fast you get your a** kicked. And ffs can anyone in a fantasy world ever really think for themselves or do they always need secondary characters, gods or something else to happen in order for them to have real thought.


Its not terrible. Its just not that good either.

Easy listening, intriguing story

What did you love best about The Memory Stone?

Well read story about a fictitious place where I wish I could go and visit. Love the concept of the memory stones. Enjoyed the adventure. The main character seems to have the luck of finding himself in many different adventures that could be fraught with many disadvantages and could be devastating but he keeps finding people who are "good" to help him out of his difficulties - and move his story and his discoveries along. I am very captivated by the mysterious voice - this book left me wanting more... which is why I liked this book, but also one of the reasons I didn't score this book higher. It left you hanging and audible doesn't have the next adventure available - so it felt incomplete in a big way - which if you are writing a book you should at least attempt to make the end into some kind of ending rather than just stopping the story with no thought to the listener. I would have been more forgiving if I could download the next book - but as a stand alone book - it doesn't. I am still curious what the next book will bring.

Entertaining story.

The events happening to Theus are mostly positive. Even though he has many life experiences, most turn out very positive. It is an uplifting story. I am looking forward to the continuation.

A Kind Read

I'm reading a lot of this genre lately as I recover myself from a serious illness. This was a very enjoyable tale set in a well thought out fantasy world. While there are mature themes, there's no overt smut, nor blood and guts so it's suitable for youngsters, but wouldn't disappoint adults either. I'll be reading the second installment for sure.

Great book

I really enjoyed the book. It has a great premise and the plot is well executed.

Two problems (that don’t ruin the book). First, the MC is often dense. He doesn’t act or react like a real person. I could give examples but I don’t want to give spoilers. Second, I hate the ending. If he had time to go to Gloria’s then he didn’t have to leave that night that was kind of a weird forced interaction.

A pleasant listen, but it may be too pleasant...

What made the experience of listening to The Memory Stone the most enjoyable?

The pacing and the magic system. The flow of the story from day to day, being with Theus along the way felt very natural and made the book easy to listen to. While there is not much magic overall, the memory stones bring an intriguing element to how the character overcomes 'challenges' and how the world works.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most interesting aspect was, of course, the use of the memory stones. But it also was the source of the least interesting aspect, which would be the ease at which the character solves his problems.

What about Peter Kenny’s performance did you like?

While an unknown narrator to me, Kenny's performance was great. The inflection for each character's voices and emotions enhanced the story and I didn't have any issues throughout.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The moments in which Theus helps people with the knowledge he gains from the memory stones always stood out.

Any additional comments?

Coming from other fantasy books, I wasn't expecting much because of other reviews. I admit that I enjoyed the story a lot more than I thought I would but I understand other listeners' qualms. People call him a Mary Sue and, while it's true, it's how the story is set up. Despite having all this knowledge, he stills makes mistakes, though not as much as I would have thought. Throughout the story, I predicted things to go awry, but it didn't.

In the end, it feels more like a guilty pleasure listening to The Memory Stone. I will be listening to part 2 to see how the story concludes.

Exceedingly Average...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. Absolutely nothing about this book stands out. It's almost impressive how utterly average it is.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would have liked a bit more conflict. Everything just goes so smoothly and so quickly it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I like light hearted stories, but this just feels.. hollow.

What aspect of Peter Kenny’s performance would you have changed?

He was fine. Not a huge variety of voices though.

Do you think The Memory Stone needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes but I don't think I would read it.

Any additional comments?

I think the reason I dislike this book the most is because it was so close to being good but the characters just fall flat for me at every opportunity and the story feels spread thin people just keep showing up developing and then vanishing forever. I never feel like the main character or anyone around him is in any real danger either, you know a magic voice is just going to give him everything he needs or he will just conveniently know something.

Let down

Thius is too weak persona to be the hero . story doesn't follow logic. not to my liking.