The Other Magic

Passage to Dawn, Book 1

By: Derrick Smythe

Narrated by: Greg Patmore

Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Winner - Pinnacle Book Achievement Award
Runner-Up - Independent Publisher Book Awards
Finalist - Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Awards 

Darkness stirs in a world that is ill-equipped to confront it.

A prophesied king is born, but not all will benefit from his foretold conquests. In a realm where only clerics are permitted to practice magic, Kibure, a mere slave, draws the attention of much more than just his master after wielding an unknown force in a moment of desperation. In a twist of fate, Sindri, the priestess hired to strip Kibure of his power, defies the law, revealing designs of her own. But trust is in short supply in a land ripe with deceit. This wayward pair will have to work together if they hope to evade capture at the hands of the Empire's most potent wielders. 

Halfway around the known world, Aynward's knack for discovering trouble drives him deep into conspiracies within which he does not belong. Too arrogant to accept counsel, he will have to learn the hard way that some actions have consequences that cannot be undone....

For epic fantasy fans of Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Michael J. Sullivan, Patrick Rothfuss, and Michael Wisehart.

©2019 Derrick Smythe (P)2020 Podium Audio

GoodStory.zip

The prose is awesome and the plot moves quickly but those two together make this a very dense read. There are many different characters with their own stories lines and a few flashbacks spread out. While this does come together nicely later in the book, it's hard to keep track of who is who. One extra sentence in each chapter to remind me which character goes with that name would make it a lot easier to read.

All that said, I love the diction, this is a very interesting world, and I am excited for the sequel. If you are willing to listen closely or rewind every now and then, I definitely recommend this book.

Double threat

The book was great in and of itself, the reviews on the in print page speak for themselves. The author clearly understands the nature of young people and captures them so well. This story is both satisfying as a stand alone but also builds an epic world one can help but wanting to return to.

The audio version of this story is amazing! I wish the voice in my head sounded like Greg's voice...life would be so much more entertaining. His performance brought these characters to life and made it even easier to be transported to their world.

Overall a great performance on top of an already great read

Great story (esp. if you skip Aynward's chapters)!

I really enjoyed this story and think the author is very skilled and has great promise! My only complaint is that I found the character of Aynward (sp?) superfluous (i.e., I found his character so annoying that I just started skipping his chapters halfway through the book. I don't think I missed anything of note from doing this). I look forward to reading the next book (esp. if the author kills off Aynward)!

Good Plot, Good hook, Narrator and loop killed it

I liked the story, but most of the time I listened i just wanted it to end. The narrator had an accent at the end of every word that made him sound like a kid making fun of a teenagers voice. The author has a loop for the chapters and doesn't stray far from this pattern :

Chap 1 Protagonist
Chap 2 Antogonist
Chap 3 Side Charactor

(might have chap 2 and 3 swapped)

so every time you ready a chapter you have to wait two chapters to find out what's next and the worst part for me was SPOILER 📢 ⚠️ 🚨 📢 ⚠️ 🚨 📢 ⚠️ 🚨






The main character spent almost half the damn book in a cage, like 8 hours into the book he finally gets out of the cage. After 20 hrs I barely know the MC. That said, the first 14-16 hours of the book was a rough read, from 16-20 was pretty good and engaging. the last 5 mins of the book makes me want to read the next one but i probably won't because the narrator and chapter loop killed it for me.

All in all I think this is a 3-3.5 star book, not bad but not awesome.

Too Slow and Drawn out

I listened to the first 10 chapters and then skipped to Chapter 35ish to see if the story had changed at all and it hadn't. the MC was still in the same situation that he was in back in chapter 5. Even listening at 1.5 speed the book it still pretty slow moving. Jumping around between 4 or 5 characters for them to not accomplish anything or move forward at all, makes this feel like a waste. After skipping 1/3 of the book I am throwing in the towel. If the story progressed a bit fast or was a bit more interesting for the first 45 chapters I would be willing but. I skipped 35 chapters and from what I can tell I didn't miss anything. Sucks, I was really intrigued by the summary of the book but it was a let down for me. hopefully other people enjoy it a bit more.

Boring 😴 😴 😴

the characters just suck at life. I get creating suspense, but it isn't suspense if if you always know that it won't work out for the main characters

Yawn....

There are slow stories and then there is this. It has potential, but at least half the book goes by and very little has changed. I recommend listening to the first hour and then skipping the next 9 hours. You won’t miss anything important and you will get 8 hours of your life back. From then on it starts to pick up speed to a slow crawl

Great start

This is a great start to a new saga, very good character development and interesting magic system.

awesome book

loved it, when is the next one coming out? the end seemed kinda rushed but was good

Good start, where is the rest?

This books does not end. The narration stop due to lack of text to read, but the story does not reach an acceptable stopping point. This whole first book is just character and world building, and that's about it. I hope the rest of the series provides a satisfying ending to the story.

Great find from a new author

Great opening book, listened to in a few days. I really liked the fact that the seperate characters in the book actually acted like their age for once. It is a slow but pleasing storyline and good ending. Looking forward to reading the next book. My only criticism is minor. The individual chapters are so short and tend to end on a bit of a cliff hanger. Got a bit draining when listening for a long time and made getting into the novel a bit harder but that's just personal preference so 5 stars all the way.

Slow start, brillaint finish.

Books like this: The Cycle of Arawn, Wheel of Time, Licanius Trilogy.

TLDR: A classic action/adventure that sets the stage for the series to come. A slow start but a very entertaining end, this series has the potential to go far if the quality and pacing of this book’s latter half is the basis for those to come.

This book started of slow, dangerously slow. Of the four main characters we were introduced to at the beginning, only one had a storyline that really hooked me in, and I nearly threw in the towel. However, as has happened a fair few time now, I stuck with it and am so glad that I did, because by the halfway mark I was entertained and by the end I was engrossed.
So what happens in this book? Well, the backdrop is the story of how a nation of religious fanatics are trying their damnedest to destroy all other forms of magic while also planning their massive invasion to spread their particular brand of bigotry to all corners of the world. Our four main characters fall into this story with one being a prophesised saviour sent to destroy the evil empire, another being the high priest sent to track and kill said saviour, an ex-priest who wants to capture said saviour for her own personal reasons, and finally there is a prince of a neighbouring kingdom who is being sent off to study at university. Of the four, it was the prince’s storyline that I found engaging enough in the beginning to keep me listening, but as the story progresses, so too does the action, intrigue, and entertainment.
The writing style is solid. Derrick Smythe neatly avoids the sin of blathering purple prose whilst crafting an engaging universe with a deep history that all adds up to set a solid foundation for the rest of the series, neatly providing enough information that everything in the book makes sense. I was never lost in this book despite a lot of info being fired at me at times. It takes genuine talent to walk that fine line, and Smythe appears to have done it well. There are also couple of other standout aspects of the book which I think are worthy of drawing some attention to.
First are the chapters from our mage-hunting high-priest. The portrayal of a fanatic that isn’t just some tropey caricature of your generic religious nutjob was wonderful. This is a three dimensional person whose motives and objectives are neatly explained, meaning that when he does the horrible things that he inevitably will do, we understand his justification and, although being unlikely to agree with him, we can relate at least to some degree as to why he is doing them. One of the other standout moments of the book that I have to mention is (without giving too much away) a fairly small part that tickled my personal preferences no end. So many times in other books, something bad will be happening to a character and we as listeners/readers (or at least me personally) will be left wanting to scream at said character not to just sit back and take the bad thing lying down, to do something about what is happening even if it ends up way worse for them down the line. There was one such moment in this book, a moment where I was left thinking that there was no need for said character to meekly take the beating he was about to get just because everyone else was, only for my wish to be wonderfully fulfilled as if said character could hear my inner yearning. Refusing to take the beating may have worked out poorly for said character in the end, but by god it was glorious to listen to. The single greatest aspect of a book that I can personally look for is producing within me a sense of satisfaction, and this reversal in the beatdown was one of the most satisfying payoffs I’ve ever listened to. Bravo.
Now for some of my pet peeves. As I said, slow start, and then throughout there isn’t a whole bunch of action. I know that my craving for action is an entirely personal preference, but I love a good fight scene and there were very few until the end of the book. And after all the build-up of armies massing and what not, we aren’t even given a decent battle. Missed a trick there I think. Next is the length of the chapters. I know, this is really pedantic, but because every time the character perspective shifted there was a new chapter, I was left thinking multiple times that some of these chapters couldn’t have even been a page long. I think Smythe should have just bitten the bullet and had a couple of perspective shifts in the same chapter. The characters are well written enough that it would take little effort to ensure that the audience knows there has been a switch, and it would make the whole novel flow just a little easier.
In summation, not a wild ride of a book but (at least by the second half) it is more than engrossing enough to keep you listening and listening and listening. I loved the world that Smythe has built and, as is the ultimate seal of approval in these matters, I will definitely be buying the sequel as soon as it is released, mainly because the book up and ends just as it is getting to the really, really good stuff. A book well worth a listen.

As for the narration, well, I actually wasn’t all that keen on this one. I don’t want to be disparaging, because the level of talent it takes to voice so many characters to really high standards is astounding, but I just didn’t gel with Greg Patmore’s performance. It often sounded like his characters were unable to open their mouths fully, like they had a small collection of pebbles in their cheeks that they were desperate to keep concealed. And often it seemed like the only difference between some of the character voices was the quantity of said pebbles within their cheeks. There were some brilliant voices in this book, however this only drew even more attention to those that were, at least in my opinion, a little sub-par. By the end I had grown accustom to all his portrayals, but it took a long time and did reduce my overall enjoyment of what was otherwise a very entertaining novel.

Personal Score: 3.75 stars
Professional Score: 4 stars