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.

Winner - Global Book Award.

Runner-up - Global Ebook Award.

Runner-up - Independent Publisher Book Award.

The men secured the shackles slowly, hesitantly, but Kibure did not resist; he couldn’t. Whatever otherworldly power had come over him in those moments of passion had fled his body the second he realized what he had done....

In a realm where only clerics are permitted to practice magic, Kibure’s inexplicable use of power places him in grave danger. In a twist of fate, the rogue priestess hired to strip him of his power chooses instead to help him escape. Her reasons for doing so are her own, but something worse than death awaits if they are unable to evade the Empire's most potent wielders.

This epic fantasy series will be especially enjoyed by fans of Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Michael J. Sullivan, Edward W. Robertson, and Michael Wisehart.

©2019 Derrick Smythe (P)2020 Podium Audio

Excellent fantasy

After what felt like years of drought in fantasy novels several new authors have emerged combining both talent at world building and writing skill. This is one of those authors. Narration is excellent too. What a treat!

Narrator killed the story

I never got past the narrator's voices to get into the story. I gave it until Chapter 5 and gave up.

WARNING MMCPOV

what does that mean to most, multiple main characters points of views, so if you believe that a story can/should have only 1 MC, please don't waste your time. Aesthetically the story is really engaging, and each character has distinctive quirks to make them more 3D. First of all let me state that structurally speaking there's nothing wrong with the story either. Some people can't stand the jumps from characters who are engaged in various different activities across the world because they're easily confused, but I don't mind. Personally my only structural issue is that the jumps in time for certain characters are not bringing you back to present before the character signs off and you are unsure of where in time you are for that character when it gets back to their turn. Definitely looking forward to more and a stellar narration

Interesting characters

The book has characters that I cared about but it just didn’t come together for me. I made it to the end but didn’t stay up past my bedtime to hear what happened.

interesting and unique

A well written story that combines a deep word building experience with subtle characters and wonderful potential. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

could have been good but...

I struggled listening to it. It was extremely slow, a lot of jumping around between events/characters, the narrators voicing of characters made it difficult to keep track of them. I really wanted to like the story and did get good, but only in the last three to four hours of the book, not good for a 20 hour book.

The main character did not do any developmen. In fact, he did not change at all during the story, only a couple of the side characters did. Maybe future volumes will be better since the story has developed to the point where there is one. Not sure if I will continue the series. I cannot recommend this one unless you like slow character growth and story development.

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.

A great if disjointed story

The overall story is good but with a mediocre narrator and far to many perspective shifts its hard to settle into.

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

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.