The Risen Shard

The Chain Breaker, Book 1

By: D. K. Holmberg

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

An assassin with no rival meets a magic he cannot defeat. The Chain Breaker series begins.

Trained to kill from a young age, Gavin Lorren finally escaped that life. No more killing innocents. No more working alone. The jobs are still dangerous, but at least he can choose.

Now an old friend has invited him to the city of Yoran where the work is plentiful. The Roasted Dragon tavern is rough but cozy. The regulars are seedy but welcoming. The owner, Jessica, is fond of him. It's almost too good to be true.

His good fortune is fleeting. Gavin finds himself facing a new enemy, fast and deadly El'aras warriors - an ancient race with innate magical talent. By the time he learns sorcery is involved, he's in too deep. To succeed, he’ll have to uncover parts of his past that he'd hoped to forget.

It will take an assassin without equal to survive.

It will take the Chain Breaker.

©2020 ASH Publishing (P)2020 ASH Publishing

i don't know

i guess it was ok but i fell like it was to slow getting to the point and i wished for a little bit more understand in the difference races or what ever they where

Decent narration, not so decent characters

The narration was pretty good, however I found the story to be lacking. None of the characters were appealing and the main character, who is supposed to be a bada**, suffers from a severe case of lacking common sense. I found myself rolling my eyes constantly from his stupid decisions and lame banter.

Aside from the characters, the plot itself was nothing special and would have benefited from additional world-building.

Frustrating

Holmberg’s stories are always fun to read/listen to but in every story including this one he repeats things over and over. I understand he’s trying to lengthen the story and make more money, but there’s a couple of the series, I’ve just given up and stop reading. Please Continue with the story and not repeat yourself, over and over. It would shorten your books considerably, But it would help many of us want to actually finish the series.

Not my cup of shards

Just Fighting interspersed with Action. Boring. I won't be reading any more of this series.

It’s okay

I wanted to like this book. I don’t think the author does enough to immerse us in the world or does enough for us to connect with the characters. We just don’t know enough about them to really care. When I read a fictional story, I want to know about the world I’m reading about and I want to become intimately familiar with the characters. Didn’t feel that way. Not a bad book, but I’m not sure I want to continue reading the series. Just okay. The narrator is fine. Don’t worry about the reviews saying he is awful. He is fine.

Inconsistent

I usually enjoy Holmberg’s writing but there are parts of this story that do not work with the character development. A highly trained and feared former assassin but continues to make simple mistakes every time we see him employing those skills. And a partner that he has worked with for years that does not know to stop talking in his ear when he should be concentrating during a fight. Sorry but I just could not finish this book.