The Summoner

Chronicles of the Necromancer, Book 1

By: Gail Z. Martin

Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Gail Z. Martin

Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

The comfortable world of Martris Drayke, second son of King Bricen of Margolan, is shattered when his older half-brother, Jared, and Jareds dark mage, Foor Arontala, kill the king and seize the throne. Tris is the only surviving member of the royal family aside from Jared the traitor, and he flees with three friends: Soterius, captain of the guard; Carroway, the courts master bard; and Harrtuck, a member of the royal guard.

Tris harbors a deep secret. In a land where spirits walk openly and influence the affairs of the living, he suspects he may be the mage heir to the power of his grandmother, Bava Kaa, once the greatest sorceress of her age. Such magic would make Tris a Summoner, the rarest of magic gifts, capable of arbitrating between the living and the dead.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author Gail Z. Martin.

Listen to more Chronicles of the Necromancer.

©2007 Gail Z. Martin (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

book good narrator is alright

good book DON'T LET PEOPLE TELL YOU THE NARRATOR IS BAD. if you want bad listen to DUNE

Interesting take

The world or setting is interesting, characters could have been more developed but the biggest problem was the narrator

Love this series

Listen to all four done my this guy great job and great story! First book to really keep my attention when I read it bought to listen to it at work.

best book series ever

honestly I don't know how to go on about how great this series and this author is. Just listen, read it, fall in love.

Solid Fantasy Novel

This is a solid start to a fantasy series. It has some of the familiar plot points but enough of a twist on it to keep it interesting. I'm curious to see where it goes from here.

Great story, terrable narration!

I really liked the story & want to follow the adventure, but I really don't know if I can stand to listen to Peter Ganim tell it any longer. All his pauses are in the wrong place & his voice depictions are terrible. Loose the haughtiness & just tell the story.

Great book, but author lacks detail / clarity

I gave this 5 stars because the book itself is not at fault for the authors mistakes.

The author tends to use the same expressions repeatedly and seems not to notice ending chapters in the same vain over and over. The author also does a pretty poor job of describing some of the villians and even heros in the title.

The "Summoner" is not given any detail and/or reason behind his power, some vague instances of insight are caught, but not enough to yield any rhyme or reason to the "power". You might say, "This is a fantasy novel, not a scifi, deal with it" if it werent for the blatantly made-up situations that seem to come across. Basically, not justifying ones actiosn early in the book yields less than surprising results later on and i know from experience that the sequels are less than grand.

On another note, I'd like to speak to the ediotr to ask what he was thinking letting the author repeatedly use the same dry expressions (after book 2 they get old...).


5/5 for an amazing start to the series. Great book, good hook, perhaps a little wordy, good storyline.

It's okay

This series reminds me of The Sword of Truth series, only more formulaic and without the unrequited love. It's not a bad series, but its not great either. If you're looking for sword and sorcery and all that goes with it, then this will do. The narrator is marginal,but if you listen at 1.25 then he's not that bad.

Very entertaining.

The storyline is very entertaining and the narrator does an excellent job with all of the characters.

good read

great book the narration was a little dry but I love miss martins other books she has a way with bringing her characters together very well