The Summoner's Gem

Little Men, Big Treasures, Book 2

By: J. Edwards Holt

Narrated by: James R. Willoughby III

Length: 4 hrs

Publisher's summary

Three decades after returning home from the adventure that made him famous, the legendary dwarf treasure hunter O’balin Undur has gone missing. Many have presumed O’balin to be dead, including his old friend Bindle, the aged and worn mayor of Mountainside Village. After receiving an urgent letter addressed specifically to him, Bindle sneaks out of town to visit the home of an old friend. There he is greeted by a surprising guest who claims to have seen O’balin alive, searching for a mysterious stone called the Summoner’s Gem. Middle-aged and tired, but still craving adventure, Bindle leaves behind his home and family and embarks on a quest to find his long-lost friend.

Along the way Bindle forms lasting friendships, travels to new and strange places, and finds himself face to face with a wizard in an encounter that will forever change his life.

Experience adventure, suspense, and even laughs in the epic follow-up to J. Edwards Holt’s Little Men, Big Treasures.

©2018 J. Edwards Holt (P)2020 J. Edwards Holt

Entertaining Sequel

The sequel is an entertaining follow on to the 1st in J. Edwards Holt's series with creative adventures along the way.

A Great Encore Adventure

This book takes place about 30 years after the previous, after our surviving heroes have had time to raise a family (or not), when adventure comes calling once again. The key points of the previous book are neatly summarized in the early pages of this book in an unobtrusive way, so I do think anyone reading only this book or reading them out of order would do fine understanding what's going on. That said, it was definitely more enjoyable already being quite familiar with these characters, and I do recommend reading in order.

I really enjoyed the continued world-building and the opportunity to reunite with Bindle and friends. It's refreshing to get this sort of high fantasy quest adventure featuring dwarves as the good guys, highly intelligent, and leading the adventure. You generally don't see all three of those things at once when faced with dwarves in this flavour of fantasy. If you wished the adventurous individuals among the hobbits of Tolkein's world were more like Gimli and the dwarves, you'll love these books!

The narrator, James R. Willoughby III, was pleasant to listen to and did an excellent job of bringing each character to life, making them distinct and easy to decipher, without adopting any annoying extremes in pitch or accent. Overall this audiobook was a very fun experience, and I look forward to continuing the adventure in book 3 shortly!

I was granted complimentary audiobook access to The Summoner's Gem on Audible as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Audiobookworm Promotions. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Great!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Great book from page one! The narrator hit it out of the park and was perfect for the story. It was a good sequel and worth the listen

Swimming through mead

I enjoyed Book 1 a bit more but this was still a fun little tale. Bindle, after many decades since his last adventure, is off again. He dreams of a magnificent gem and there’s a rumor that his old friend O’balin is still alive after all. He will be joined by Baine and Ryland as well as the loyal, friendly wolf Cogo. Others help here and there too, like his old friend Hevalar (spelling?) the centaur.

This is a quaint, PG-rated tale. There’s a smidge of violence but most happens off the page. I really liked the quest element to it because Bindle isn’t exactly certain what his final goal is until well into the story. However, the story is nearly all male characters (there’s 2 wives who get a few throw-away lines) and it comes off pretty monochromatic, giving it a very dated feel.

There is some very silly scenes that had me smiling and chuckling, like with the faun and his mead…. and then the basement full of mead… Haha! I loved the imagery. Just imagine swimming through mead! The action really ramps up at the tail end and all of a sudden all sorts of beasties appear like a rhino and some gorillas. So unexpected! Part of me liked it and part of me was like, ‘huh?’ Anyway, by the time the tale ended, I had had a good time even if the plot was a bit predictable. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: James R. Willoughby III was OK. His voice did make me think of the original Rob Inglis narrations of Tolkien’s works. So Willoughby’s voice was well suited for this more traditional fantasy story. He had a decent spread of unique voices for the characters so they all stayed easily identifiable throughout the story. He did have a different pronunciation for O’balin’s name versus the narrator for Book 1. But I won’t hold that against him as it wasn’t his decision to switch narrators. My one issue was that often his ‘S’ sounds were a bit sharp and sometimes even approaching a hard whistle, hurting my ears even though I was listening on my phone speaker & not on ear buds. The pacing was good & there were no tech issues. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by J. Edwards Holt. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Officially a fan!

I’ve been reviewing all these books to support the author because I really have enjoyed all of them! This one is a great sequel to little men. The characters in this one are really funny but also loving and caring to one another. The narrator has a really cool voice that’s fun to listen to as well!

Great Continuation of a Special World for Children

Enjoyable for kids of all ages! This narrator is absolutely perfect for this genre. A sweet world-building story that is family-friendly.

A worthy sequel

This was a fun adventure full of twists, turns, and excitement! Holt really has a way bringing characters to life and keeping you interested. The narrator also did a great job — his voices for the characters were great! I give it five stars.