The Tainted Crown

Books of Caledan, Book 1

By: Meg Cowley

Narrated by: Jack Voraces

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

The kingdom of Caledan is in turmoil after the queen’s murder. Her son and heir, Soren, is framed for the killing by his uncle, who seizes the legendary throne of the Dragon Kings and rules with an iron fist to crush rising dissent.

Soren is a fugitive; his only friend a broken, old man. The dragons, ancient allies of the throne, may hold the answers, but their whereabouts is a mystery that died with the queen. If he can find them, will they be the allies he seeks?

Soren must discover whether the price of kingship is worth paying, and whether he is worthy of the throne, yet far more is at stake than a crown, for ancient and dark magics stir.

Across the kingdom, Soren’s cousin Eve takes matters into her own hands and journeys to the ethereal Eldarkind on his behalf, where she discovers an inescapable fate. As she comes to terms with the gift and the curse of magic, Eve risks her life to help Soren. Will it be enough?

Before the fragile peace shatters, can Soren unite Eldarkind, dragons, and men to secure peace for Caledan? Step into Caledan, a land of swords, sorcery, and betrayal.

©2017 Megan Laura Amy Jolly (P)2019 Eldarkin Publishing Limited

Elves, Dragons, Magic, family drama

Soren is a likeable character and he has morals. Unlike his uncle. Soren is stubborn and strong willed but listens to his elders. He learns that dragons are more than just guarding the throne. Hi cousin Eve learns more about her mother's family. She is someone I would love to learn more about. His sister is sweet. These young adults are all fairly level headed but have some growing to do. I recommend this book for those that enjoy magic, dragons and coming of age novels with some evil for good measure.

The narrator does a great job.

amateurish

more like a amalgam of the genre it failed to grip or engage. not epic.

AN EPIC IN THE MAKING

From the opening pages, you could tell this was an epic in the making. Wonderful characters, detailed settings. Very good read! Narrator Jack Voraces talented narration added greatly to the listening enjoyment. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

Great story and Narration!

As always Jack Voraces brings another book to life with a knock off performance, he has a large spectrum of voices he is capable of bringing to any story making for an excellent listen everytime! highly suggest picking up any book with this narrator, the effort is there and he really adds another level of depth to the stories he is a part of.

This book itself had a compelling story, not to ruin it for future readers but, yes there are dragons. Yes they are awesome. The main players of the story add to the compelling tale being created and help hash out a much larger scale world in this first entry in the series. Magic is introduced, although in this entry its not a main aspect it seems like it will grow in importance down the road as the characters continue to develop. Personally other than the dragons, the socio-political aspects of the world and how the characters have to deal with them is one of the best parts of the book, im excited for future entries in the series! I definitely suggest picking this book up if you enjoy the fantasy genre!

Fantastic all the way around!

Here we have yet more evidence that (at least for me) audiobooks provide an entirely different experience than traditional reading. 


In fairness, it is possible my lesser enjoyment when I read the ebook could be on account of it taking me so much longer to read it, but there's more to it than just my inability to remember the details from the ebook. 


As a matter of contrast, I am including my original review at the bottom of this one. But let me state, unequivocally, that my opinion of this book no longer resembles my original impression. 



Okay, to begin with the narrator (as I typically do). 

I cannot overstate this, I love, love, LOVE what Jack Voraces did with this book! I'm not sure that he quite took the title from the likes of R. C. Bray, Scott Allen, Michael Kramer, and Will Patton, but he's definitely in my top ten favorite narrators of all time. 


The single critique I have for the audio is there is a point toward the end where the text repeats two or three words. 



The story. 

In Stark contrast to my previous experience with this book, I absolutely loved the world and the characters. 


While the world view is somewhat tamer than what I usually read, it is a fascinating world. I love the history and mythology and the way the Eldar, dragons, and elementals all tie into the history of the world. 


There are a few dichotomies between characters that I loved reading and feel so, so real in the reading. 


Soren and Edmund have this fantastic mentor/student relationship that evolves on several different levels over the course of the book, from its beginning as a very grudging respect while Soren tries to do his teenage "what-eva, I do what I want!" thing and gradually grows into something much more natural that could end up being a tragic loss later in the series (I'm just speculating here). 


Similarly (and yet not), we have Luke and Eve. These two lived their young childhoods together and while both feel that loss keenly, each responds to it in their own way that somehow adds something special to each character and builds up the other even more. 


I do feel the magic system is a little simplistic (the fact that a character has a whole language of magic words suddenly inserted into their mind when the magic "awakens" creates some problems for me), and I would have liked to get to see more of Naisa and Brithilca, but I have no other complaints. 


My favorite scenes (of course, me being who I am) are those in the Dragon Isles, where we get an awesome glimpse of the Dragons and their hierarchy. 


While I do find the relative peacefulness of the climax a touch on the unsatisfying side, we still have a wonderful blending of the various plot threads and everything ends up coming together beautifully. 


I'm definitely going to be picking up the audiobooks coming later in this series, as well as other of Meg Cowley's work. 






And now, for anyone interested in seeing my original review from when I read the ebook:



In many ways, this book was a pleasure to read.

The major characters are well developed, the plot is solid, and the setting is intriguing.

That said, there really weren't any *awesome* character moments, there are some clunky sentence constructions, and a handful of typos (a small number, considering the length of the book).

Some of the supporting characters are a bit flat, and I found the general pacifism a bit unrealistic.

However, much like Brandon Sanderson (so obviously it's not a bad thing), Meg Cowley seems to approach her world building from a very optimistic world view, which does reduce the difficulties faced by the characters.

My last point of contention is the way things I would think of as important get glossed over. In some parts of the book, there is much detail devoted to descriptions and events, while in other parts we get only a broad overview.


In closing, if you're a fan of George RR Martin or CS Friedman but aren't fond of the sex, graphic violence, and grittiness, this is exactly the series for you.

A great listen!

Thoroughly enjoyable listen. Great characters contained within an exciting plot. It was nice having the 3 different perspectives. Looking forward to see how it pans out in future books. Great narration by Jack Voraces. Varied character voices and a solid performance throughout.

Nice pace

I listened non-stop and then started the next book. Crowley has the ability to do character development without long, drawn-out story lines. I like the pace of the books. It is my first Voraces narration, and wasn’t sure how I’d like it - but he does a great job. There was one voice I didn’t like but it was perfect for the character - kudos!

Good, but great story, with great narration

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

Jack Voraces narration does a lot for this book. This good fantasy, it's got some great moments, but the book just doesn't seem to hit the level of great overall. This is the fourth book by Meg Cowely I've listened to, and my general impression of her work so far is good, but not great. I'm not sure where it falls short for me, there's action and betrayal, intrigue, and a great world for people to exist in, but something is holding these books back from being great books. If you're looking at some of Meg Cowley's books I think Chronicles of Pelenor actually holds up better, but this is a serviceable series if you're looking to get off the beaten fantasy path.

Surprisingly fun

(Free Copy)

i started the book not knowing what it was about and at first i was very cautious, but as it progressed I really started to enjoy it and by the end i couldn't stop myself from listening. I straight away started the second book. you do have to enjoy fantasy though!

An excellent start

This is the first book I have listened to by the author or narrator. Both are excellent and I am looking forward to the rest of this series!

Capturing Story, Great Naration

Sped through this book in no time, the story grabbed me from the start. Enjoyable narration and easy to follow characters.

Brilliant book

brilliant book. meg cowley at her best. great series, can't wait for next in series.

Epic fantasy at its best

This is a very good start to a series that will I’m sure get better and better. As to the narration I didn’t think that Jack was the right one for it but like the story it grew on me to the extent that book two will be welcomed. Highly recommended.

Amazing book

Amazing storyline enjoyed this audio book very much
Love every minute for the storyline
Must buy

great start of a fantasy series

Nice start of a series, following the heir to the throne in his quest to avenge his mother and bring his uncle to justice.
The book works well, slowly unfolding the history/setting by explaining it to the characters as well as the reader. It starts of well and while here and there it falls into the odd fantasy trope, it doesn't harm the story.

Well narrated and most character voices are easy to seperate and keep track of who's who. no overly annoying voices or weird effects.

Great Story

I really enjoyed listening to this book and very much looking forward to the next book in the series

Promising start

The main strength of this book for me is in the world-building, the author creates an interesting and well-realised world that comes to life quite strongly, the plot is also an interesting one overall.

In general though the characters do not quite match up to the other elements of this book, the main bad guy is so stereotypical that you would expect him to spend much of his time twirling his moustache and the main character is not very memorable, some of the supporting cast are much more interesting than either of them.

The narrator gives a good and distinctive performance, always staying on the right side of being dramatic rather than drifting into the realms of over the top and nicely enhancing the story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book in it's own right and it also encourages me to listen to the next in the series.

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

A captivating story

How do you write a captivating story? It's easy; you start with regicide and then the tension only increases.

I really enjoyed listening to this book, and just can't wait to start the next part. The writing is solid, but the voice acting really brings the story to life.

A good beginning

The story is a classic fantasy adventure that's well written and narrated. The book does feel very much like an introduction to the world and characters, however, having also listened to the second book I am not disappointed by this as it has established a fantastic base that the second book really builds upon.

Dragons are fun as always.

The female characters are good but ultimately I didn't feel strongly about the main leads at all. The story was fun to listen to during my commute.