The Thousand Names

By: Django Wexler

Narrated by: Richard Poe

Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

With this stunning series opener, Django Wexler leaps to the upper echelon of today’s best fantasy authors. The Thousand Names opens his Shadow Campaigns series with a tale of bloody rebellion that will reshape an empire -- and a world. Captain Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass see their fortunes rise under the command of military genius Janus bet Vhalnich. But Janus’ obsession with the supernatural portends a dire fate for the realm.

©2013 Django Wexler (P)2013 Recorded Books

Lesbian relationship becomes a focus of 2nd book

If reading about same sex relationships is not your thing then you do not want to start this series. With that said the book is an okay listen. Wexler tries for a deep story told from many viewpoints but does not quite pull it off. The characters are interesting but still seem like that... characters. It also seems that Wexler either has adjectives that he likes and uses over and over or he does not know their synonyms. Hearing a favored word several times becomes jarring.

The failure on the story side is saved by the wonderful narration. The only downfall Poe has is that his female characters still sound like males. I have listened to many male narrators who, while not being able to get the pitch of a female voice are still able to get the feel of a female voice so that they don’t sound male.

90% battles and 10% character development

I like battles in my fantasy novels as much as the next person, but in this book, the purpose of the characters is to provide a vehicle for the battles rather than the fighting helping to define the characters and move the story along. Would have liked more character and plot development. Narration was pretty good. I'm almost done and not sure if I will go on to the second book.

Great Military Fantasy

I love military historical fiction. I love fantasy. I really loved Django Wexler's freshman outing in "The Thousand Names".

Rather than your typical fantasy setting, this one takes place in what could easily have been a campaign during the Napoleonic Era in a far away desert locale.

The characters are very well thought out, and the POV character do not overshadow other main characters at all. In my opinion, the most interesting character isn't even a point of view character.

The "fantasy" element, other than the imaginary setting, doesn't make itself really known until two-thirds of the way through the book and even then the magic system is much more subtle and mystical than I was expecting. Don't expect to find a lot of powerful "battle" magic here.

Mr. Poe's performance leaves little wanting. He has this deep rasp that just seems to go with the musket military setting. The only complaint I have is that I wish he had done a little bit more distinctive voices for the characters, especially the male characters. After a point, they all began to have the same inflection and tone and it became difficult to distinguish who was talking.

I look forward to the next in this installment.

Disappointing Debut, and NOT for Young Listeners!

This is a military fantasy that tries to be a mix between the grittiness of Glen Cook/Steven Erikson and the modern trend of moving into flintlock fantasy. Unfortunately little new ground is tread here, however.

For starters, the book starts out on the wrong foot - with a meeting. Wow, how exciting is that? Followed by conversation and exposition, which immediately have you sighing with boredom. Oh, there's the obligatory mysterious foreshadowing magic scene at the beginning, which is of course meaningless because you have no context for it at all.

What follows is mostly a military campaign of battles involving characters you don't know, who don't get much development. There is eventually some, but unfortunately by then your opinion of the book is already pretty low. It's a shame, because the author could have made this a lot more exciting, but he relies far too much on familiar tropes, most of which have already been done in novels of the last couple of years. Seriously, another fantasy series where nobody believes in gods/magic anymore, only to suddenly find out that it's all in fact true? This is old, old, well-trod ground, folks.

Probably most shocking of all: this book has some of the filthiest, ugliest language I have ever seen in a fantasy book. Seriously, I feel like I need a brain cleansing after this listen, and Wexler needs some scrubbing bubbles for his potty mouth, or maybe some sanitary wipes for the diarrhea all over his keyboard. This is fantasy, folks! You don't use the dirtiest modern-day slang you heard of in the latest R-rated movies. This author has a serious vocabulary deficiency.

Needless to say, I don't intend to read the rest of this series, and you probably won't, either.

Good. Not great but quite good

If you could sum up The Thousand Names in three words, what would they be?

solid military fantasy.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. I spread it out over three days.

Any additional comments?

the story is interesting and well paced. the author may not be a Brandon Sanderson or a Patrick Rothfuss but still did well. Bearing that in mind the only two things that I found annoying in the story itself were. 1 the two POV characters personalities seemed to have been taken somewhat to extremes, one is the solid workhorse captain gallant and loyal to a fault and not overly bright. the other is the woman running away from an unpleasant past and pretending to be a man to join the army, pessimistic and haunted. 2 there are no surprising twists, there are always plenty of hints to see them coming. Also while this is not a bad thing you can picture the commanding officer as a Pendergast who joined the military.

A flintlock fantasy that's worth sticking with it

Captain Marcus D'Ivoire is captain of the 1st Battalion of the Colonials, the Vordanai empire's colonial garrison in a land where rebellion has suddenly exploded. His job has just become much tougher, and it's not made easier of the new colonel. Marcus, as senior captain, has been running the regiment since the death of Colonel Juarez. He's happy to be relieved of the paperwork and extra responsibility that goes along with that, but Count Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich Mieran turns out to be a very odd character indeed. He's here to put down the rebellion, but he has another mission, too, that he isn't telling anyone about.

Winter Ihernglass is a ranker in that same army. Winter's little secret is that she's a woman--she disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Colonials to escape her past. She relies heavily on not being noticed very much. When changing conditions see her promoted first to sergeant and then to lieutenant, it's very much a mixed blessing. She needs to make herself into a leader of men and take responsibility for leading her company into battle against the rebellion.

Our main viewpoint characters are Marcus and Winter, but we do get a few scenes from the perspective of the "other side," specifically the Vordanai-trained rebel general and some Khandari priestesses.

The story itself is very effectively setting up the beginning of a multi-volume fantasy epic. It's a flintlock fantasy, with government and social institutions appropriate to that time period and technology level, and the people are humans. Other than that, nothing about the politics or culture suggests that this is in any way set on our world. The world-building is good, the characters are complex, and the religions feel real. That last point is a pet peeve of mine; too often in fantasy worlds one sees "religions" that mainly reflect the author's modern skepticism and hostility to whatever flavor of religion they were raised in, with no apparent awareness that other intelligent, honest people might think--and believe--differently, especially in a radically different environment than our present day. It's not a perfect book. There's a lot going on here and sometimes it's hard to keep up. At times, Winter's success in hiding her gender, for so long, and then when she is promoted to command of a company and the higher visibility that brings, strains credulity.

Stick with it, though. It's an enjoyable book, and rewards persistence.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

Excellent storyline and Narration

This book was amazing and left me in tense anticipation for the second installment of what I understand will be a 5 book series.

Military Fantasy with Intrigue

Surprisingly good novel. The story follows an army , but I wouldn't really consider it heavy military fiction. While the overall plot will carry throughout the coming series the book itself ties up fairly well. There are a few teasers that are thrown out for each of the main characters that will hopefully not be drawn out for too long. The narrator has an excellent voice for the story and I personally had no problem distinguishing different characters or emotions. I will definitely purchase the next in the series.

Good story, poor characters

Woman dresses like a man, and becomes a man, but better! Sorry, it's boring and predictable (and very unrealistic). I understand this is fantasy, but you have to account for the physical differences between women and men (menstruation, strength, body shape, etc). The author was probably trying to give the main character a flaw to create sympathy, but I feel it is a trope. The story was good but the characters were weak. I wasn't down with the lesbian love stuff either. Didn't finish.

Fun new series! YES!

Finally a new series that I'm excited about!

This is a promising first book that I hope will lead to a great series. Its edges are soft (no hard emotional punches or grit in this plot line) it is a fun book with enjoyable character development, plot, and ideas.

While there are some extended military/battle scenes, there is also plenty of personal story line and interesting development of a grand mysterious magical/religious conflict.