The Traitor God

Age of Tyranny Series, Book 1

By: Cameron Johnston

Narrated by: Paul Woodson

Length: 14 hrs

Publisher's summary

A city threatened by unimaginable horrors must trust their most hated outcast, or lose everything, in this crushing epic fantasy debut.

After 10 years on the run, dodging daemons and debt, reviled magician Edrin Walker returns home to avenge the brutal murder of his friend. Lynas had uncovered a terrible secret, something that threatened to devour the entire city. He tried to warn the Arcanum, the sorcerers who rule the city. He failed. Lynas was skinned alive and Walker felt every cut. Now nothing will stop him from finding the murderer. 

Magi, mortals, daemons, and even the gods - Walker will burn them all if he has to. After all, it wouldn't be the first time he's killed a god....

©2018 Cameron Johnston (P)2018 Tantor

Action galore, witty banter, juvenile banter, hear

The Traitor God is the story of Edrin Walker, a surly deviant of a magician who has spent the last ten years running away from a past he can’t quite remember. He’s fairly certain, however, that it has something to do with his murdering of a god. But when his best friend is killed and enemies from abroad start to invade, Edrin returns back to his home city in an attempt to unravel the plot and his past both.

I’ll start by saying I listened to this one and it was narrated by Paul Woodson who did a fantastic job of it. His sarcastic flair really helped bring Edrin Walker to life in all his sour, aresholic glory (yes, I just made up a new word for it).

We ride along in Edrin’s head for this one, and he’s a fairly typical anti-hero for the most part. He’s the type of man who claims he’s only there to gain vengeance for his friend, and only cares about those he calls friends… but when the threat becomes bigger than him, he’s the first one to throw himself into the fray. He’s a complex character and best of all, he barely even understands why himself. At Edrin’s core is a mystery, a hole in his mind. He’s fairly certain he killed a god, and he knows there were consequences for that that he’s dealing with even 10 years after the fact, but he has no idea how or why he did it. It’s a compelling mystery with an answer that is 50% drip fed to the reader, and then 50% slammed into the reader’s mind like a magical command.

There’s action galore, witty banter, juvenile banter, heart felt reunions, and horrifying monsters. It’s a bit of a thrill ride really and rarely lets up on the pace once it gets going.

A hearty 4 stars from me, and I’ll definitely be picking up book 2 when it releases.

wow

this book was fast passed and action packed, I had a hard time stopping the book to go to sleep, and I look forward to the next if there is one
also the narrator was top notch

it's okay

I get annoyed by the pervasive feminism in these and pretty much all types of stories these days. If that doesn't bother you, ya might like it.

Kinda Dune Gladiator

I did not like such a long book where the hero never has a win or is always one step behind his enemies. When there is a win, it's due to someone else intervening, or a last second memory blast. And that was accidental. The entire book is this way.

Nothing to engage any interest

I couldn't finish due to tedious narration of repetitive situations and shallow character development. will be returning. Narrator did a good job.

Difficult to finish

Except for the MC being a roguish, uninteresting mage, the supporting characters being mostly relegated to tertiary roles, unending world and atmosphere building and a razor thin plot it had some good points. I did like the boss battle at the end.

Quite enjoyable

Really enjoyed this. Great narrator, interesting characters, plot has some good twists. A bit overly gory at times, but not enough to take away from the rest.

good story, problem with focus

amazing story however the author has a problem keeping priorities straight around chapter 20. wish the Mc would stop jumping around with random thoughts in the middle of serious situations

A lot of fun

Action-forward with a backstory shrouded in mystery. The revelation of the mystery is as potent a product storytelling as the action and the reprobate main character.

The voice performance was a bit tortured at times, but mostly lovely.

Beautiful

Main character is interesting and engaging, has a great arc
The performance by the narrator is top notch and the perfect voice for Walker
Engaging. Would highly recommend to anyone

Good story, but that accent!

A great, original story. I do wish they’d chosen a better narrator. This one has a weird accent and pronunciation which becomes more and more noticeable and irritating as the book goes on.

It was fine.

Not a bad book. Interesting world building but it just didn’t totally grab me. I’m afraid other commenters are right about the narrator. Sometimes he’s South African, sometimes he’s Australian and usually he’s Dick Van Dyke when he needn’t have done an accent at all.

Thoroughly Enjoyed the Story

Enjoyed the story, but I wish I had bought the book and read it. The narrator is absolutely appalling, butchering pronunciation of the English language so badly it's painful at times.

great story. questionable accent.

yea, I loved the story. the main character is a great antihero who you can really get behind.
I feel like the story would have been better served had the voice actor not committed to a baffling accent for the duration. sounds like a watered down Jack Sparrow. got used to it in the end but nearly turned me off the book.

Certainly Different

This was not what I expected. The narrator was OK (just), not the worst I've heard, but by no means the best, and the story was sort of engaging, in an odd way. It could have been so much better. But in my humble opinion it lacked something. I listened to the second book 'The God of Broken Things', and I have to admit this book is the better of the two (which isn't saying much). It seemed to me that the author filled in gaps in the story with fights scenes. I've listened to worse books, but I've definitely heard better. Not one I'd recommend to a friend

Dark and Gritty

I loved this. It was dark, Violent and full of drama. It was everything I wanted I a fantasy book, and I didn't even know it. As silly as this sounds, it was very "real". No flawless heros.

Tried to get through it..

Having listened to the authors most recent book and really enjoyed I thought I would try this one…

Lots of reviews stating the narration is bad and I thought…. It’ll be ok.. but no..

The narration is terrible.. it sounds like the narrator is English so he should know what a London accent sounds like.. he has no clue.. this is sick van dyke ‘cockney’ thrown in with Mary popping and Oliver.

I gave up after 3 hours.. the story is ok, little bit weak and predictable.. it may have got better but it was an early abort due to the performance.

Ignore some of the mispronunciations

An imaginative storyline, well rounded characters and relationships, and great narration.

I thoroughly enjoyed both tales in this series.

Let down by narrator.

I dislike leaving negative reviews. I feel sorry for the author, this could have been a great audible with a different Narrator (sorry). To me, narrators can bring a book to life or make it difficult to get absorbed and unfortunately this was the latter for me. Could have been good but I think I can read stories with more depth. E.g Simon Vance, Reynolds etc Their performances and voice acting are incredible.

strange

loved story. narrator had strange pronunciation of some words. I'd listen to him again