Warper: Origins

By: Riley Tune

Narrated by: RJ Bayley

Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

The Prime Sovereignty, a land divided into five kingdoms, is home to many people of power. Seventeen-year-old Lox is powerful in his own right, although he doesn't fully understand how. All he knows is that - like his mentor, Ember - he has a gift that is both rare and deadly. With his abilities, Lox learns that people like him are born to do only one thing: kill. Just not for free, of course. Thus, with Ember leading the way, Lox begins working in the Prime Sovereignty's oldest, and most fearsome, profession: he becomes an assassin.

However, the practice of assassination - already a complex craft - becomes even more complicated when Lox finds himself tagging along as a member of a team formed by one of the realm's most noble families. A group with members as talented as he is, but far more mysterious, and all tasked to work together in order to achieve the impossible: killing the immortal Emperor Nal.

As he and his companions delve deeper into the secret of the Emperor's immortality, Lox finds himself facing foes more formidable than he ever imagined - enemies fueled by something that dates back to before the existence of the Prime Sovereignty. Tested to his limits, Lox must use his wits, his will, and his blades to secure not just the future of his own realm, but the wider world beyond as well.

©2016 Riley Tune (P)2017 Riley Tune

Debut Novel

This novel is intended to be the first in a series of nine books spread out over time in the Warper universe. A trilogy, of a trilogy. Good listen.

A lite assassin book.

First things first I received a copy of this book for a unbiased review.

I would like to note I only sign up for book I think I would like to read anyway, so ratings a a honest opinion of quality.

Here is my best attempt to do just that.

Narration: well we done besides weird pronunciations for some words but I got used to it fair quickly and it didn't ruin the story in any way.

Story: now the synopsis made me think "yeah a magic assassin book!" and while it's what I got it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I liked the world building and setting in general, it's fairly unique and I enjoy learning about it. (the information was given at the right times and repeated when necessary to avoid having to wonder what was mentioned.

I liked this book enough that I'd spend a credit for it and will get any sequels.

The narrator was the best thing about this book

This was clearly a first book. The story seemed cookie cutter to me and I'm not a fan of the clear Christian leanings of the author. Just not my thing. The narrator was my favorite thing about this book. He did a great job and gave a great performance.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

The narration is abysmal

Warper is fairly interesting and the protagonist is likable, but man, the narration for this book is the worst I’ve encountered on Audible so far. I could only listen to about 3 hours of the book before tapping out. The narration is so terrible that it makes me livid to listen to it! There are so many accidental mumbled mispronunciations (actually, there are too many of those), and then there's the employment of very strange and failed accents for some characters (like insulting attempts at Southern accents, and really unfortunate sounding English accents), and it is all far too distracting. It’s performances like this one that make me wish I could give zero stars.

I am genuinely sad that I can’t finish this audiobook, because the story is actually really great from what I could make out. I would love to know how the rest of the book will play out, but I simply cannot bare the heinous narration. I'm going to have to pick up the ebook.

If the summary for this book piqued your interest, I highly recommend the ebook instead!

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Not fully satisfied.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This book seemed to me to be a thinly veiled allusion to the coming of Christ or some kind of Christian fan-fic. I think the author still has some fine tuning to do to his style of writing but who doesn't.
The narrator was somewhat troubling to me. RJ Bayley has one of the most interesting accents I've ever heard and I found myself listening to his pronunciation more than the story sometimes.

Here one Second. Gone the Next.

First things first. "This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost."

That said, I really am glad I listened to this. It was a breath of fresh air considering all the other books in the same vain. There were a few surprises and it kept the book flowing right along.

Warps is an Apprentice Warper. They are assassins for the most part. Problem is, he has not claimed a life yet. His mentor gives him his first assignment and he muffs it royally. He then takes him on a mission that will change his life forever. Kill an Immortal Emperor.

He just can't kill anyone, so he just accomplishes his assignments in other ways. Because, once you have killed, it will be in your blood and nothing can cure it.

RJ did a fantastic job at keeping you interested and not wanting to stop the book. I listened to it in 1 sitting. Could not put it down.

4 Stars straight across.