Winemaker of the North

Rogues of Magic, Book 1

By: J.T. Williams

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Forsaken to be a killer and sent to be a destroyer, Sviska must choose his own path.

Sviska is a man of the shadows, an assassin without any one place to call his own. But in the Far North, he discovers a secret. Magic, long thought lost to the world, is alive. The genocide to destroy every elf, wizard, and sacred being of old is not yet complete. Sviska's masters work the strings of the world and he has been sent for a task he does not even fully understand yet.

When at last he feels he has what he has always wanted, darkness falls upon the world. He must rise to face an enemy more terrible than any he has ever met.

Fate will force him into a terrible choice.

©2015 J.T. Williams (P)2019 Podium Publishing

A fantastic adventure

The story is paced well. I love how the narrator gives each character life. It is an adventure with many twists throughout. I enjoyed listening.

A lot of promise, but way too messy

Let’s begin with the good news:
I really liked the premise of the book. It was quite original in its set up and tone and I liked that the world was kept relatively small in the beginning, in which it left room for interpretation and easing into the world.

Furthermore the world shows promise, even though the window towards it seems to close a bit on it in the last chapter

Another big positive is the masterful performance of Sir Reynolds, as always, which is the only reason why I gave it 3 stars.

Regardless, I felt that the book, its story and the characters missed a lot of depth and intelligence. Furthermore it was too messy in regards to plot lines, and conclusions of its set ups. Furthermore it was sometimes unclear which characters where seen by the all knowing reader and I missed a lot of why’s. Sometimes there was simply no good reason for the protagonist to be somewhere, act in a certain way or even talk in a certain way. Example: The protagonist kills a pet dragon of a breeder that is very emotional about its “children”, but they still become the best of friends with the dragon breeder two chapters later.

Conclusion. I’m disappointed, however I do wonder about the next book to see if it can redeem itself.

Tried hard to be special. Ruined the flow.

There was an attempt to be unique and "special" by using odd turns of phrase. The net result is a difficult listen that constantly had me tripping over awkward and poorly developed statements and phrases. it did not flow, in spite of a good performance by one of my favourite narrators.

poor character development plot asymmetric

The only reason to listened is TGR. Great performance, as usual.
I often found myself asking... what? why? huh?? I will be returning this title.

The adventure begins

A great adventure! The action never seems to flag. Very good characters. I really like the world created here. I appreciate that the writer doesn’t fall into melodrama.