Wizard Defiant

Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles, Book 1

By: Rodney Hartman

Narrated by: Guy Williams

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Wizard scouts are the elite, deep-recon forces of the Intergalactic Empire. They are a mix of technology and magic-like abilities.

Richard has been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become one of these legendary soldiers. All he has to do is make it through the Wizard Scout Academy. But with a TAC officer who hates his guts, will he even be allowed to graduate? To make matters worse, the Empire has been attacked and soon finds itself in a major war. With heavy losses in the wizard scout corps, even the Academy cadets are starting to look good to the Empire's High Command.

Just when Richard thinks things can't get any worse, he is suddenly sent by "the One" to help a beautiful elf priestess fight a demon and its army of undead. Wizard scouts may be the best of the best, but Richard is still a cadet in training. Will his skills and technology be enough to overcome dragons, demons, trolls, ghouls, and various undead from his worst nightmare? With only the aid of his battle computer, Nickelo, and the magic of an elf priestess, will his wizard scout abilities be enough to turn the tide?

With the fate of two galaxies riding in the balance, Richard is honor bound to do his best in spite of the odds. The question is, will his best be good enough?

©2015 Rodney Hartman (P)2016 Rodney Hartman

Close miss

To be honest I can't say how disappointed I am. After the first third of the book I would have thought that this could end up being a favorite of mine. The combination of a coming of age story without the age part (all. Characters are already adults) and a clever integration of fantasy into sci-fi. Until we hit a point with some of the worst foreshadowing I have ever seen and the book Turned into the video game doom while throwing out one trope after the other. In an alternate dimension there is an interesting version of this story about how to use magic abilities on deep recon missions. Here we are stuck with the 90s video game version.

Great story.

I was pleasantly surprised at the story and the reader was great! Wasn't sure if I was going to like the magic with sci-fi but I liked the linesman series so thought what the heck, I will give it a shot. the story was very entertaining and the characters had depth. it could have been a little better without quite as many magical aids like the bag (you will understand if you purchase) but all together a very entertaining story. i will be continuing the series.

Very disappointed - it could have been so good

Any additional comments?

I thought I’d like this book. As a long time fan of military science fiction, a cross with fantasy seemed like a fun idea. However, the way this book was written and not particularly edited ruined it. The protagonist was SO flat and uninteresting that I spent a good deal of the story suspecting that he was just a shell personality implanted over some kind of foreign spy. There was nothing to indicate this, mind you, just a wild hope that this crappy protagonist actually had a really good reason for being stupid and shallow and history-less, and why he keeps getting mysterious help from an outside source. Surely he's being written like that for a purpose! That forlorn hope kept me going to the miserable end of the book. *sigh* Some of the problems are particularly annoying in an audiobook, such as every time the character uses a particular explosive, the narrator calls it the "Jay twenty two plastic explosive" when he'd already called it that several times within the previous 30 seconds or so. It probably wouldn't be quite so irritating in print, since your eye can just slide over that kind of thing in passing. But with a slow narrator, eight repetitive syllables really got on my nerves after a while. He could have just said "it" several times when it was still obvious what he was talking about. That's happened a lot throughout the book with other items or people, too. Endless repetition of a descriptive phrases even if they turn out to be in error later on! This book was like listening to a description of someone else’s first person shooter computer game. Normally that wouldn’t bother me if there were some insight into the whys and hows of what was going on. There was none of that, just a shallow description of actions, with far too many explanations of the obvious. This was a very disappointing book.

Meh...if you're into exploding zombie

Heads and keeping track of power packs, almost like a video game I'm sure you'll like this...I personally prefer a good story.

Terrific, entertaining story, just finished Book 3

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. Initially concerned it would be yet another inexperienced hero learning the ropes. Although that was the case it was handled deftly, with enough 'outside the box' storyline it wasn't an issue. Character development was paced nicely, along with the story.

What did you like best about this story?

Many things: the integration of science and magic, the different threads, the interaction between the hero and his battle computer, and much more.

What does Guy Williams bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I have read negative reviews about Guy, and I have to admit that sometimes his over-clarity of enunciation ( I'm sure there's a correct term for that!) was jarring, but he characterised and brought personality to all major players. I thoroughly enjoyed his style, tone, injection of seriousness and humour, and overall performance. His depiction of Nic is particularly enjoyable. I would listen to him again.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The build up to many scenarios was tension-filled, to the point I had to take a break! In a good way! Some situations I could not see a solution to, but a plausible solution presented itself nonetheless.

Any additional comments?

Worthwhile read. Some frustrations, but these eventually make sense and add to the plots.

Story grips you

loved it story kept me interested till the end and wanting more.starting the Next one Asap.

Bad all aound

It's an interesting idea to blend science fiction with science fantasy. But this is bad science fiction combined with bad fantasy to create something really painful. This is a wandering contrivance that never finds any direction.

Nice Story, Great Narrator

An enjoyable listen with an interesting premise. Still the narrator performance is what really makes this worth listening to.

ear catching

this book keep your imagination going and want you to never put it down so you keep listening to it on and on doesn't want to let you sleep.

Tedious And disappointing

The first chapter was OK then a couple stupid mysterious plot lines followed by cliché drilling sergeant

Then the final nail in the coffin the main character was given an obnoxious AI sidekick
A couple chapters listening to the two of them argue back-and-forth and I just gave up on the whole story

Fantastic Story new take on wizards and magic

Thought I would try a different type of fiction and found this, great overall story and narrated pretty well also look forward to the second book.

Slight irritation I found some words over used to describe items within story but did not put me off from listening though great book.