Woodcastle: Courts Divided, Book One

By: Kell Inkston

Narrated by: A W Dickson

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

Assigned alongside the legendary overlord slayer and a half dragon that's all bite and no bark, the group sets off for the hidden kingdom of the fairy peoples. 

The team's mission? To investigate a gruesome string of unexplained murders. 

The suspects? Humans, as always. 

Meeo and her party must prove their innocence and shine light on the true culprits before they're taken by spear and bow to the executioner's square. What Meeo uncovers, and the fatal implications of her discovery, is something not even she is prepared for. In an instant they're on the run from the very people they swore to protect, fighting for survival as their phantasmal enemies and fae hunters close in, all for the sake of a once-in-a-millennia spiritual event that's set the golden woods rife with anticipation. 

But Meeo, the poor dear, is not that worried. After all, she has help from someone her fellow knights would never believe.

A high-fantasy thriller unlike any you've heard, experience shock, whimsy, and awe as the tightly wound enigma is slowly unraveled alongside a desperate cast of enchanting characters.

©2014-2018 Kell Inkston (P)2018 Kell Inkston

An Epic Fantasy Tale!!

This is my first story from this author and it will not be my last! This is a wonderfully written fantasy along the lines of Forgotten Realms novels! I truly enjoyed getting to know these wonderful and unique characters during their adventure. The narrator does an absolutely awesome job bringing this story to life! His character voices are wonderful and different. AW Dickson reads at a very nice pace and imbues the characters with a wide range of emotions, simply outstanding! If you enjoy epic fantasy tales then you'll truly enjoy this book. I look forward to the next installment.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Enjoyable but confusing

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

This was an interesting story. I enjoyed the writing style and the narration was amazing. However, I did find that this book required more attention than I usually give while listening to a book. There are a lot of characters to follow. I feel like it would’ve been better with more character development. I will probably continue with the series.

Very well done

This was a great start to a new series. It was a lot more whimsical than I thought it would be but that made it a very charming listen. AW Dickson dis a great job of bringing this book to life. I would very much recommend the series to anyone with even a faint interest in fantasy.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

Brilliant fantasy series- a must listen!

Every once in a while you come across an author who has that special flair and you know is going to make it big some day. Today, that author is Kell Inkston. I highly recommend this book.

Woodcastle: The Courts Divided Book One by Kell Inkston was a refreshing take on the fantasy genre. Initially I wasn’t sure if I was going to get into it, but it didn’t take long to realize this is a fantastic book. The story flows nicely in all the right ways.

What to expect: a unique blend of humor, swords and other weapons, kingdoms, magic, spells, realmancy, war, and a nice variety of characters that range from dragon-kin, necromancer, minions, fairies, humans, overlords, dwarves, elves, and more. There is enough action intertwined with the humor that you won’t get bored. The ending contained a nice twist. You may want to consider listening/reading the appendix first as it explains a bit about the omniverse (Chapter 41).

I loved how some of the characters names are cleverly used in the story (“rid the world of Order”, “Chaos holds the absolute advantage, not only does he decide when to appear, he is also free to not appear at all”). There are also life lessons if you choose to notice: “We must give freely without expecting anything in return.”

The narrator, A. W. Dickson, was awesome! Used a variety of voices and all were wonderful. Would listen A. W.’s other narrations.

This book will be a repeat listen/read book for me. I also purchased this book for a friend.

Overall, I recommend, especially if you are into fantasy with a blend of humor.

A little note about the books progress: The author states this book has had two previous titles, has been in development the past four years, and was almost shelved at one point. Extremely happy this was not shelved!

Parental warnings/trigger advisory: some occasional swear words and then there are the times when they are beeped out, death, and war. It’s possible I am forgetting some things.

*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Thank you for allowing me to listen and review the book!

Great start to a series

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."
This is the first book I have listen to by Kell Inkston, and I really enjoyed it. Kell give his story the right amount of action and adventure with a good dose of humor. His writing style if very natural, Kell doesn't try to force the story and that gives it a very good flow. The choice of A W Dickson as the narrator was spot on. Dickson does a very good job in telling the story and he has a good voice for the characters. WELL DONE by both author and narrator.

WELL DONE, GREAT STORY!!

Wow, this was great! Very well-written! I love the magical world I was taken to, and look forward to going back. I haven't yet read a lot in this genre so I don't have as much as most compare it to, but I thought it was amazing, really loved it. Funny too! But... funny haha or funny weird? ;) Not the usual you'd expect. Definitely recommended :)
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Super entertaining and extremely funny

This was not what i initially expected. I thought it would be a classic epic fantasy, with great evil, heroes, complex magics, wars and much serious stuff. Totally wrong, But in a good way. It was a hilarious listen. It was a whimsical tale that DID NOT conform to expectations. It was almost like the author was making it up as he went(some definite LSD moments in the minus world), making the story new, refreshing and really hard, if not impossible to predict. The production was superb and can only assume really add to the text. Can't wait for the next installment.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Didn't Think I would enjoy but did

I got this ARC via audiobook boom and this is my voluntary review. The beginning o the story started out slow to me but as I got adjusted to the narrator the book became more palatable. I enjoyed the interaction between the characters and completed the story in one sitting. I will be prepared to listen to the next one now that I am used to the author's writing style.

kinda strange but I liked it

This was an impulse buy and I wasn't sure how it'd go. I was surprised at how strange the world was and how you are just plopped into it. I like the characters though and will listen to the next book. The only real con I have is the amount of swearing. I have a lot of kids and tend to listen to books as I'm driving to and from school events and so try to make most of my listens language friendly.

long Drawn out story

I felt that this story was much longer then it needed to be for the story it told. Usually I enjoy this author but this time I am disappointed. Story was quite convoluted, dis joined and just not really well done.

Enjoyable bit of dark fun

It took me a while to figure out what was going on with this story and even now, I’m not sure there isn’t some underlying hidden meaning throughout it all!?
Anyone liking a bit or action fantasy with a Pratchett style humour throughout, then this book is for you without a doubt!
And it’s narrated very well, so well read and clear distinction and voices between characters!
Definitely worthy of a listen!!
This is my honest opinion of a free review copy!

Improves a lot throughout the course of book

I thought the start of the book was a little weak, this mostly due to the humour of the writing feeling a bit too forced at that point as the author hadn't had time to properly introduce the characters, but once they were established it felt like a much more natural part of the book.

The narrator had a good tone and pacing to the book, giving suitably distinctive tones to the main cast of characters to nicely enhance the book.

While this book is part of a series, it didn't detract from the story of this installment which reached a suitable conclusion while not closing things off for the subsequent books and makes me interested in seeing how this series progresses.

[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]