Zenith Academy

Zenith Academy, Book 1

By: Cassius Lange

Narrated by: Jessica Threet, Gabriel Michael

Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

My name is James, but my mom’s the only person that can call me that. To everyone else, I’m JD — a struggling artist, working my fingers to the bone for my shot with one of the big comic book companies.

Oh, and I work nights, managing a dive called Judson’s Bar and Grill. I know: the dream life. Things were boring, disappointing, even. Until one fateful night when everything changed.

What happened first? An odd woman showed up in a booth while I was trying to close up for the night – rude, but on its own, not so weird. She was dressed in a kimono and had a sword in her lap; that part was a little strange.

What happened next? It turns out she’s a mistress at a magical academy, and she has been looking for me...(please pick up on my sarcasm here). Except then she proved it, and with just a few violent swings of her very real sword, she ensured that I didn’t have a job anymore. So, I more or less had to follow her into a scary, glowing portal.

Where did it take me? A surreal place called Zenith Academy, and a life I’d only ever dreamt of; a place I’ll learn how to cultivate mana and wield magic-like powers. And that is just the beginning. The tower imbues cultivators with visual prompts and game-like stats, making my new life feel like something straight out of a choose your own adventure novel. But it’s not all for nothing.  

Evidently, they’ve been fighting a war for thousands of years, and I’ve just been drafted.

©2021 Cassius Lange (P)2021 Podium Audio

I like it

This is good but the mc makes it hard to finish. Almost shut it off a few times.

The good and the surprise

I enjoyed the book, but I wish Audible would make it mandatory that the publishers would list harem/NOT fade to black scenes. I am ok with fade to black scenes but lately it seems a lot of good stories are filled with more and more of this trend. It’s just me skipping whole chapters 😏
The story has meat to it and is really cool, just a lot of high school drama at times. I recommend this book and will listen to the next book. The narration is on point

Really enjoyed this book

I pretty much listen to this entire book in one day. It kept me hooked and I am looking forward to the next one already.

very solid book.

A very solid, well written book with good prose.
The friendly characters that are introduced each seem to have unique personalities. no real "blank slate" "empty vessel" characters.

The protagonist could probably go to an anger management class, but I feel like that's pretty common for protagonist these days.

So I'm not going to dock him any points, but I won't give him bonus Points either.

Not every protagonist can be James McGill from the Undying Mercenaries series, but I wish more would take that route.

The narrator team is top-notch. Very nice to have dual narrators, and you probably have heard this pair elsewhere.

I give this a thumbs up, and I feel i can safely recommend it to harem fans, and even isekai fans who will tolerate a harem situation.

highly recommend you check this out

the narration team is freaking amazing. I really love Gabriel Michaels work with skulduggery. Jessica three is in perhaps one of my favorite series of all times metal mage. neither of them do anything less than a fantastic job with this new book from Cassius Lange. as for the story itself we've got a bartender MC thrust into a not-so-nice world with magic and evil elves. something that you don't see so often in these kinds of I guess you'd call them portal fantasies is Lady human from the same world. I really did enjoy the story and I can't wait for the second book which is out now in ebook form to get the audio treatment. I'm going to go read the ebook now cuz I can't wait. there's also mention of a patreon where it looks like the author is working on the first book of two new series. so lots to look forward to. oh and while I was poking around I noticed that Mana born number two has now gotten the audiobook treatment. should definitely check that out I read it and that story was amazing as well.

dang good

although at first the MC's super denial was a bit aggravating his growth makes for a good overall experience

Amazing work

Great start of a series loads of detail and great plot and battles and development
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Doing a three book review.

The first book is awesome. Like the mc,(he's not a whiner) the girls and the world build. Book has direction and substance.
2nd book starts out awesome following the second. Intro duces new interests. It gets lost along the way. Feels like the author is trying to figure out which way to go. Things that happen in the first are lost. Book turns grim dark.
3rd book is way out left from the first. Book is grim. Mc loses some substance.

The performances for the books are solid.

Top Notch Narrators, so so book

I was rooting for this book.The narration was good. But the way the MC was written just ruined it for me. I was hoping the MC would approve, but alas no. The constant references to topics the other characters had no clue about, even after this had been pointed out a billion times gets old as well. Mabey because I just finished a book with a no nonsense MC and his Harem that I find this winey type of MC annoying. But others may like this book, so give it a credit.

Great series

Would really love to listen to more. Fantastic job from writing to voice acting. Hope to see more.

Very overacted

Part of the time the narrator gets carried away and suddenly an elf sounds like smaug. Otherwise a solid book.

Fantastic

Highly recommend this book cannot wait to see what the next episode has in store, I hope book 2 is as enjoyable.