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  • Cephrael's Hand

  • A Pattern of Shadow and Light, Book 1
  • By: Melissa McPhail
  • Narrated by: Nick Podehl
  • Length: 32 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (332 ratings)
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Cephrael's Hand cover art

Cephrael's Hand

By: Melissa McPhail
Narrated by: Nick Podehl
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Summary

"All things are composed of patterns...." And within the pattern of the realm of Alorin, three strands must cross.

In Alorin...300 years after the genocidal Adept Wars, the realm is dying, and the blessed Adept race dies with it. One man holds the secret to reverting this decline: Bjorn van Gelderan, a dangerous and enigmatic man whose shocking betrayal three centuries past earned him a traitor's brand. It is the Adept Vestal Raine D'Lacourte's mission to learn what Bjorn knows in the hope of salvaging his race. But first he'll have to find him....

In the kingdom of Dannym...the young Prince Ean val Lorian faces a tenuous future as the last living heir to the coveted Eagle Throne. When his blood brother is slain during a failed assassination, Ean embarks on a desperate hunt for the man responsible. Yet his advisors have their own agendas, and his quest for vengeance leads him ever deeper into a sinuous plot masterminded by a mysterious and powerful man, the one they call First Lord.

In the Nadori desert...tormented by the missing pieces of his life, a soldier named Trell heads off to uncover the truth of his shadowed past. But when disaster places him in the debt of Wildlings sworn to the First Lord, Trell begins to suspect a deadlier, darker secret motivating them.

©2010 Melissa McPhail (P)2016 Podium Publishing

What listeners say about Cephrael's Hand

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Performance
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Worth it

What did you like most about Cephrael's Hand?

It was a decent story with more or less alright writing. The narration was great.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Cephrael's Hand?

Most probably the ones with the pirate. That's all you're getting, no spoilers.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

There were quite a few, yet, some of the fight scenes were pretty neat.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Movie 1 of 10 in an epic saga of family, friendship and clumsy attempts at love.

Any additional comments?

Be warned... For all it's good points, the writing is lacking in a few key aspects. Among other faults is the authors habit of repeating words. There is a limit to how many times in one sentence I want to hear the phrase "tawny eyes". That limit is once. Once per sentence.
Other than that, it's good.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • El
  • 18-02-20

I just hated it

"i don't understand why!" she said in an echoic of a purr akin to a growl with a raised brow! Believe me when I say this will not be the first time you hear this said, perhaps with an even bigger eyebrow manoeuvre.

I was told this book was amazing and I was so disappointed with the repeated kidnap of the main weak female, who just fell in love with every "strong" male lead, the homophobic rapey gay characters, the evil obviously POC characters, the ridiculous stereotype jack sparrow character that it really hurt to hear it making accords with everyone. And then the even more obvious plot points and reveals that were presented as surprises when they were more obvious than the eyebrows on the faces of every character.

I feel lesser for having listened to this grossly tropey tripe. I feel angry that I finished it. But most unforgivable of all was the use of the same adjectives and ways of speaking in every chapter. It's like Ms Mcphail wrote a chapter then didn't proofread/edit/check it and wrote the next one and thought "gosh this sounds good I should use it!" not realising she used it in the last chapter....and the one before that....and the one before that until it gets used inevitably in the next one. I know more about the characters eyebrows than I do about their motives, but hey just let them get kidnapped and have evil bad guy exposition rants. That'll progress the story instead of, you know, actual story writing.

I spent longer editing this review than clearly this book did and I didn't get kidnapped once! Go me!

Let let me save you from this terrible book and say don't read/listen to it. The only thing that got me through it was Nick Podehl. I hated it.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Massive!

At first was so much information and characters to take in and keep track of... But The narrative of Nick and the story are just Mind blowing. I dont know how many days I have been at work looking like a zombie all because i couldnt bring myself to pause :D

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mixed feelings

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

Only after warning them that it had weaknesses, however it's not a bad story and is very well narrated.

Would you recommend Cephrael's Hand to your friends? Why or why not?

I was happy listening to it as I was doing so in the garden or doing jobs - if I'd sat to listen to it, I should have got very irritated by the writing style and given up.

Have you listened to any of Nick Podehl’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No, I don't think so but it was the performance that kept me listening.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, not really - found bits of the parts with the pirate amusing though.

Any additional comments?

This book really needed a severe editing. Lots of cliches and over-use of adjectives/adverbs, sometimes oddly - weird use of the word 'subtlety' and lots of repetition. An over fondness of elaborate description and names, both of which are pretty unoriginal holds up the narrative. The basic story is quite good but the writing is a bit ponderous. Hence I shan't follow up with the next volume as I don't care enough about the characters to persist with the heavy narration style.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

no idea who anyone is

the story throws 35 characters at you and switches between them so often its impossible to know whos perspective you're following

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Alright, but not enthralling.

It was good to keep me entertained purely through having such a long story line, but I wasn't all that impressed. Just rather underwhelming.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

decent screenplay for TV but a poor book

The problem with this book is that it has the very thinnest of overarching plots and is composed of a series of mini-adventures which do not add to or advance the plot in any meaningful way. It feels like it was written as the screenplay of a tv series and is very much the worse for it. I cannot fault the narration but the dialogue is often mangled by the flowery use of language which again adds nothing.

Serious readers of fantasy fiction will tire of this as realisation dawns.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Boring!!

Having read the rave reviews for this, and the other books in this series, and even waiting for the fourth book, before I started listening to it, I expected it to be spectacular. I was so disappointed. I know that sometimes a book can start slow, and build, but having listened to this whole book, I just don't see why it gets the credit it does. I was utterly bored, and couldn't even like any of the characters (in truth, I can't even remember any of the characters). The only highlight in this experience was Nick Podehl. But as wonderful as he is as a narrator, he can't do much with poor material.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Both fun and yet not!!!

I found listening to this book both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. On one hand, you have an interesting world with basically relatable (if a little overly zealous, pious and unrealistic) male characters, a nice interweaving of plot lines and a fun if a little formulaic narration style. On the other, you have lazy creativity, particularly around names, languages etc which use French and Arabic words amongst others rather than creating unique races and traits.

However, I could easily have glossed over these details and just given a positive all round review if it weren’t for the clumsy, adolescent handling of the female characters and anything resembling romance or lustful behaviours. It seems to me that the writer has very limited experience of both romantic encounters with women or strong female influences in his life. As such, the female characters are weak and formulaic - being either simpering idiots, obsessed with the approval and heroic masculinity of the male characters or bitter shrews with a lovely, sweet girl hidden deep...... And the painful, vomit-worthy descriptions of love and lust could come straight from the mind of a frustrated 15 year old who has yet to experience them first hand.

Finally, the narration whilst great for the male characters is read by a good reader with a nasal style of speech which makes the already whiny female characters sound unbearably whiny!

It’s a real shame, I’m a huge reader and listener of this style of fiction and the bones of what is here has a lot of potential, I just wish his writing wasn’t so stereotyped. That said, it’s fun enough that I’ll certainly continue listening to the series and will just keep the sick bag close at hand.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Worth getting into

I admit, with so many storylines at once, this was difficult to get into, but most certainly worth persevering! I fell in love with all the characters and my excited and anticipation grew with every chapter. I was so enthralled by the end I had to get the second instalment instantly. I would definitely recommend this book.

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1 person found this helpful