A Warrior's Path cover art

A Warrior's Path

The Castes and the OutCastes Book 1

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A Warrior's Path

By: Davis Ashura
Narrated by: Nick Podehl
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About this listen

Winner 2015 Beverly Hills Book Awards for Fantasy! Bronze Medal for General Fantasy in the 2015 Reader's Favorite Awards! Finalist 2015 International Book Awards for Fantasy! Finalist 2015 Indie Excellence Book Awards for Fantasy!

Sweeping from the majestic city of Ashoka to the perilous Wildness beyond her borders, enter a world where Caste determines mystical Talents, the purity of Jivatma expresses worth, and dharma may be based on a lie.

Rukh Shektan has always understood duty. As a member of Caste Kumma, the warrior Caste, nothing else is acceptable. He is expected to take part in the deadly Trials, to journey the Wildness and protect the caravans linking Humanity's far-flung cities. Though the mission is dangerous, Rukh's hope and optimism are undaunted. Karma, however, is a fickle fiend. His caravan is destroyed by the monstrous Chimeras; twisted servants of their fearful goddess, Suwraith. While Rukh survives the attack, events force him along an uncertain path. Morality becomes a morass - especially when he encounters a mysterious warrior, Jessira Grey, a woman whose existence ought to be impossible. The holy texts warn against her kind: ghrinas, children of two Castes, abominations. They are to be executed whenever discovered, but for the first time in his life, Rukh defies duty. Jessira may be the key to his city's survival.

Meanwhile, a secret society seeks Ashoka's demise; foul murders cloak a deadlier purpose; and behind it all looms Suwraith. But it is the Baels, the leaders of Her Chimeras, who may hide the greatest deception of all.

Book 2, A Warrior's Knowledge, is also available.

©2013 Davis Ashura (P)2015 Davis Ashura Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Warrior

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Critic reviews

"The characters, dialogue and action are mature enough to satisfy readers at the older end of the YA range, and the author weaves them all into an attention-sustaining tale...the milieu is markedly original...first rate world-building". ( Kirkus Reviews)
All stars
Most relevant
I really enjoyed.
begging of the book didn't suck me in, however as I went along it became better.
about half way through the book I was hooked. now I want to go through all 3 of them

good book

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I'll review the entire trilogy. The story starts off with a few weak chapters. Many irrelevant characters are introduced only to have them killed shortly after that. It was a disappointing start.

So don't worry if you don't remember all the names until chapter 5 or so. As long as you remember the events, it'll make sense. It's not a complicated story, but the number of irrelevant characters killed the momentum somewhat.

The writing has some flaws, but overall it's a good story. Not the most satisfying ending, but by that point I got used to the fact that this story didn't want to show me or give me what I wanted to see. Some effort was put into world building, but a few details were lacking and were left to the imagination.

I suppose most of the work went into developing the relationships between people and that's probably the story's main strength. It was satisfying to see the characters fight their challenges. And the author didn't seem unfair to them, even when a few/some/most/all died.

This is an author who respected his characters. And mainly for that, I respect this story. There are enough characters to root for, who won't disappoint.

The world building had gaps, the motives of the villains were sometimes unclear, the magic system was a little vague, the "epilogue" was a last chapter and a real epilogue was absent, the story left plenty of conclusions unsaid, but I found that despite my misgivings after finishing book 1, this is a story I'll think about for a while.

Decent story, but not groundbreaking

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I took a chance on the complete kindle edition and liked it enough to get the audio. Enjoyable read, great story and surprising that I havn't heard more about the book, it's certainly better than a lot of the more well known titles out there. Good narration and story.

Better than expected

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I loved this book. Ashura's story is gripping, emotional, complicated and beautiful. The narration is amazing. Podehl really does help you immerse yourself in the hearts and minds of the characters.

Must read. You'll be addicted.

Wow. Can't stop reading.

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Would you consider the audio edition of A Warrior's Path to be better than the print version?

loved every thing about this book apart from the main villain reminding me of the wicked witch of the west

What does Nick Podehl bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Nick led me to this story via narrator search after listening to his previous work

A hero brought low by political machinations

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Was not sure if I was going to enjoy this book but once it got started great listening

Great book

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Pacing at times went a little slack when switching from the main protagonist. In general I feel like authors do it too much to try and be... more diverse? More intricate? Fortunately the story of the protagonist rather than the side plots and characters kept me reading and it ends on notes of promise.

Enjoyable will read on

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I very nearly dumped this book a few chapters into it. The book started well, as clearly the author had gone with the idea of starting with something exciting to hook the reader, but then changed to something so dull he nearly lost my interest enough to stop reading. I can honestly say I made the choice at about chapter seven that it would be my last chapter unless things improved. The reason for me might be just a personal one, but I liked the character the book started with but found the characters back in the city to be shallow and boring for the most part.. Also, until a fight happened in that last chapter that added a layer of mystery I found the plot very, very dull. The story did improve though and overall I liked the book. Though I will say I found the people as a whole quite horrible and difficult to feel that deserved the right to survive any battle or war. They pretty much embrace any "ism" you can imagine, be it racism or sexism etc. I found the narration good for the characters, but for some reason I found the narrators normal voice he used for the narrative sections harder to enjoy. Only a personal thing though and I'm sure it won't bother most given he does excellent work otherwise.

Glad I stuck with it.

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really enjoyed this book,characters and plots are well thought out and brought to life by Nick,am lookin' forward to book 2

anticipation

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narrator was great the book took a bit of time to start up the characters do not disapoint in the end you will get addicted to it

slow start to the book but great in the end

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