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A Warrior's Penance
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Series: Castes and the OutCastes, Book 3
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Categories: Teen & Young Adult, Science Fiction & Fantasy
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Summary
The thunderous conclusion to the award-winning fantasy epic...
Following Stronghold's destruction, Rukh and Jessira lead the ragged remnants of the OutCastes on the long march to Ashoka. There they seek sanctuary for her people, but in order to do so they must overcome unyielding law that demands exile for all ghrinas. Meanwhile, Hal'El Wrestiva - exposed and reviled as the Withering Knife murderer - escapes from Ashoka and hatches one final scheme to resuscitate his soiled reputation. The Virtuous, a newly formed organization full of certitude and strife, plots the destruction of House Shektan. And Li-Choke and the Baels launch a final desperate plan to save their kind as well as all of Humanity. But it is Rukh who must confront the harshest of choices. It is one that will cost him everything he loves but might also see to the salvation of his home. He cannot falter, for Suwraith has once again turned her ruinous intentions toward Ashoka.
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What listeners say about A Warrior's Penance
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-04-20
Amazing read
Really enjoyed this final instalment of this series. Very good at keeping me hooked with how the character arks are playing out.
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- Poppey
- 15-02-20
Sorrow Bringer, Life Giver
The Outcastes have been given sanctuary in Ashoka, but not everyone is happy. This is reinforced when a group of zealots, the Virtuous, seek to destroy the House of Shektan.
Hal'El Wrestiva still has one final card to play, but he underestimates his adversary.
Li-Choke of the Baels, Aia and her brothers of the Kesarin pull together to try to save their humans and the City of Ashoka.
Rukh and Jessira make the ultimate sacrifice to save Ashoka by challenging Surwaith, but all is not lost.
This has been one enormous trilogy and one which I am glad I purchased.
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- Cory
- 04-08-16
Great book, wonderful narration
A wonderful finish to a great series. Unlike other books or even movies where you feel the passage of time, this book enraptures you so you feel as if only two or even three hours have past when the book comes to a beautiful end.
One aspect I greatly enjoyed was the multiple viewpoints of the same event. It truly is a refreshing change from the multiple story lines that converge into one eventually. No longer are you ripped from your emersion to simply plot build. instead you can experience the same event from the different eyes which only serves to expand on and deepen your excitement and emersion.
The character development was satisfying but not overly drawn out to the point a boredom. while the action scenes we're exciting without being too over the top.
One aspect that felt was lacking was the delving into the new abilities acquired by characters in the story. Although the author does an adequate job to explain them he does little to expand on them.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable book with wonder narration. I strongly recommend this book to any fantasy enthusiast.
15 people found this helpful
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- Rob L
- 05-01-17
skip the third.
awful writing rushed story telling. truly horrible book. the first 2 were so good and this book was total crap
6 people found this helpful
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- Daniel Hocking
- 21-05-18
Repetitive
Painfully repetitive and uninspired. quite boring. Barely made it through. The narration was good and I finished it after having read the first two books in the series.
5 people found this helpful
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- Schlida
- 22-09-19
Very Disappointed in the conclusion
>>>>Spoiler Alert<<<<
I was so disappointed in the ending. It does not make any sense. The main characters commit suicide to save Ashoka. That makes absolutely no sense. The author took us on 3 series of survival of the fittest, just to have it end with suicide as the saving grace for humanity. What a lame an unrealistic ending. Furthermore, if this ending was plausible, it could possibly make sense for Rukh, but it does not make sense for Jessira to all of a sudden receive the same level of “suicidal enlightenment”. What a tragic and lazy way to end a series. I feel as though I wasted time on the entire series. Due to this, I give the book a low rating.
4 people found this helpful
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- Laura
- 03-10-16
Couldn't finish
I loved the first two books. This one, however, became predictable and booring. I finally had to put it down.
4 people found this helpful
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- FIONA GRANVILLE
- 26-07-16
Amazing!
I will listen to anything that Nick Podehl reads. He makes the story interesting and fun. This was a great finish to a great story.
9 people found this helpful
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- Audio Eficionado “I do at least 30 audiobooks a year”
- 12-08-16
Fantasy. Action. Magic. Seeing the human soul
I want to be transparent. Davis and I are friends. We became friends through our books. He read one of mine before I ever had contact with him and posted an unsolicited favorable comment on SFFworld. So, this is an honest review.
When Davis's books were produced to audiobooks (using the amazing Nick Podehl as narrator), I wasted no time checking his work out. From the first introduction to his main characters, they leaped out of the story. They sang. I maintain a healthy envy as an author for his ability to develop lively characters that are so authentic despite being set in a fantasy story. That realism continued throughout each book. I loved the relationship between Ruhk and Jasira. I loved the political strife between the Castes in Ashoka. I loved the political maneuvering and consequences of them, good and bad, upon characters you both love and hate. I loved the redemption of one antagonist in this third volume that gave insight into the human soul. Davis has a knack for bringing out raw emotion in his characters that translates to us as readers and listeners.This series is truly original in its magic system. There's a part in this third installment in the first third of the story where a conflict arises that is just GRIPPING. I truly did not know what was going to happen. My heart was in my throat. After that, the book did slow down a bit much for me, but (BUT!) the payoff was amazing. I'm not kidding.
I will listen to this series many times like I do Stormlight Archive or the Kingkiller Chronicles (hurry up Rothfuss, Ancients take me). There aren't many series I listen to again, but Ashura's Castes and the Outcastes will be one of those few.
12 people found this helpful
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- Jacob
- 30-08-16
A bland ending to an okay series
The first two books in The Castes and the Outcastes were solid, if somewhat shallow and familiar. They constituted a healthy freshman effort from Ashura; while the world was never properly fleshed out, and the characters were drawn largely from familiar archetypes, the stories themselves had heart and some soul.
Much of that is gone in AWP. Ashura steps largely away from his zone of strength (battles, action, and conspiracy) and tries without success to write compelling romance. The result is overly dramatic purple prose that rings false. The story just doesn't move forward in the way that the first two do, and as such it ends up sodden and stuck in place.
6 people found this helpful
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- David Andersson
- 23-09-19
Frustrating and repetative
If you like internal monologues, seeing the same event up to 4 times from different perspectives, and characters talking about their feelings instead of doing anything - this book is for you. And if you forget a plot point, don't worry, it will be repeated several times.
There is very little suspense and the tempo is slow. The conclusion is satisfying though.
2 people found this helpful
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- Tim D
- 08-09-19
Pedantic over redundant rerun of epic proportions.
It took until this book to close the one “cool” part of this world. The main character is an ass though the book then reforms him into a “god” through a redundant set of unfortunate impossible mishaps. The series of books starts off incredibly slow and cliched to continue over doing the same cliches and impossible foresight of each impossible character. The world is interesting but the character development is incredibly flawed. No one has the ability to say exactly what the other person says every single interaction. The caste system is incredibly flawed and the enemies horribly described. The likelihood of a first year student of a war college beating the veterans is laughable. The asinine conversation and debate between the characters is pedantic at best. To be fair I completed the book to see if there was any saving grace and the climax of the book and resulting ending did pick up in an interesting twist but that was only because Podehl is an awesome orator. This would have been better a single book.
2 people found this helpful