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Aching God

Iconoclasts, Book 1

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Aching God

By: Mike Shel
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Winner of 2019 Voice Arts Award, Audiobook Narration - Fantasy

"Closer, mortal. You are here, finally, to feed the Aching God...."

The days of adventure are passed for Auric Manteo. Retired to the countryside and isolated with his scars and riches, he no longer delves into forbidden ruins seeking dark wisdom and treasure. But just as old nightmares begin plaguing his sleep, he receives an urgent summons back to that old life.

To save his only daughter, he must return to the place of his greatest trauma: the haunted Barrowlands. Along with a group of inexperienced companions and an old soldier, he must confront the dangers of the ancient and wicked Djao civilization. He has survived fell beasts, insidious traps, and deadly hazards before. But how can he contend with the malice of a bloodthirsty living god?

©2018 Mike Shel (P)2018 Podium Publishing Action & Adventure Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Sword & Sorcery

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All stars
Most relevant
Loved this. Was searching for ages for a dungeon crawl story that didn't sound like bad LitRPG. This is great. Well written, good characters. Can't wait for part 2. If you like D&D, Heroquest or Warhammer Quest you'll love this.

Well written, classic D&D adventure.

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Amazing! it's great to see a story that heavily uses classic RPG tropes but breathes life into them and makes them feel... genuine. All of the characters fit neatly into D&D classes- Sorcerer, Alchemist, Fighter and so on, but their characters are distinctive and likeable, and they all have organic places in the world. And there's also a heavy focus on dungeon delving, at least conceptually, but it makes sense within the setting and is really enjoyable to read about.

The writing style is also great- I love the colourful and often disturbing descriptions of characters and places, and the setting is wonderful, full of danger and mystery in a way I haven't really seen before.

As for the narrator, he has excellent gravitas, but not a great deal of vocal range, so the characters' voices all end up sounding a bit too similar for my liking but his voice is still great to listen to overall.

Highly Recommended!

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what a great book. I couldn't stop listening. terrifying and thrilling, I can't wait for the next one

riveting

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This book had a strange, slow start, but was very well worth the ‘perseverance’ - by the end I was definitely hooked.
And, as always, Simon Vance narrated wonderfully.

Slow start

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Some parts had tension, but overall the plot was a bit slow for me. However, I do admit that it was reasonably well-written, and Simon Vance is a good narrator.

Book was reasonable

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