Great story but the performance is 10/10

I was hooked straight away. The performance is one of the best and I have a lot of audiobooks!

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great listen! awesome narrative.

The genre wasn't my usual preference, and initially I got lost with all new names of people / places / types of sourcery etc, but eventually it all starts to make sense and in the end I couldn't wait to listen to the next chapter. Potential film in the making!

The narration is one of the best, one narrator and a dozen+ different accents, I honestly thought it was more than one person! very good and I will be listening to the next book.

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A great start to a promising trilogy

Promise of Blood is an excellent novel that blends fantasy and historical fiction. Don't worry, if you have a hatred of historical fiction, this is set in a purely fantasy setting. It just uses historical influences or weapons such as muskets etc ...

If I was to give one negative about Promise of Blood, it would be that the author uses very similar names for some characters. This isn't a problem as the story progresses, as you grow used to them. But, when just starting out, I found that it became confusing. It probably wouldn't be as big of a deal in kindle or paperback formats due to having the spelling right in front of you.

The characters themselves are very well fleshed out. Some of them are, obviously more intriguing than others but I feel this is more due to certain ones not getting enough screen time than others. Something I expect the rest of the trilogy will sort out.

The magic system in Promise of Blood is quite varied. We have full-blown sorcerers (the Privileged) who use special gloves to touch the ether. We have people who have minor abilities that manifest in one particular talent (the Knacked). There are Powder Mages who can ... well ... do pretty nasty things if gun powder is present.

Going back to the historical influence, it has a very revolutionary feel to it what with the dethroning of the king at the start and the ripples from said event spread out into an ever-widening network of subplots.

It isn't just magic and shooting. Promise of Blood has a more subtle aspect to it as well where the character of Adamat is concerned. Where the powder mages are off sniping people with their potent powder skills, and the Privileged are casting their magics, Adamat, the retired policeman, is going about some good old-fashioned police work. This less that fantastical aspect of the novel adds a good deal of realism to balance the piece out.

I mentioned one slight negative earlier on and I will add a second one here: I felt that the ending would pack more of a punch than it did. Everything was building up to a certain something coming to pass and then, when the end came, I was left feeling kind of underwhelmed.

That being said, Promise of Blood genuinely has everything in it from military coups to church intrigue to near-gang warfare and even a bit of god-summoning. It is certainly well worth 19 hours of anyone's listening time.

The narration is a very high standard with consistently good accents throughout. And, as anyone would expect from modern day releases of audio books, the production is also to a high standard.

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Engaging, original and a thrilling series

I've completed the series, and the first book of his new series "sins of empire".
Full believable characters, an original world that engages you from the start, doesn't sound like powder mages, privileges could be real by the end you just accept
Cracking yarn thoroughly recommended, would preorder in a flash

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Totally different.

What made the experience of listening to Promise of Blood the most enjoyable?

The rich characters, such as Adamat and Tomas.

What did you like best about this story?

It's almost a french revolutionary fantasy. I liked the sub plots with the investigator Adamat, working in the background and there always seemed to be some threat around the next corner.

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

He reads this well and puts colour into the characters, especially Tomas.

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

None

Any additional comments?

A different kind of fantasy, better than i expected, will read the next one.

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4 people found this helpful

Solid choice

Interesting premise, believable characters, intriguing sub-plots. If you're fed up of waiting for the next installment of Gentleman Bastards, this scratches some of that itch. Looking forwards to the next one.

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A well told story

Enjoyed this book and well read. Looking forward to getting the sequel.and seeing where it goes from here.

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Thoroughly enjoyable story with great characters.

I really enjoyed this book, I listened to the sample and had to know what happened next.

This is a story of revolution in a flintlock pistol type history. There is magic but it's strange and unique with really interesting ideas.

The best things about this story are the characters and the descriptions of the battles and magic systems. This is the first book in a trilogy and believe me after the finale you'll want to know what happens next.

Christian Rodska the narrator is fantastic he has a lovely gravelly voice which is great to listen to and he is good at distinguishing the voices so you know who is speaking.

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Thus was great!

this was really fun to listen to and I can't wait to read the rest of the series

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Slow start - engaging toward the end

Struggled with the characters at first - seemed like a lot with very similar names. However, as the book went on I engaged with the characters more and the development of the "magical" powers meant that everything started to make more sense.

Humourous at points with some great lead characters. Mixed with a good dash of action, magic and gore, a book that has drawn me in to listening to the rest of the trilogy

Narration is good with consistent accents but the narrator has too much of mature voice for some of the younger characters in the book. That being said, the mix of accents and "classes" was very good and I would be happy to listen Christian Rodska again

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5 people found this helpful