I enjoyed the character building in this book.

the action was much less in this book but I really enjoyed the growth of the characters. keep it up!

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Not enough to the Story This Time

I think this book is a perfect example how today's author's are falling into the trap of monetizing their work over telling a good story. In this one Mr Ashura realized that he had a lot of work to do with character and relationship development. Unfortunately, when you are writing books of this length (let's call it the under 10-15 hr range) there just isn't time for it unless you really skimp on plot line. This time the characters spend waaaayyy too much time in Arylyn focusing almost completely on settling personal differences and developing their magic prior to a somewhat anticlimactic finale.

SPOILERS alert:
I'm not saying these aren't important elements to include in the story but the outcome is a lot of build up to a single somewhat disappointing battle at the end. My other issue with the book is that the mysterious (if you haven't read Castes and Outcastes) Rukh and Jessira characters take over the real action at the end. Most of the book is spent watching William get over Serena's betrayal and develop and prepare for the conflict at the end. Then at the end instead of getting to test his metal, Rukh and Jessira sweep in and save the day.

If today's author's weren't so obsessed with ending the books as soon as they reach 10 hrs or perhaps 500 pages they could write a more satisfying story arc that includes more than one fairly tepid conflict. I'm not saying a story of this length can't be good. For example, Book 1 had a good pace due to the relentless pressure from Kohl Obsidian and the constant conflict and then in Book 2 the danger associated with slavery on Sinskrill kept the story moving at an invigorating clip. This one just felt a little flat and didn't really do much to move the plot forward for me. If there really is a lot of character development and interpersonal relationship work to hash out I believe the story needs to be longer. Based on the author's current output I think book 3 and what should eventually be book 4 should have been combined. According to the author's blog he is apparently already done with book 4 and planning to have a fifth book, so why not? Look at what Aleron King did recently with his 7th book in the Chaos Seeds series. Book 7 was three times longer than book 6. I think he did it because he realized he had to cover a lot of material to create a good story arc. Anyways, enough of my ranting.

Nick Podehl's narration as always was phenomenal. Overall I'm not saying you shouldn't read the story just a bit disappointed with this book in the series and hoping the next book is either longer or at least has enough plot in it to make it seem like a complete part of the story.

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Training for the rescue

William and Jake have been rescued from Sinscril, but they are now residents of Eralin. While the island is a lace of wonder and beauty, they know that they left their only allies on Sinscril. They need to train hard to be strong enough to rescue them.

I would not call this a filler book, but the majority of this book is a training montage. The relationship between William and Serena goes through different phases as well. I am happy with this book and looking forward to the next!

Love this series so far

I don’t want the story to end it’s so rich. I love the differences between all the characters and how they’ve all come together. I know I’m getting close to the end of the story but I kind of wish it didn’t come anywhere near to ending and went on for like 15 books hahaha once im finished with this one I’ll definitely look into the authors other series

fun ride and adventure

fun ride and adventure, good character evolution.. curious to see what happens next for this crew.

One of many great books.

Another entry into a catalog of great books by an amazing storyteller whilst also making a perfect choice of narrators.

Fantastic book

Ashura does an amazing job blending the casts and outcasts with this series. & Nick Podehl is definitely my favorite narrator.

Simply enjoyable.

This is such a great story. The world building is fantastic and I can’t wait to listen to the 4th book in this series. Nick Podehl brings this story to life.

William has built a group of friends into a family

Even Serena has been forgiven for kidnapping William and Jake. But William and Jake train hard to be able to rescue Fionna and the troll that had helped them escape.

Training for better ability and control of their ability to weave braids of magic to the levels necessary to have a chance of success takes high concentration and repetition plus convincing the leaders that the risk is necessary.

This book further develops our key characters while introducing others. Yet as the plot develops and actions become critical, there is the gnawing glimmer of something bigger to come that is beyond this book. Although this book fills the transition well, it makes the sequel even more desirable so that the final battle can resolve the centuries of competition between the two hidden world's.

Since the return of the otherworldly god is iminent, and he has threatened (promised?) to destroy our heroes, all readers should prepare for Lord S*hit to hit the fan and be spread everywhere. (This series of books should be required reading for all kids who like to talk about it as they can claim they were just reading the name from the book.)

Also, this series is great at twisting enemies into friends and having good people do bad things to bad people who were doing bad things to good people. It is one of the few places where trolls are good, but there is only one left in the world, so that is bad.

More of the same

Still just mediocre. This series had great potential and the author still has incredible potential. I can easily picture him as a best seller. I think he needs a good editor who he can work with. The first half of the book was nearly a cut and paste from the first half of the first book. The pacing is still all over the place but mostly slow. I feel like there are a lot of inconsistencies. In one place you find a comparison between the Servitor (his real name is completely unbelievable and awful) and William, calling the Servitor a lantern and William an inferno, whereas in another place, the Servitor has a whole ocean of power to William's insinuated pool. I feel like the Servitor was not meant to be the main antagonist in this installment and then the author changed his mind part way through. If I had it to do over, I'd still read the first 3 books, but I have no interest in finishing the series. I will keep an eye for future books by this author, hopefully no longer self published.