I loved it!

At first I was a little apprehensive that the series was going to be simplistic and juvenille, but how wrong I was. Eye of the Oracle was very well written with good character development and an absolutely vast scope. The reader has a rich voice which really added a lot of feeling to the book. My only issue is that the ending was extremely compressed which felt forced (I think it is actually expanded on in the rest of the series). Overall a very worthwhile read, I can't wait for the rest of the series.

6 people found this helpful

Entertaining and uplifting

What did you like about this audiobook?

This story is inspiring and faith promoting. The author integrates some Biblical references,but the book is by no means preachy. What sets it apart is how well the story catches interest without unnecessary sensationalism. It is clean enough to give to my kids and mature enough to keep me involved.

The only reason I gave the story 4 stars is that the end was rushed in one part so much that I had to listen to that part 4 times to grasp everything. I'm almost done with the next book, and in retrospect it was just an awkward lead in to the sequels.

Overall, I loved it and would recommend it to anyone.

4 people found this helpful

Delightful!

Any additional comments?

I haven't finished the book yet,I'm about 2/3 of the way through, but since there are so few reviews posted, I thought I'd review it now. Hopefully, it will encourage someone to buy it.

First of all, it is a Christian book, but it manages to not fall into to the trap of so many Christian works of coming off stiff and preachy. It reminds me of C S Lewis' work, Perelandra.

Like Lewis' Space Trilogy,(Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength) it takes biblical themes and adds them to a fantasy story that is both entertaining and inspiring. Granted, it is not as deep as those works, but it does have the same effect of bringing one into reflections on the work of redemption which is the core of the Christian belief system.

I find the personalities of the characters appealing and very well developed. The story is well thought out and sufficiently complex to keep one captive. I especially like the way that King Arthur and Merlin are brought into the story.I'm looking forward to the other books in the series.

My only complaint is that some of the later books seem to be a bit too short. I like long books to maximize my credits. After Sanderson and Jordan, 11 or 12 hours seems a short story.

2 people found this helpful

So Good!!!

One of the best books of all of audible! I also recommend Raising Dragons, The candlestone, Circles of seven and tears of a dragon. I am sure that the rest will be just as good. Thank you Audible!!

1 person found this helpful

adventurous

love the characters
love the gifts exposed
love the exposure of creepy sneaky ways of those in darkness
author Davis is so creative- imagination is great
love dragons n knights n these books are fantastic.

1 person found this helpful

wish there were more voices

even though the narrator was amazing at trying to make each character come to life I wish this story had been preformed like Raising Dragons and the rest of the first 4 books.

I have been hooked from the start

Great world and story with a fantastic narrator it starts with the flood and as of chapter 20 it is in the middle of the tower of babel if Christins are expecting a purely biblical experience it won't be so it's a fantasy novel don't get you jeans in a wad

mixed bag

got this series for my kids, ages 11 & 14 at that time. theyre slightly older now, but as of yet haven't cracked open the series. as such since I'm more into audio books I got this for myself (and them of they ever wanted to listen later).

so...now that book 1 has finished, I can finally give my review. i hate spoilers so I hope to avoid that here. but I wanted to give a review for anyone else thinking of getting this for their kids & also general feedback.

I got the physical book 3 in this set from our church's bookstore on sale. ended up getting the rest on Amazon. the series seems to be aimed at kids if the book covers and description are any indication...maybe teens but definitely kids/teens. so how does this book work for recommendation for kids? I would say...probably ok for teens and maybe 12+. there is a bit of graphic elements at times, quite a bit of death and killing (more than I expected), and as someone who's son was stabbed over 4 dozen times 2 years ago in an attempted murder (thankfully and miraculously survived!) some of the descriptions made me wince. I didnt think it necessary for those moments to describe the stabbing and slashing of an innocent girl. I had to actually stop for a bit after that. but...as we are well aware, thats nothing for our video game driven world M rated games/movies...even some books. so maybe it was PG13 in a way there but it just hit me harder than most. just my honest feedback.

as for the rest, the overall story was very innovative, combining various Biblical stories and playing "what if" by mixing in fantasy elements...almost like biblical mythology of sorts. Then tying in various other mythologies like (this will be my only spoiler but won't give away the story) king Arthur and Merlin. being a fan of both i found this engaging and fun. and didn't detract much if at all from the Biblical truths if you call Christianity your belief. perhaps minor liberties were taken but not much. again i don't want to give away plot lines and really hate spoilers of any kind. lets just say the story stays true to biblical Canon and truth but adds other elements for non-human aspects (think: angels and demons and dragons and such). overall it's really well done for that aspect.

so why only 4 stars across the board? here are my nits...and they began adding up by the time I was done. really about halfway through the book it got to the point where it really detracted from the otherwise well done story overall...

1. the narrator doesn't know how to pronounce words like he should...about a half dozen to a dozen or so throughout. but this was the least of the nits.

2. the narrator's voice would wane and ebb and and be difficult to hear A LOT. this was a much bigger deal. he even sighed at times while narrating! not from queues in dialogue. but like sighing and taking a breath. perhaps I'm spoiled with high quality audiobook production. but these aspects really detracted. the best way i found to listen was with earbuds or headphones. much easier to adjust when you listen that way. but had to have the volume higher than most other audio books due to this.

3. when you combine #2 with this 3rd...its what almost made me stop listening and return the book. at the end of every chapter some music starts playing about 20-30 seconds before the end of the chapter, usually while the narrator is still speaking! and when he is mumbling and hard to hear, you get this huge loud music start playing and it nearly blows your eardrums out. plus most of the time the music they picked didn't match very well the story. maybe 25% of the time the music enhanced the aura of the story...but that should be the point of musical score! plus when its too dang loud and hard to hear narrator then you're straining to hear the narrator and get hit with a wall of loud music. was NOT well done and REALLY took away from enjoyment! note to author and producer...fix!

4. so why only 4 stars for the story aspect? 2 reasons. first, at times there would be tons of detail about every day life for the characters and in the matter of 2 or 3 sentences, basically a paragraph or 2, huge swaths of time would pass! a number of times I would have to re listen to figure out what the heck happened all of a sudden!

5. and secondly for the story and lastly overall, THE NAMES OF CHARACTERS CHANGED WAYYYYYY TOO OFTEN! It was really hard to keep track of dozens of characters only to have their names change suddenly and cause me to have to go back and figure out who was who. I get that there were name changes in the Bible like Abram to Abraham. and Jacob to Israel. and Sarai to Sarah. and in this story there are times when it made sense. but when most characters are given a 2nd and even 3rd name (!!!?) it made it SOOOOOO hard to follow. add on the mumbling narrator and loud music and it caused me brain to turn to jello many times.

in reality I could and probably should give narration 3 stars and possibly overall the book only 3 stars. its been one of the worst produced audiobooks I've heard on audible and these "nits" really took away from an otherwise really thoughtful story idea. the execution of it from the author was rough and same for the narrator. still, the overarching message and combing genres together was enough to eek out a 4. but a very qualified 4.

should you let your kids listen or read this series? if they've watched lord of the rings (or read it) or chronicles of Narnia, probably yes. if not or they didn't like those or can't handle those if they're younger...then iffy. perfect age would be 12-15 I think. hope my kids will read/listen to it soon if they ever do!

Great Prequel!

it filled in many of the gaps from the last three books. Loved it! :)

Eye of the Oracle

I love this book. I've read it three times and I loved listening to it. I would recommend this bonk to anyone who loves fantasy books.