Could Use an Editor and a Thesaurus

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Some spoilers ahead, though not many. I'm actively trying to avoid that.

Derek Perkins went a long way to helping me make it through this story. I will definitely listen to him again.

The work, on the other hand, is very unrefined. A solid edit could probably cut a lot from this book and make it much more enjoyable, rather than feel like a task to finish.

What could David A. Wells have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Many terms were used and reused.
World of Time and Substance
He said to no one in particular
Sea of Infinite Possibility

The list goes on. Change this kind of repetition up or it really impacts the story.

Also, the characters, with one exception, were extremely flat. Very black and white, good and evil. I was able to tell whether someone would be with the hero or an unforgivable villain from just their job title. That doesn't make for a compelling story.

Which scene was your favorite?

Not a scene, per say. But the concept of magic in this novel was good. Given polish to the rest of the book, that concept could have even been great.

What character would you cut from The Sovereign of the Seven Isles Omnibus?

About 30% of the overall length. An editor could be used to trim down a lot of portions of this work without impacting the story. If you're familiar with the term "Chekhov's Gun", this book breaks that a lot. Taking out just those points would help the length.

Any additional comments?

Three last comments.

First, there was definite improvement by the third book. Still not great, but it earned the rating it's second star.

Second, the conservative notes are a little ham fisted. Every "petty" noble and bureaucrat is horrible. Central government is bad, an odd idea for a book about reestablishing a long dead monarchy. You can be a conservative author, but not every union member is a vile person. Not every noble is a slime bag. And red tape is not worse than torture.

Finally, the piece in the third book about how women use magic is a touch sexist. Women are too emotional to detach from their feelings? Was that needed?

I know my words might seem quite harsh, but I forced myself to listen to this entire work to write this. Then I took a couple weeks before I wrote this blurb. Trust me, some harsh criticism is needed here.

23 people found this helpful

Predictable, repetitive and full of clichés

I'm finding it hard to say anything positive about the Seven Isles. There doesn't seem to be a fantasy/D&D trope or cliché that wasn't used in this book. All characters are completely black and white, and don't deviate a bit from the expected stereotypes. The main character can even see with their mage-sight if people are good or evil (and there's rarely anything between the two extremes). There also seems to be little reason why people act as they do, except, well, because they're either good or evil.

Storyline is pretty linear, Alexander keeps running around doing things they need to do to advance their quest. There is plenty of action, but any tension feels ruined by how perfectly things always turn out. The hero of the story seems to only ever make mistakes, so he can thoughtfully reflect on how not-quite-perfect he still is. And naturally, the main characters will always be saved at the very last moment, often multiple times during the same fight and after an interposed explanation of how dire their situation is. If someone does get hurt in the course of a battle, hey, there's a magic potion or a salve that will heal them instantly. And the bad guys, unless they're supernatural and highly impervious to damage, they're all felled with a single blow from the weapon/projectile of choice.

This title does have a few redeeming qualities, though. The story keeps on (mostly) chugging along at a good pace. Magic system has some flavour, there were some actually interesting moments in the story and the narrator is very good.

tl;dr:
If you want to read a story of how a good hero defeats an evil wizard, triumphing in each challenge put before them, do get this book. If you're instead seeking for some depth in the characters or unexpected twists in the plot, turn the other way.

15 people found this helpful

Regret.

I regret buying. Plenty of content, but very basic writing skills. Won't finish the series.

14 people found this helpful

It's a lie.

What disappointed you about The Sovereign of the Seven Isles Omnibus?

It is a lie. It is not an omnibus. Audible lies in telling you it is. It is not "all" of the series. Research the series outside of Audible before you buy.

Many series do have a legitimate trilogy, and then subsequent books and series on the same characters. The first three books in this series are not a coherent story. I should have done research outside of Audible first.

Would you ever listen to anything by David A. Wells again?

No. The books should be classified as Juvenile, and not very good even at that. Not good enough to bother buying any more of the series, or anything else by David Wells.

Very pedestrian writing style. Flat characters, generic predictable plot, and the details of the story are inconsistent and not believable. David Wells need to learn what “suspension of disbelief” is and why it is important for any fiction author, even more in fantasy.

There is no “system” of magic. It is just random unexplainable powers, even to its practitioners. Any good fantasy book using much magic, has to have a system behind it to separate it from just random superstition. Even the Harry Potter series does this.

Christopher Paolini does a great job in every area where David Wells fails. I thoroughly enjoyed the Eragon series even as an adult. David Well’s books I wouldn’t even recommend to my kids (who love Brandon Sanderson’s work).

Would you listen to another book narrated by Derek Perkins?

Derek Perkins is a decent narrator, and I have listened to several other of his readings. Most of my complaints about the narration are technically the producer’s fault, not Perkins’. He misreads a larger than average amount of words. At least learn a few things about nautical terminology, please.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Sovereign of the Seven Isles Omnibus?

The entire premise of the series is rather pedestrian, but tolerable if done well. The writing is shallow and falls flat. Unfortunately I think every scene in the series would need to be rewritten.

Any additional comments?

Audible’s new “Omnibus” releases are all lies. Not a single one of them I have yet found is a legitimate omnibus. They deceive you into buying part of a series.

8 people found this helpful

The worst story I've ever heard

First, the good: Derek Perkins is a good narrator.
And that's it. There is no more good to be had. This is the most poorly written, overblown fantasy story I've been subjected to in 50 years of reading and listening. The dialogue is barely passable, the plot is essentially non-existent, the characters are flatter than ink on paper. Repetition abounds. It's all tell, even the showing.
I finished and felt like I had been through an absolutely awful beating. If this author were to hire an honest editor, remove 3/5ths of the words, and plump up the characters, it would be almost as good as reading the ingredients on a cereal box.

7 people found this helpful

Repetitive in spots. Got better as it went on.

The first book was extremely repetitive but it did get better as it went on. Debating on following up with listening to book 4, not sure if it's worth the audible credit.

7 people found this helpful

These three are good... but before you jump in...

Any additional comments?

These three books would have been a solid 4 stars if Wells had wrapped up the storyline in a trilogy... but he didn't. I left my review at 3 stars but before you jump in I'd warn you to avoid the series if you're picky like me. I've abandoned the series after the fourth book because the story has so many vast huge fundamental problems that I just can't get over it. I still want to know what happens to the characters because I like them... but those characters are being whipped around by so many frustrating and obvious 'editor should have caught this' problems that I just can't continue.

One of the biggest problems is that the protagonist is so powerful that he's got to be an idiot to just not win the war easily. Example (spoiler) - he has the ability to create illusions... and creates a fog bank to hide a ship from enemies (instead of just making his ship invisible... which he can also do). When a rival mage (while mages are SUPER rare and can no longer be created... the enemy has so many that they can have not one but TWO on blockade duty). Anyway... the bad mage dispels the fog bank and instead of just continuing to cast various illusions he ends up doing a bunch of STUPID things that result in a big battle (which was obviously where the author needed him to go). He can use his power to reconnoiter anyplace in the world... but instead of checking for lurking enemies prior to a battle (reclaiming the dragon egg) he just stomps into the room and is then surprised by a bunch of additional bad guys.

These major problems crop up again and again and again. His wife is being turned evil by a bad spell... but the spell requires a connection to a demon that can be broken by putting her in his mages den, instead of just having her stay in there until he has a cure he keeps her with him so she's virtually guaranteed to have to go down the 'turned evil' plot path. I feel a bit bad for him... the fundamental problem is that he spent the first three book making the good guys VERY powerful, but instead of letting them use that power to take out the bad guys in those 3 books he's milking the series so he needs them to get into trouble again and again, which would be hard to do if they were smart. Then there's the other huge problem of the endless series... nobody dies. Well... a LOT of people die, but no bad guys die, no good guys die... nobody that matters dies. At the end of the fourth book a bad guy was cut in half... and I laughed because I KNEW he would make a miraculous recovery... which he did. Anyway... if that sort of thing bugs you then don't get sucked in by reading the first 3 books.

7 people found this helpful

awesome story

Awesome story and narration.
couldn't put it down.
Scrambling to find the next book in the series.

6 people found this helpful

blah

when. telling a story details can be awesome but they are over done every time. also dont need to know what could have happened every time. very dumbed down story

4 people found this helpful

Good story. Too preachy and too repetitive.

The story was nice. However, the moral bias of the author was bludgeoned into the listener. Over and over again.

4 people found this helpful