Excellent!

In this book, J.T. Williams, takes us for an adventure following a master assassin by the name of Sviska. Given a simple task, one he has done many times over, but this time he made a mistake. He hesitated, thus causing a landslide of events to unfurl. Now on the course to right his failure he is sent north to perform an odd and abnormal job. To take on the identity of a Winemaker. In this we are sent into a spiraling adventure of epic proportions as Sviska’s journey has only just started!

Paired with the amazing voice over preformed by Tim Gerard Reynolds this series of books is by far my favorite audible book this year of 2019!

6 people found this helpful

That feeling...when you can get into a series

Ahhh I felt that little jolt of excitement when I stared this book. I have over 300 titles in my library so finding a good series can be trying at times. I am sooo glad I found this. The story is magical but not cheesy. It’s got everything you love about a fantasy series. Mages, elf’s, dwarfs. And the narrator....TMG is hands down the BEST NARRATOR. Ever. Give this book a try. It’s worth every credit.

4 people found this helpful

Good Read.

This is a first time for me by this author. I truly enjoyed the story. If you are into fantasy, do give it a chance .

3 people found this helpful

Confusing World

Could not get into caring for the protagonist. I am not a fan of reluctant heroes books. Our hero here had no clue to why and what, and so did I. Is he strong? I have no idea. I still don't know. Any victory was always an accident and that gets old. Kinda like Harry Potter learning about magic people, but on every page.

1 person found this helpful

Featured Reviewer lost credibility.

I don't know LRC but unless that was the nicest thing written in that review, I must disagree with the take.

I wanted to like this book. The storyline was appealing and the setting for this protagonist's redemptive story also sounded intriguing. In short,the booked seemed to do nothing. It opens with the main character engaged in his original assassin business and a deal gone bad - that was a fine opening. After that, the plot unfolds in a very plodding and predictable fashion. There simply wasn't much to the story as a whole.

Exacerbating the problem was the absolute lack of context. More specifically, the character development was minimal. Back stories and subplots were virtually non-existent. The attention to detail was sparse. (Don't think any spoilers follow but definitely details.) For example, the title of the book and the cover story for the assassin is that of 'wine maker'. The extent of the protagonist's knowledge of such matters appears to be limited to childhood experiences. 'Appears' is a purposeful word because the backstory isn't provided in total and it doesn't appear to be kept in mystery for any larger purpose of the plot. The details one might expect to encounter of a wine maker are lacking as there is just ingredients, machinery and time discussed as the elements of the process in the book. The wine he is asked to create in the north is magical in nature. So obviously there are magical ingredients that must be procured. The retrieval and addition of those items is simplistic like in an RPG side-quest. There is just nothing of interest developed. Character A goes to place B and retrieves item C. He goes to place D and retrieves item E. You get the idea . . .

It was a nice book but too superficial and too light to be anything that kept my attention. I think a 13 year old with limited fantasy novel experience might really enjoy this as a starter but if you like Renshaw, Rothfuss, or even someone like Sullivan then you may find this one too basic to be enjoyable. The ingredients are all correct and the recipe was good, but this was a sheet cake instead of the multi-tiered dessert I was hoping for. TGR was the best thing about this and probably saves it from a two star review (for the record I am not extremely critical and generally go with 4* for most stuff).

13 people found this helpful

So slow!

Most of the book was banging you over the head repeatedly letting you know that the main character was clueless. He never did anything of his own volition. He only thought to give others any kind of detail when he was asked for it and never showed the ability to reason. His only questions where the ones he was told to ask even when everyone around him was just dumping the needed info completely unprompted. It more like the 90’s video game story prompts at the beginning of the game (only 10 hours of it) to set up the villain and the game and then you promptly ignored. The main character not once made any kind of interesting decision or solved a problem. In the end when he was set up to have some kind of character test/challenge he walks in and gets told he has already passed it just by showing up. He is the equivalent of a stick figure drawing with no face.

Good not great

I normally enjoy Tim Gerard Reynolds, but this book hindered his performance.
The story itself was likable enough. The characters were okay. The main character is given a lot of time with small amounts of development. His backstory is underdeveloped which isnt always a bad thing. however in this story the author requires leaps of understanding that isnt there enough in the text to be meaningful.
near the end of the book a major event occurs that is suppose to test characterization but comes across as a list of events with no possibility of failure.
I have read worse and if you are looking for something new to read give it a try you may like it more than I did. I will not be reading the rest of the series

1 person found this helpful

Just plain bad

I was so bored that I kept spacing out for 5 or 10 minutes at a time. I kept wondering "now why is this guy in a tavern?" or "who is he talking to and why?". Reynolds is a brilliant narrator, but this was awful.

Love the audible return policy. I'll give that 5 stars.

1 person found this helpful

Kinda disappointing 🤷🏻‍♂️

Love the narrator but the story never sucked me in. Wanted to like it but never connected with any of the characters.

1 person found this helpful

Ho Hum

Thank God for Tim Gerard Reynolds otherwise I would have stopped. just seemed like it was written based on some sort of D&D gaming sessions the author played in his teens.

6 people found this helpful