Rather average for me.

Honestly I've read a few epic fantasy novels from women and so far I've only really loved one series. This one had the same flaw for me in that it was very dull for a lot of it. The main character is supposed to be the Guardian of the Forest, a character that comes around every few hundred years to protect the forest and it's inhabitants whenever a large danger threatens them. After a whole book we still don't get any real idea of what that danger is, and what little there is in the book was hardly world ending.

What really annoyed me though was the main character. To be frank I felt his actions and responses felt more like I'd expect a woman to react than a man. I also got very bored of his hissy fits and expecting everyone to give him respect, trust and loyalty after knowing him a few days, when they have very good cause to feel the opposite.

The story is okay I guess if it turns out this book is just setting the next books in the series, but it could have used more action at times to help break up all the blah, blah, blah conversation, whining and self pity. In short I found it readable, but average on the whole.

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1 person found this helpful

Great storyline

I Enjoyed this audio book very much
Hopefully they will be more audio books
Must read on your list

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1 person found this helpful

strong story with a convoluted narrative

strong story with a convoluted narrative but expertly written, the narrator need to learn how to pronounce grimace what on God's earth was that?!

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3 people found this helpful

Long, a little tedious, but surprisingly enjoyable

I enjoyed this book. I thought I would say this first in case my comments below put people off!
It had an interesting and exciting start but then plateaued and became quite tedious to listen to, however I decided to 'press on' for a bit longer instead of returning it and found myself quite enjoying it enough to go on to Book 2.
I wasn't at all surprised to learn that the author is a psychologist, as the regular delving into and explaining of, the feelings of her main character gave her away!
The narrator's voice was rich and his use of accents interesting, so it came as a total surprise to hear the mispronunciation of the word 'grimace' as 'grim-ACED'. The first time, it jarred me out of listening and I rewound to listen again....I didn't quite catch what on earth he was saying. It became a source of irritation and unfortunately highlighted how frequently the word was used.
I do hope Ms Ealey develops her use of synonyms rather than overusing certain words repeatedly, but I am still in awe of anyone who can write such a long and epic novel irrespective of those, hopefully, constructive comments.

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1 person found this helpful

i just couldnt finnish

info dumps, lazy tropes and poor pace make this a dull and boring book. please dont bother, the main chrt is so conflicted, depressed / emo. he is also just but tyranical fair but harsh. he is a teenager as a main plot point and has all the anoying foibles . to sum up. prince is cast as a savior and has to stalin his way into the comunist tree folk. just a poor story

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so boring

decent voice performance, is it meant that woodfolk get their name from their voice properties.
beginning of book is ok, prince meet woodfolk and nothing more happens.
its 20h of how do you feel about the oath, I dont trust you, you dont trust me, everyones thoughs is explained in every angle and there is zero need for any imagination. when finaly they would do their rescue mission, wished for the tempo to raise.... it slowed down.
i would be happy if Tarkin meet woodpeople, he emerges out off the woods powerful and mysterious, the let the woodtime leak as backstory, then you would be curios and want some story, now you're force fed EVERY DETAIL.
Will never ever listen to anything from this author.

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