Blacking Good!

Honestly one of the best books I've ever read! The exploration of right and wrong, the psychology and development of the characters, and an intrinsic but simple plotline, I found it hard to stop listening! Worth your twelve years Shad! Now when is the next one? XD

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6 people found this helpful

Very enjoyable Fantasy novel

First of all, I want to say - this is an audiobook I will likely listen to again, and will pick up Book 2 (assuming Shad continues the series) without question. If you enjoy well-constructed fantasy this is a very enjoyable book.

The downsides are mainly at the start of the book, because it's relatively slow to pick up (with a fair chunk of world-building) and several early Chekhov's Guns are easy to predict. Once resolved, though, the pace begins to pick up considerably, and a number of twists as you approach the end are very impactful - to the level I was almost moved to tears as I walked to work in one case.

Michael Kramer and Kate Reading both do very good jobs, lending enjoyable and generally recognisable voices to each character. I would say I prefer Kate's narration overall (as Michael seems to have a tendency to vary his voice from low to high to low sentence to sentence, which - when I noticed it - took me out of the story for a time, although I acknowledge that may just be me), but both do bring out the story well.

As any future book has the world already mostly built, any future books will have less work to do in that regard, and I hope Shad continues this series :-)

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Well done, Shadiversity!

As a long time fan of Shadiversity this was a quick buy for me and it's clear that all the research he's shown in his videos have been put to good use.

It was refreshing to have a main character reincarnated with all his villainous memories as he slowly attempts to become a better man and it created a tense but addictive narrative that has you questioning whether you should root for him.

The supporting characters were charming, particularly Aric (don't know if I'm spelling these right) and Zayne with Lyra being a good leading lady alongside Daylan.

World building was on point, the cultures, inventing fictional swear words and some backstory is all handled well without over complicating it.

Both Michael and Kate do excellent narration but there is one particular thing that may scare newcomers...

Like Tolkien and Victor Hugo, Shad goes into a LOT of detail about how the light powers work (a holdover from his research no doubt) and the first few chapters felt longer than intended as a result, which people might find exhausting.

But for a first book, great work Shad, looking forward to the next one!

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Overall quite enjoyable

This is a strange book. There is a saying that an author often shares more of themselves in their work than they would wish. Not sure if that’s the case here.

The world is vivid and well imagined. The metaphysics are interesting.

The dialogue is ok, often the humour is laid on a bit too thick and comes off as cheesy.

The story is good but let down by inconsistency in character behaviour. For instance the protagonist is meant to be guilt ridden and remorseful, on the mother of all redemption arcs but still acts like a complete git to everyone.

The action of is well written and exciting but often let down by the “witticisms”.

I have followed Shads YouTube channel for a while and enjoy his work. As a fan of medieval european history I like the touches he put in that he drew from his experience in this field.

I felt the end was something of a disappointment, not so much in how it works out but in the way it gets to the conclusion.

It kind of felt like “white guilt- the novel” in parts.

Overall very impressive for a first novel and despite its flaws I’d definitely read a sequel, just to see how the protagonist progresses from where this story leaves off.

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Surprisingly good

As the title says it was good. Amazing world building and mechanics. Main character OP from the start which was a bit annoying, but ok. In short, for a first novel strong 4*. Some better editing and the sequel (hopefully) coming should make it to 5* for me

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A mixed bag, both great and just OK

In terms of strengths, the story has interesting and believable characters, a fairly well-differentiated plot that does a good job of keeping the reader on edge when appropriate, and having no shortage of emotional and well set-up drama. The world-building is perhaps the thing that causes the book stand out the most, with a very unique and alive world that makes me want to find out even more about it. To build on more about this, the book has a very interesting and heavily-utilized magic system as well, and although it made the main character very powerful, it actually was not at all like the power-fantasy trope you find in many east-asian novels, nor did it feel like a deus-ex-machina. Finally the story was easy to follow, and particularly it was not at all difficult to differentiate and understand the different characters, even though the plot was dramatic, believable and took many different twists and turns.

It should be mentioned that the book contains very in-your-face moral messages founded in christendom, but at least to me personally they didn't feel preachy or sententious (even though I do not fully agree with all of them). Instead I think the story should be more seen as a long-form moral parable in a way, that handles such topics in an appropriate and thoughtful manner, for the most part at least.

There are several quite significant weaknesses in the story as well, though. For one there were some very stark contrasts in some of the characters that simply felt too strong, maybe even a bit thoughtless in how they were handled, to feel entirely appropriate and believable. This was a much bigger issue in the first one third of a book. I also will criticize that the book, in my opinion, treated the subject of murder much too casually in this book, given the moral bent of the story in general. Don't get me wrong, much thought was put into it by the author, it did affect the characters and how they evolved, and was made to make the reader reflect. It just wasn't done quite good enough in this particular respect. The world-building, although as I previously mentioned very interesting, might have been a bit too ambitious for a book of this length. Descriptions did at certain times (certainly not all the time) become too technical and stilted.

Personally I really enjoyed the story, and would give it a score of 8 out 10, heartily recommending it.

As for the performance, it was excellent. The voice actors not only did the reading out loud technically flawlessly, they also blew life and emotion into the characters and the words they spoke.

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Fascinating, ambitious and ground-breaking

I was never a huge fan of fantasy or hard magic systems and despite me being a fan of the author for his other works, I went in expecting nothing extraordinary out of the fantasy genre, but Shad has blown my mind away

The physical world is impressive
The character's are masterfully developed and the dilemmas between characters are heart wrenching.

I would have liked to have seen more of the stories main enemies (the shade) but the ending has set up wonderfully to begin exploring them in what will hopefully be a great book 2 to follow up

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Top class entertainment

It's very good there's lots to like some great world building interesting magic system epic combat and heroes. The writing is a little ropey here and there it reflects Mr Brooks style - he does go on a bit sometimes - but overall I was delighted and surprised with the quality. Hail Shad and roll on volume 2.

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Absolutely Amazing!!

Everything from the wordbuilding, the story, and the fine details were incredible. I couldn't stop listening. Everything i love about a fantasy story and more.

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I joined Audible because of this book

I like the new ideas of worldbuilding here. Thats very important to me in a book. Then there is the DETAILED explination of how magic works. (it works in a nice physics related way which I love(its not wishy washy emotions based)). The story- love the start. Beginning with an end is risky to pull of but the author does it well imo. I also like how thier technology is explained in detail. The world is a mix of baroque, remnants of medieval stuff, some industrial revolution going on and some steampunk and spaceship vibes. But thats in the background. The foreground is morality. The protagonist has come to terms with the fact he was the equivalent of Stalin. He regrets it all. I HATE ANY CHRISTIAN PREACHING and so I LOVE that this morality story happens in a fantasy universe. I would have never read a book about forgiveness, justice, redemption and atonement if it happened in the rral world. I love philosophy and I like to explore ethics and decisions... consequences... so I'm happy I was (with the help of the book) able to think about forgiveness and justice in this proxy world. Thank you Shad M. Brooks! :) :) :)

Oh and others! This book has more authors? I noticed only now as I'm writing this review... ! 😅

I learned about it from You tube. I watch Shad's channel occasionaly but I went to buy the book because of Daniel Greene's review :)

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