LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 071 - The Wandering Inn Volume 2, The One-Armed Warlock: Book One, Battleborne

“Hello everyone. Welcome to the LitRPG Audiobook Podcast. I’m Ray. I’ll be reviewing some recent and classic LitRPG Audiobooks for you. I’ll begin with: ”

Battleborne (01:35)

Score: 8.5 out of 10

https://amzn.to/3rPp4fk

The Wandering Inn Volume 2 (09:36)

Score: 8 out of 10

https://amzn.to/2KPcNHe

The One-Armed Warlock: Book One (22:27)

Score: 7 out of 10

https://amzn.to/2X9H0mN

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Battleborne

By: Dave Willmarth

Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski, Jessica Threet

Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins

Release date: 09-19-20

I have been a Willmarth fan since the Graystone Guild first came about. I am sorry to see that series and, and the Undying land series go the way of the dinosaur, but Shadow Sun has been a rocking my world until battle born came along, and now my world is rocking so hard I can barely stand.

The book is about a soldier whose squad is blown to pieces as they try to avoid getting killed in horrible ways. The leader of the squad is offered a second chance at life in a new world as what is known as a Battle Born. Those are worthy warriors who are given a second chance at a new life in a fantasy world. The MC, Max, opts to become a Chimera character, which means he is a blend of several races including monsters ones. He gets some Valkyries who wanna smash him so hard that they hook him up with some cool things before he even steps forth into the new world. From there, things look up for our former merc/soldier. He hooks up with some dwarves and befriends some goblins, and gets on a kill list by some orcs.

The book is a basic progression of Max going from a noob to a badgrass mofo. One thing I will say. Willmarth has a certain style that sucks you in and in the end leaves you wanting more, so if you have enjoyed any of his earlier works you will love this. For me, Shadow Sun is still my favorite, but this is a very close second.

The vocal stylings of Daniel Wisniewski and Jessica Threet are absolutely phenomenal. Daniel does some vocals that are riffs that are stunning, and Threet absolutely does a smashing job as the female half of the duo. You can feel their joy, grief, and anger (not their emotional range limitations by any means) firmly. I enjoyed them as much as Willmarth’s writing.

The work is fun, exciting, and full o fighting. 8.5 stars easily some of his best stuff to date, and with a bone crushing tag team of narrators this book is a beast!

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The Wandering Inn, Volume 2

By: pirate aba

Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau

Length: 61 hrs and 4 mins

This book is basically 18 hours longer than book one. You don’t know how impressive and yet scary that is, because once you start in you won’t want to stop. There were a few things that sort of took me out of my immersion, and I’m going to talk about that first.

There is a part of the book that seems to come out just so the author can espouse their political views on events as they were happening. Basically part of it was about the muslim ban that Trump instituted. Now, I have no problem with authors whose political views align or don’t align with my own viewpoints. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and belief system, but when I listen to a book, particularly a fantasy book I do so to escape the mundane everyday things like politics. I don’t even care that you do it, IF you cover it up, like the Star trek episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, where two people hate each other, even though they are both black and white, split vertically down their center. The issue is that one is white on the right side and the other if white on the left. Subtle, since you never see them on screen together until the final shots. So, you can do commentary, you just have to disguise it.

So, I still hate the runner, Rioka. And if you didn’t like Erin the first time around you won’t like her, as neither has changed all that much. I would have expected some character growth, but, no. Not so much. Erin is still ditzy and Rioka is still arrogant. My biggest issue is that unlike book one there really isn’t any major story that would require the book to be so long. It could have been trimmed down and broken into more chewable parts. That’s the bad. If you liked book one, and don’t mind the infusion of real world issues into your tales then you will adore book two. Personally, it had a lot going for it, but even I got winded towards the end. I didn’t take a break, but I listened to a few hours a day. I couldn’t do a nonstop run through like I did for book one.

Other than that Andrea Parsnau proves that no only is she highly talented, but that she is also a work horse. 61 hours is nothing to sneeze at, and one would think that the publisher would break it up into smaller chunks. I has to cost them bank to record that many hours. I mean, if Andrea is getting paid $250 per finished hour and she does 61 hours that’s like a half a million dollars or something. Bookoo dollars. She’s making it rain Benjamins.

I digress. Andrea is quite masterful, and as I often say, she always brings up something new to surprise you with. Here, it was, for me, her frost fairies were my auditory treat, I just loved them as she portrayed these chilling fey creatures. I just always manage to find something Andrea has done to up her game in every book that she narrates, its like an audible easter egg. Kind of like ordering a hamburger and then getting a steak. . . and a hamburger! She is top tier and deserves Finalan award for carrying this series.

Final thoughts. Book two shows Pirate aba maturing as an author, and is it one compelling tale. But, some things were repetitious, the time line of things happening seemed waaay out of whack, and the lack of growth for the characters was disappointing. I was hoping they’d grow up a little, and Erin needs to reevaluate her treatment of her skelly buddy.

Over All, I have to score this as an 8 star book. For me, this book kind of coasted. It didn’t have an over all arching plotline to necessitate 60 + hours, and several internal issues stalled the massive momentum this book had carry over from book one. I get that this seems to be a sort of roughly outlines ongoing tale on Royal Road, but it could have been kept to a respectable 40 hours and worked just the same. For me it was more abut the narration than it was the writing, and that says something powerful about Andrea and Pirate Aba. Hopefully, book 3 will be a return to form.

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The One-Armed Warlock: Book One

By: Durl White

Narrated by: BJ Whimpey

Series: The One-Armed Warlock, Book 1

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

This book was suggested to me, and to be frank I would have picked it up even if it hadn’t since the whole premise sounded crazy. I mean it features an antihero and is full of gore and demons and such. This was right up my alley.

The Good:

We start off with the apocalypse already in effect. People are pretty much in their last days as more and more nightmarish things start showing up.

The Bad:

The game system isn’t really exciting or different, and the MC is fairly flexible in his viewpoint. Honestly, I thought there was going to be bigger deal about his one arm, but it didn’t really seem to be any kind of a hindrance to him.

The Fugly:

I absolutely loved the baby companion. Not lot of writers would be baller enough to write something like that. Also, the MC has a moral flexability in which he starts off as a caring individual but quickly turns into a blood thirsty menace. I really attribute this to the fact that he is the thrall of a demon, and that his mind is being subtly controlled, even if he never realizes this.

Overall, for me the humor was weaker than I’d have preferred, but then I am spoiled by Rimmel and Ugland and my bar is set high. Honestly, Whimpey might be to blame for that. Humor is all about timing, patter, and inflection and I’m not sure he pulled it off as well as someone else might have. Its hard to say but he is a newer narrator, and he may not have found his groove just yet.

My overall score is 7 stars. The story has some good parts, and Lord knows I love an anti-hero MC, but the pacing was slower than I’d have preferred, and the biggest issue is the complete lack of agency the MC has. He is a mind-bound minion who has to do whatever he’s told, and when he is told to do something he never really complains or questions unless the commandments are going to get him killed. I would have preferred Benjamin Dark to have been a complainer and smart mouth to his evil overlord. Mini revolts until he figured out how to get his freedom. I’m considering getting book 2, but I need to think on it some more. This isn’t a bad book, but my socks stayed firmly where they were as I read it.

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Thanks oh so very much for watching everyone, I do appreciate you taking the time to watch or listen to the show. If you want to support us, you can like the LitRPG Podcast facebook page or the YouTube Page, or just share and like the video. I’m going to ask for more suggestions for the ‘Is it LIT’ segment, I’ve got a good one for next time, but will always need ideas. Please leave comments or suggestions in the comments below, and feel free to tell me whatever you like. I enjoy the feedback.

For LitRPG Audiobook Podcast, I’m Ray. Keep listening!!!

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