The Prisoner of Tardalim

Tales of the Amulet

De: Dan Zangari, Robert Zangari

Narrado por: Michael Kramer

From the multi-award-winning authors of A Prince's Errand comes an enthralling prequel that expands the world of Kalda.

Tor’s rebellion against the Mindolarn Empire has delivered a crippling blow - the death of Emperor Mentas. Seeking aid from their allies, the Mindolarn Empire turns to the Principality of Soroth and its society of mages, the Sorothian Magical Order.

In an effort to aid the empire, the Order’s council mounts an expedition to travel to the nethermost reaches of the world, the Abodine Wasteland. There they must venture to a reliquary hidden deep within crystal ruins left over from a fabled war now almost forgotten. Inside the reliquary, legend says, lie ancient tevisrals - magical objects - that the Mindolarn Empire can use against the Tor rebellion.

Among the adventurers heading to the perilous wastes is Amendal Aramien, a conjurer with a quick wit, a keen mind, and a licentious appetite. Forced into this expedition, Amendal begrudgingly enters the depths of the reliquary. What he unearths will forever change his life and set the stage for the return of a Dark God.

Tales of the Amulet:

Several millennia ago, a war raged between the factions of dragonkind. With their world ravaged, the Kaldean Alliance forged the Amulet of Draconic Control and the Tethering Stone, and banished their foes to other realms, saving Kalda from utter destruction. Fearing the power of the Amulet, the survivors secreted it away. But now knowledge of the Amulet has resurfaced - and in the wrong hands, war could erupt anew.

©2020 LOK Publishing (P)2021 LOK Publishing

Best I’ve read yet from these guys!

I honestly liked this book over A Prince’s Errand. Don’t get me wrong, the other book is good, but I think these guys have gotten better and it shows in this one. Things were explained more succinctly and the plot moves right from the beginning. The setting is a little mindbogglingly, but I think it’s meant to be that way. Plus Michael Kramer’s performance is fabulous as usual!

The change Amendal experiences is subtle yet life-altering. He is a different man at the end of the book. Isn’t that what’s suppose to happen after a story? And it’s nice to see how Amendal became who he is in what little we saw of him in A Prince’s Errand. I read the other books before they began republishing, so I already liked the character.

Each of the fight scenes were nail-biting and had me engaged until the resolution.

And I LOVED the worldbuilding! We get to see such a different side of Kalda, and really see how broad a world these guys have created. I lost count of the new creatures introduced, but they all had a sense of wonder to them. I also loved all the little easter eggs sprinkled throughout the story. It’s just so intricate!

I think this was a good prequel and would probably be a good introduction to the world or even a standalone. I hope they do more stories like this.

Hidden Jewel

I met both authors at the mall while they were doing a book signing. I’m so glad I did. This is the third book I’ve listen to, and I have extremely enjoyed every bit of it in a world where stories have become Munding this book, takes it to a whole Nother level. Well done you two!

Excellent

I enjoyed both books but I found this one to be an easier read. It was hard to put down. There was always vivid action just around the corner. I hope there are plans to continue this story. Here is a suggestion for the title reunion :-) Cheers!

Great adventure!

The Zangqri’s did a great job giving us an adventure story and an insight into a character briefly seen in A Prince’s Errand.

Has issues but ends well.

I really enjoyed A Princes Errand but, this book had a lot of issues.
Things I liked.
Expanded the world of Kalda and lead to some set up.
Part 4 and 5 were really good.
More females in this story than a princes errand.
Michael Kramer is the best!

Things that didn’t work.
Did not enjoy the “I’ll do anything to sleep with you” that was the first 3 parts, every time this happened I wanted to stop reading.
The mustache twirling villains were too much, it was snidely whiplash level mustache twirls.
The first 3 parts were plagued with these issues and if I didn’t know there was important set up I would have DNF this book.

Kramer's narration the only redeeming feature.

Some perspective - I gave Prince's Errand 4/5 stars.

Being blunt, this is a bad book that not even Michael Kramer's top tier narration can save.

While it's interesting to learn some characters back stories, each character is shallow and one dimensional. The troupe's are beyond cliche "Rich playboy decides he wants one specific woman forever" (For no reason whatsoever I may add) and "Mysterious, dangerous, and beautiful bad girl uses seduction to get what she wants". Come on. Maybe you could have done this in a book similar in scope to Prince's Errand but this is rushed and poorly executed. I simply haven't been given enough time or perspective to care about these characters to realize any change is significant. The narrative suffers from telling instead of showing. It feels like we are dumped in a novel a third of the way in.

What the Zangari's do well is write combat the action is beautifully told and easy to visualize. What they do terribly is any sort of "Romance" in a plot, which plays way too much a role in this book. Think about how unbelievable Iltar's romantic subplot was and while that wasn't well executed this is tragically worse.

Additionally the"Greatee Kalda" interludes being you further away from the story you are already distance from. They can be skipped.

I would stay far away from this book. I hope this is not an indication of how all the in-between stories of this series will be.

Very bad story…what is a finial? Wait I don’t care

I do not understand how these books could make it out of editing with that stupid unit of measure a “finial” a “grand finial” is this a foot yard? I read the other book and half of this before just giving up. Michael Kramer kept me here this long…sorry Mr. Kramer. I’m sure this was a difficult one. Why was this the place they started using novel concepts…a tavisral…yeah they are called Ter’angreal..good lord..and he still uses ‘story’ as a unit of measure…

Confusing to a newbie but ending was interesting

These authors and this book and series were totally unknown to me. The title intrigued me. Without having the actual book, keeping up with names and concepts is challenging. I think the vazirim expanse? Is some sort of pocket universe that a conjuror can place people and things indefinitely? A barjan ? Its like a force field or shield? These concepts super confused me at first. The big baddie was interesting and I appreciated how my questions about them was paid off in the end. I almost stopped listening at first because I hated the protagonist but glad I stuck thru till the end. May pick up their other books to see what it’s all about and if I can make sense of it just by listening.

No pdf

Several times they mention an accompanying pdf but was is not included. I enjoy the overall world but the story has major flaws. Several other reviews already state them.

DNF

This is the first DNF book I've ever left a review for. I throughly enjoyed the Prince's Errand, and I was excited to start this book after finishing. I just could not get past the horrible magic system. It's like some kind of kiju pokemon magic system where they capture monsters in another realm or something. They mentioned this magic system in Prince's Errand, but it's not a major part of the book.

I don't see myself coming back for any future books in this series after this. I can't imagine what the author was thinking when they wrote this.