A Time of Dread

By: John Gwynne

Narrated by: Damian Lynch

Acclaimed epic fantasy author John Gwynne with the first book of a new trilogy.

The Ben-Elim, a race of warrior angels, once vanquished a mighty demon horde. Now they rule the Banished lands. But their dominion is brutally enforced and their ancient enemy may not be as crushed as they thought.

In the snowbound north, Drem, a trapper, finds mutilated corpses in the forests—a sign of demonic black magic.

In the south, Riv, a young, tempestuous soldier, discovers a deadly rift within the Ben-Elim themselves.

Two individuals with two world-changing secrets. But where will they lead? And what role will Drem and Riv play in the Banished Land's fate? Difficult choices need to be made.

In the shadows, dark forces are gathering, waiting for their time to rise....

©2018 John Gwynne (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A Time of Dread reminds me of why I became a fantasy enthusiast in the first place. Fantasy can be an escape from reality, but some stories carry the reader to an enhanced reality, a place where the world seems to have brighter colors and sharper contrasts."—Robin Hobb

"The book reminded me in the very best way of the sort of fantasy I loved in years gone by. Exciting, well-written, swords and sorcery. Try it on for size."—Mark Lawrence

"Great evils, conflicted heroes, bloody battles, betrayal, and giants riding battle bears! What's not to love?"—Peter Newman

Fantasy Done Right

There's not a lot that I can say about this book or series that hasn't already been said if you love fantasy you're going to love this series it has everything that you would want in a top notch fantasy series this is my 1st reading of this author I can't wait to read all the other ones I've been missing out this guy is truly a great fantasy author,brutal battles, Corruption,Betrayal,great characters and Truly Evil foes keep up the great work

A rolling start to a great trilogy.

I waited to review any book of the trilogy ‘till I listened to them all.

Great character development throughout, the characters are quite compelling and each could stand on their own. The story pulls you in and allows you to feel what the characters feel.

The story is well thought out and although at times things might seem to be going in a “cookie cutter/problem=instant solution” direction there is almost always a twist that instantly reminds you that the solutions aren’t so laid bare.

The narrator is quite good and creates very distinctive characters through his voice. Very well done.

Looking forward to listening to the other books by Gwynne.

Distracting awkward pauses in narration

I was excited to start listening to this, especially once I realized the sequel is going to be released soon. Unfortunately, I will need to switch to written books as the narration has extended pauses between sentences? paragraphs?

I tried adjusting the speed of the playback, but it does not help.

An excellent continuation of the Faith and the Fallen

The only negative I can say about this book is it just wasn’t long enough. This series isn’t long as the first one but it fantastic

Worth It

Coming off of Stormlight Archives I was looking for something to hold my attention. This did it. This is my first book by this author. Can’t wait to read more.

Dose not disappoint

I often worry when authors revisit worlds whose stories have finished. The results of these trips are generally nostalgic but not particularly good. This was not the case with this book. Time of dread takes the existing world of John Gwynne and rather then exploit it, builds on it, giving us a view of the world the heroes of Faithful and The Fallen fought for. It builds on rather then exploiting the source materials, taking the story in a new exciting path that is still accessible to a new reader unfamiliar with the previous story. The success of this book leaves me hopeful that mr Gwynne other books will all soon be available on audible.

Good Story, Narration almost a deal breaker

Great story once the disparate character arcs start to coalesce! I'll definitely move right into the rest of the series, but I almost gave up over the narration. Only the glowing reviews of Gwynne's story pushing me onward.

Not sure if this is the fault of Damian Lynch, or the production/editing team, but there are distracting pauses after nearly every sentence, giving the false impression a new chapter is starting, or the dialogue has switched to a different character when it hasn't. I would've increased the playback speed to mitigate the issue, but Damian delivers the sentences themselves at a brisk clip already, making it untenable to minimise the pauses with a faster playback speed. 60% of the way through the book, the story picked up enough to distract me from the issue mostly.

The jerky pacing of Lynch's reading (or the prediction team's editing) side, Lynch is a capable narrator. his accents on certain characters distinguished their dialogue well. His tone and inflections were adequate if slightly understated. I'd not mind his narration in the least were it free of the stop-start issue.

The story itself fills in the requisite background of the previous series enough that I felt a good understanding of the world, the history, and the lore without having read the earlier series.

The story follows several character POVs and jumps back and forth quickly (almost too quickly / too frequently) early on. While I don't find multiple disparate threads to be an issue in most books, this one hops around so rapidly that I struggled to connect with the characters for a while. Once their stories start to connect and the relationships between them start to materialise, this becomes less jarring.

Outstanding

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself back in The Banished Lands 100 yrs after the final battle in Wrath, book 4 of The Faithful and The Fallen. Evil afoot and dread creeping in... animal companions, and a people who fight with honor... yes, yes, yes... OH, such edge of my seat hand to hand, blade to blade, combat!! I've cried more than once, and laughed just a little. I love these characters. Truth and Courage!

the plot

I love this author, any series. His breakdown of chapters based off of different characters perspectives is refreshing

Gripping story!

Okay, so personally, I was a big dumb-dumb because I didnt read the first series before this one...But, luckily I was able to catch on quickly with what was going on!
I didnt think I would get through this book because of the length, but I found myself not be able to put it down! The characters were so well developed! My personal favorite was Drem, he just seemed like a character that I could relate to better than the others, so his chapters really stuck out to me! All in all, fantastic book!