Ascendant

A Dragon Rider Fantasy (Songs of Chaos, Book 1)

By: Michael R. Miller

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of The Dragon’s Blade Trilogy and the narrator of The Witcher series, comes the start of a new dragon rider epic combining the best of Eragon and Pern with the hard magic of Brandon Sanderson and Will Wight.

Holt Cook was never meant to be a dragon rider. He has always served the Order Hall of the Crag dutifully, keeping their kitchen pots clean.

Until he discovers a dark secret: dragons do not tolerate weakness among their kin, killing the young they deem flawed. Moved by pity, Holt defies the Order, rescues a doomed egg and vows to protect the blind dragon within.

But the Scourge is rising. Undead hordes roam the land, spreading the blight and leaving destruction in their wake. The dragon riders are being slaughtered and betrayal lurks in the shadows.

Holt has one chance to survive. He must cultivate the mysterious power of his dragon's magical core. A unique energy which may tip the balance in the battles to come, and prove to the world that a servant is worthy after all.

Winner of the 2021 National Indie Excellence Award for Fantasy!

Bronze Medal, 2021 YA Epic Fantasy in the Reader's Favorite Award

Finalist, 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Fantasy

Gold Medal, 2022 Science Fiction & Fantasy eLit Awards

©2020 Michael R. Miller (P)2020 Michael R. Miller

Great Fantasy Coming of Age Story

This book is about the story of a 16 year old boy named Holt being quickly and unintentionally thrust into adulthood and finding some hard realities of living his dream. The medieval fantasy setting has many stereotypes that leads to some predicable behavior but this makes the story more relatable than repetitive. The minor characters are a good combination of likable and not that gives the story depth. The distinction of class, while sometimes heavy handed, lends to building the world quickly. Dragons and magic go hand in hand with each dragon's type, sub race of a sort, dictating the magic of the dragon and their partner. While this book does include some wuxia elements it is not overbearing and does not take away from the story.

With the age of the main character there is a decent amount of angst and teenage behavior but this changes as the characters develope through the book in a realistic way. This story does avoid a lot of very common tropes that are becoming mainstream for fantasy - Holt may be progressing very well and him and his dragon may be unique but they do not appear with some world breaking abilities that make them unstoppable, they are not handed off to some random academy to deal with highschool drama in an unrealistic and over the top environment, and they certainly don't sit in a place of always winning and everyone lives happily ever after.

The narrator for this book was well chosen. He does a fantastic job with all of the characters making each feel unique and realistic. Throughout the story he maintains a good pace, uses appropriate tones and inflections, and expresses emotions realistically to all situations. By itself this book would be worth reading, but the narrator has done a very good job of bringing all the characters to life.

Overall this was a very enjoyable book. I am looking forward to the next release.

amazing

One of the better books I have ever read or listened to. I have read and listened to thousands of books and this is one of my new favorites.

A great book, once it gets in the flow of things.

I've always been partial to dragon rider stories, and when I saw that an indie author had published his attempt at the genre, I was excited to support the cause and hopefully get a good story in the process.

At first, I'll admit that I was a little turned off by how similar it was to Eragon. The first several chapters almost felt like the author had the first Eragon book open beside him as he wrote Ascendant. However, I was determined to stick it through. I continued on, and I'm glad I did. While the writing didn't blow me away, the story was genuine and had several unique elements.

The part that stood out most to me was the internal development of the main character and their dragon. From a boy who saved a dragon egg out of compassion, finding out the egg was hatching, learning the dragon was blind, and growing a connection and magical bond with the dragon, the two run into obstacles with every introduction both based off of the boy's common status and the dragon's blindness. The two realize that the only reason they continue to be spared is due to the dragon's unique and helpful magic. The pair realize that they want to make a difference and prove to those who would be quick to judge that they aren't valuable only because of the unique magic that the dragon carries. They want to prove to those who would be quick to judge that the "way things have always been done" doesn't make it the only right way to do things.

There are several moments in the book that get chalked up to being "very convenient," and the plot armor is evident, but, unless I imagined it, the story also hinted that an explanation would come later, perhaps in the sequel books.

The story as a whole is written well. There aren't glaring holes or loose ends left everywhere. There was an aspect of the story that I couldn't quite put my finger on that didn't resonate with me as other books had, but it may be because I'm used to reading mainstream American authored books, and this is an indie British authored book.

The audio version took a moment to get used to as an American listener. The narrator's British accent can be heavy and thick at times, causing me to relisten to the same segment 3-4 times trying to make out what was said, but I was able to understand more of the book as I listened and learned the author's accent. Accent aside, the performance was well done. The only thing I could have wanted more of was a clearer distiction between certain character voices, but enough distiction was offered to satisfy me.

great read.

Can't wait for the second one in November!
This is your sign if your on the fence about this series.

Fantastic Fantasy

Could you ask for more from book one of a series? Absolutely gripping writing and performance.

wonderful

a perfect book to read to the 2 family and lose yourself in excited for the rest

Dragons, Magic, and Heart

Wonderful performance! The plot is timeless yet eerily relevant. Miller's style is similar to Paolini but better developed.

Fantastic book and Reader!

This was such a good book, I was so impressed with the story and narrator.

The narrator really was able to get inflection for each character well and brought them to life!!

excellent

read it on Kindle and then listened on audible. the book is an excellent combination of eragon and dragonriders pern, using the best elements of both while maintaining it's own unquote works and story. it is definitely a better paced story than dragon's first book. I genuinely cannot wait for the sequel I'm very excited and this is sitting in my favorites list to listen to again. hopefully will purchase a paperback copy. and I'm definitely getting a copy for my sister who ik loves this genre

I loved it,

I loved it, not sure at first but by the end just wanted more. Very interesting world with lots too explore.