Bestiary: Slice of Life Fantasy for Men

By: Kirk Mason

Narrated by: Tom North, Faye Bishop

Siege the castle? Not my style. Save the world? Never gonna happen. Create a bestiary business with a group of beautiful yet contrasting women? Now that’s more like it!

One minute I’m in a tree, pointing my camera at a tiger, the next I’m on my back in a medieval fantasy world, while a skittish blonde hovers over me, hoping I’m not dead.

I’ve never felt more alive.

Because although the dutiful smith’s assistant warns me away from the town’s sinful witch, I still have to go. The witch has the only bestiary book in town, and that’s my one hope of a comfortable life - I don’t feel like donning knight's armor.

Turns out, the bestiary is terrible - it's just primitive drawings, annotated by the tall tales of drunken adventurers. I know an opportunity when I see one. It’s a good thing I’ve been transported here with my camera.

If only I knew someone with magic powers, able to transfer film to parchment. Someone like the witch, currently scowling at me. How will she look when I turn her house into a walk-in bestiary?

And how about a scribe to pen beautiful prose beside the photos? The shy smith’s assistant wrote some incredible weaponry advertisements. I can find a few better uses for her.

It’s a shame the girls dislike each other. I’m gonna have to show them they’re more similar than they know. For starters, they’ve both taken a liking to me, and I don’t feel like choosing.

Warning, this novel contains an unconventional relationship and adult situations, involving:

• A shy smith’s assistant with adorable blonde pigtails, who’s going to learn to speak up for herself
• A snarky witch in a black dress, who’s going to learn to keep her mouth shut
• A vicious goblin, who's going to...you’ll just have to wait and see

©2021 Kirk Mason (P)2021 Royal Guard Publishing

a good story start

this was fun, nothing too dramatic but overall a fun read with fun characters.

I'll definitely be grabbing the rest of the series

Awkward, but good.

So there are multiple times the author performs a time skip, whether it is the author's writing or the fault of the narrator you are left feeling disjointed.

A bit much alpha male

This was a good story, people were believable aside from every woman in the world swooning over this odd alpha male. And he was a bit too much alpha for me. I could tell he was a good guy and wants the best for those he cares for. He seems to have genuine care for ALL of the women. But his big man tendencies and the way he just feels he owns the women made me uncomfortable.

Could be improved

As the title states, I think the book could be improved storywise. The MC leans heavily into being a Dom, but mentions pretty early on how it is not his thing. Other than that, I found the pacing to need improvements. I get that this is a male fantasy book, but I do feel that things need to be built up gradually. I could not see any reason as to how the MC could just start talking to a queen after only being around her for a couple hours at best.

For Narration,... yeah. That really needs improvement. I had some trouble getting through the story at my usual pace. I honestly couldn't tell when a chapter was ending because the narrator's tone would incline even if the sentence was coming to an end. It honestly made me wonder if my download was bad and I was just missing parts of the book without knowing.

not a bad start for trilogy

it was a little shaky here and there but that's to be expected for the start of any new Trilogy or series. Of course this is my opinion based on my own personal taste and somebody else might like it a hell of a lot better. That being said I am interested in seeing where the story goes from here and as I intend to buy book to at this point I recommend the story to anybody reading this review. Not familiar with the narration team but they did a pretty good job. If I have one critiqued for their performance it would be that they sounded as if they were describing the sex scene instead of Performing the sex scene if that makes sense. in other words flattened detached. Perhaps it never done a book like this before and maybe it was uncomfortable or perhaps they're just new to narration. I don't know but I still enjoyed their overall performance.

Good story, but the narration Oh god the narration

"...and then the silence was so awkward I felt it my soul."
The story is interesting enough, and the narration was pretty good.
BUT, there were some stumbles that made me laugh out loud. Some of the lines read by Faye Bishop can be best described as awkward. I could be totally off base, but it felt like alot of effort was put in to compensate for comparatively lack experience.
God bless her soul but I cringed so hard I burst in giggles when the heroines "talked" the morning after meeting in the tavern.
All in all, I'm looking forward to future installment. This is an interesting take on the isekai genre that I want to see explored more.

Spicy

I really love the premis of this book. It ended up being a spicy fun story. If you're a fan oc Chad mc's who use charisma and questionable wit to win, then give this one a shot.

Great Story

very enjoyable!
Great narration
A story that kept me fully in tuned and waiting for the next chapter.

good start, but series goes down hill

Really enjoyed the first book, second was decent but harrem was taking over, and third book was nothing but the same sex scene repeated over and over again.

Good choice

Fun little romp. It only lacks a little violence, or a bit of bondage. Although you could say the introduction was very violent.