Dawn of War

Blood War Trilogy, Book 1

By: Tim Marquitz

Narrated by: John Pruden

For hundreds of years, the bestial Grol have clawed at the walls of Lathah without success. Now armed with O'hra, mystical weapons of great power, they have returned, to conquer. Witness to the Grol advance, Arrin can abide his exile no longer. He returns to Lathah, in defiance of death, with hopes to save his beloved princess and the child born of their illicit affair. He finds her unwilling to abandon her people.

At her behest, Arrin searches for a sanctuary for them only to be confronted by the Sha'ree, a powerful race long thought gone from the world. Through them, he learns it is not just the Grol that threaten the land. Empowered by a magic never before seen, the savage nations spread chaos and ruin across the realm.

With Lathah under siege, and the world on the brink of cataclysmic war, Arrin must strike a deal with the Sha'ree to take the fight to the Grol, or forever lose his one true love: his family.

©2011 Tim Marquitz (P)2014 Audible Inc.

A good listen/read.

Well, Tim Marquitz is now on my list of "Hey this is a guy you ought to read!" The story was engaging even when switching between the various, apparently disconnected characters. I'm really interested in the background of the world with it's high density of very different races and even sapient species. That looks like a result of Greater Powers at work pulling a variety of races in to one relatively small locale. I can't decide if the primary character Arrin is really as dysfunctional as he seems at the beginning of the story. Youthful passion and obsession is just a part of normal human behavior. A fifteen year obssesion is not so normal. On the other hand, everybody has their little weirdnesses.

The "bad guys" are completely and unrelentingly EVIL with no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. Whereas the "good guys" have a bit more depth, more of a spectrum of good and evil. Perhaps there are some Grol who would just like to stay home, make puppies, eat slow rabbits and deer, and lie in the sun. On the other hand this is a fantasy nove and expecting realism is a bit silly. Altogether though, the whole of the story is a lot of fun and really holds the readers interest.

Meh

The story is decent but the performance left a lot to be desired. It was very monotone like a dry reading of the Bible.

too disturbingly dark/violent for me

slaughtering infants in their feces is too much for me and the matter of fact explanation of some characters' back story the second you meet them in the book seems hasty, but otherwise a curious world and magic system o would have listened to learn about if disgust didn't haunt me from earlier chapters. others will probably not mind.

An OK story ruined by terrible narration.

You'll here 3 "voices": a bad John Wayne impression, a bad Zapp Branigan impression and an adequate robot; all delivering dialog with the emotion of that robot. Do you know how hard it is to get immersed in a story when you're expecting the narrator to say "pilgrim" all the time? Well, give this a listen and find out.

Multiple Hero's Journeys not better than one

If you like cast of characters that last more than half a book, this story is for you... And the rest is one melee after another.

Intriguing story

I enjoyed the story & the multiple points of view. some of the dialogue is stilted & I don't think the pairing of this story with the narrator is a good match. I am curious to see what is going to happen next.

This book & the next in the trilogy are currently included in the membership plan so I will read book 2.

A sprawling Epic fantasy in the best sense!

I was a big fan of the authors Demon Squad books, as well as his other work, so When I had a chance to listen to this one, I jumped at it. I can't say enough good things about it It is a sprawling world, With multiple different original races, Magic that is rare enough that when it's used, it is a shock to the characters, and fully fleshed characters with actual motivations that make sense. The main character, Arrin, a disgraced guardsman exiled after an illicit affair with his charge, The Princess of Lathah, which resulted in a child. He has no plans to return, until he witnesses the bestial Grol (think beast form werewolves), destroy a city a few days away from Lathah. He knows he must warn the city, even if it means his death, to ensure that his love and their child can escape. The story only takes off from there. There are other story lines, leading a diverse group of characters to meet with members of the worlds elder race, long thought dead, who themselves are declining due to magic that has become poisonous to them. If this sounds intriguing, believe me, it is, and only got better as the story progressed. The characters are rich, fully fleshed out people, with realistic motivations, who are trying to survive in a world gone mad, or are the ones trying to make it go mad, in the case of the villains. The magic of the world is mostly invested in items, except for the elder race, who can personally wield magic, which is slowly killing them. This book should appeal to any fan of Mark Barnes Echoes of Empire books, or any fan of sprawling epic fantasy. I listened to this at 1 1/4 speed, since John Pruden's narration seems to have longer pauses in it, and this made it much more enjoyable. That's just a preference thing, though. I can't wait to get to book 2 of the series.

Great Story , narrator not so much

I listened as much as I could . maybe about 8 chapters. The story is good , the characters interesting. my only complaint is the narrator. The guys voice is robotic at best, he comes across as rushing thru the script so he can collect his pay. no compassion, no feeling in reading it to the audience. it's painful to listen to . please do over with someone else.

Not a bad story

I actually liked this story. I tried super hard to listen consistently, but the narrator’s voice keep putting me to sleep. If you can stay awake long enough there is a good book in here.

passable

At first, you have no idea who the main character is. Not enough of the story dedicated to any one character to become interested in any of them.

After a while, it seems that perhaps the story focuses evenly on the whole because they later form a party in another book. This guess could be incorrect.