Excalibur: Book I of the Avalon Series

By: Dustin Howe

Narrated by: David Loving

All he wanted was a normal life.

Alex McTiernan is an ordinary college student if you don't count his social awkwardness, his sketchy past, and a routine bout of schizophrenia. Normal and boring, that is, until a series of dreams leads him to believe he is a descendant of the legendary King Arthur.

Guided by an ancient prophecy written by a madman, Alex races to find Excalibur, the long-lost sword of his ancestor. Now if he can just avoid getting caught in between two warring secret organizations as well as the police, he might stand a chance. Oh, except for that pesky magical assassin sent to assure the sword falls into the wrong hands and that Arthur's bloodline fades into history.

©2018 Dustin Howe (P)2018 Lionrock Publishing

Good potential!

This book was good, the series has a lot of potential. Don't know if it was just my download, but there were audio issues at several places in the book.

This book was provided at no cost for a fair and honest review.

A pretty good arthurian legend story

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I thought this was a pretty good modern take on the arthurian legend. The main character was a bit dense at times but that wasn't so bad that it killed the story for me. The narration was pretty good. All in all, I think this was good enough to warrant a recommendation. I'm interested in continuing the story, afterall.

Great start to series

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."
Dustin Howe does a very good job in taking an old story and giving it a present day setting. I enjoyed the adventure he gives Alex. There's plenty of action, romance and tragedy in this story. The only thing I would have done differently is made Alex older. This is the first time I have listened to David Loving and he does an excellent job in telling the story.

Great Story But ...

The narration was great and the story was good. the only issue I had was with the main characters inability to see the forest for thw trees over and over and over. It was a running theme and would have made a great way to show this character develope but the author missed the oportunity. Still planning to give the next one a listen.

A fresh look at the Authurian legend

I am a bit of an Arthurian Legend snob, so I read this book with high expectations.

This is a fast paced book, offering a twist to the familiar story. It engaged my imagination from the start. The two opposing groups offer a wealth of development in future stories. The protagonist, Alex, also has a lot of room for growth, as he does not seem to have learned much from all his troubles except dogged determination, but the story made me care about him and want to see him succeed. I don't want to commit a spoiler, so I'll just say I am looking forward to the sequel! I paid full price, and will happily do so again when the next book comes out.

The narrator, David Loving, was okay, but the mispronunciation of "Myrddin" as "Meer-den" instead of the Welsh of "Murthen" grated, although it is a common mistake. His voice is so like that of Wil Wheaton, one of my favorite narrators, I had to look it up to be sure it wasn't!

OK

The book is OK, I found the main character really annoying at times and I did feel like screaming at him. I was hoping he might change towards the end but unfortunately not.
I like this narrator for I have listened to him in other audiobooks, however, I feel he does not suit this particular book but he was still OK.
Would I read the next book? yes I would. I liked how the author put his take on this legend.

nice

the book was nicely written and the story was good I liked it quite much a very interesting book in some minutes I think I heard some audio stumbling but my phone is half broken so I'm not sure it's something with the audio but probably audible of should check it out
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Serviceable Addition to Aurthurian Fanfic

“Excalibur” is a decent enough series opener that has potential for the upcoming stories, but suffers a bit from a lack of editing. The quest aspect of the story is interesting, pretty involved and is obviously the part of the narrative that received the most attention to detail. Although there are some elements sacrificed to keep the pacing quick, they did not detract from the adventure.

Unfortunately, the same care used for the adventuring was not as present when it came to character development and dialogue. While all the characters are fine, likeable and serve their narrative functions in the story, Alex, as the main character should have had a bit more development throughout the tale. From beginning to end he jumps from fully engaged in the quest to questioning his sanity and bemoaning his lack of prowess, manliness, smarts, etc. until the end of the book. Although, a character remarks later in the book how he has grown, outside of learning how to wield a sword, Alex does not change much, and this assertion is definitely a case of telling the reader instead of showing them. Even when Alex accomplishes something great or noteworthy, he does nothing with the new knowledge or seem to learn anything about himself or incorporate it into his developing character, at least as far as the reader can tell until he pulls off the next miraculous feat. Instead, he relies heavily on the praise and strengths of others to bolster himself up, while keeping the same inner dialogue and response to hardship he had at he beginning of the tale.

Additionally, the writing, particularly the dialogue, could be a bit clunky and flat at times, and the villains definitely pulled from “The Bad Guys’ Big Book of Quotes”. Another editing pass for both basic typos/grammatical errors and narrative inconsistencies both is characterization and information would have really helped. For example, for a while Alex’s portrayal is as schizophrenic as his diagnosis. He swings from “hey, I just met you and I totally agree with your random assertion that I am the key to this prophecy, onward to Colorado!” to “my dreams are clearly prophetic, I have tangible evidence of their veracity and have had a mental conversation with a mythical creature but somehow question my sanity and forget mental conversations with mythical creatures the next time it happens”. Moreover, for someone who seems to have a store of extremely useful knowledge in many different areas, he seems to forget information he has already learned when another character repeats it. There are also examples of information or character details being presented as important/noteworthy then not so much, them reintroduced or mentioned in a way to highlight their importance. I think these are examples of the need for continuity editing, and the author’s attempt to, belatedly, add some hesitation for the quest to the character.

The narration itself is simply ok. David Loving’s basic voice-work and delivery of narrative is fine, but somewhat limited in terms of emotional inflection. So sarcasm, teasing, sadness, excitement, and other things indicated by the dialogue and text are usually delivered the same way. Moreover, given that the book is populated with characters from a range of countries and several distinctive accent types are mentioned, the audiobook suffers for the narrator’s limited range and inconsistent accents that drop in and out throughout the course of the characters’ dialogue when he tries them. That being said, there are some enjoyable and creative bits and worth a read/listen if you like globetrotting quests with simple characters or consume all Arthurian legend content.

I voluntarily reviewed an audiobook copy of this book.