Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1

By: Jim Bernheimer

Narrated by: Christine Padovan

Forget everything you thought you knew about unicorns and maidens...

A unicorn is not supposed to survive the death of its rider, but Majherri did. Now he is a pariah, mistrusted by the Greater Herd. To reclaim his lost honor and status, he will entrust the remnants of his life to a new human female while unraveling the mystery of his continued existence.

Kayleigh Reese is not Battle Maiden material. She's three years older than any other recruit and has enjoyed a peaceful, nomadic life working with her artist mother. The rigors of joining the High-King's elite unicorn cavalry are clearly not for her. Now, with a bond to Majherri, she must overcome her mother's disapproval, the ire of her commanding officer and fellow trainees, and, most importantly, the secrets of her unicorn's past if she is to become a legendary warrior. To prevail, they must quickly come together as a team and unlock the powerful and dangerous magic inside them.

©2011-2015 David Wood- Gryphonwood Press (P)2011 David Wood

where is the rest of the series

Would you consider the audio edition of Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 to be better than the print version?

n/a

What other book might you compare Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 to and why?

Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series, Alexis Morgan's Warriors of the Mist series

What does Christine Padovan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

it was kind of fun hearing the different voices

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

a little of both

Any additional comments?

it was a great book, but after playing it could find no record of the rest of the series ever being written. So there is a great beginning and no end

Don't Let The Cover Turn You Away

This is not the typical Jim Bernheimer book. If you are looking for the snarky, sarcastic dialogue from Dead Eye or D-List, you won't find it here. If you give this book a chance, you will find it and enjoyable. This definitely shows some range in Mr. Bernheimer's writing. I believe that if you go in with an open mind, you will find why I have become a big fan of Jim Bernheimer.

A really fun twist, can't wait for the next one

What did you love best about Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1?

I really enjoyed the book, a good clean read, with a new twist.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1?

The final words

Have you listened to any of Christine Padovan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not extreme, but as soon as I finished, I searched for the next book. It has been a while since I have done this. I have listened to audible books for over 20 years. I lost track of the number years ago...

Any additional comments?

Can't wait till the next book!

Don't waste the credit

Would you try another book from Jim Bernheimer and/or Christine Padovan?

Yes by the author. None by the narrator.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Don't know,. Couldn't finish the book.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I'm not a particularly picky listener, usually if the story is good I can "soldier on." Not so with this book.
It seemed that she wasn't familiar with the material prior to performing. Accents in wrong places, terrible supporting character voices, stilted narration.

Did Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 inspire you to do anything?

Rip out my ear buds and bang my head against the wall.

Any additional comments?

Too bad, I think this is a pretty good YA story, no Mary Sue's. Will look for print version.

Great Adventure!

What made the experience of listening to Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 the most enjoyable?

Listening to the mix of Characters and how the Story got better and better as it went on!

What did you like best about this story?

This was my first Audio Book and wasn't sure how it would go but I LOVED IT. Christine Padovan was amazing! I loved the way she told the story as I said it got better as the story was told! A Movie for my Ears!

Any additional comments?

I'll buy anything she reads!

Horrible Narrator, Great Story!!

I love love loved the story and plot. The narrator slaughtered it. This story is chuck full of fantasticly strong female leads who don't need men to be strong. The narrator used whiney, wimpy, whispery voices for these women which were so out of place in comparison to the words she was reading it would throw me out of the book. I wish I had just read this book.

It looks like the next book in this series is read by a different narrator. I'll give it a chance, hoping for the best.

Story 5 Stars
Narrator 1 Star

Story is worth the downside

I struggled to finish the book because the narrator who was good bringing to life a few characters had many that made me want to hit the stop button to spare my ears.

I got this book after listening to the authors D List supervillain books. I knew going in that this book targeted teenage girls but figured there would be likeable and funny characters (like in his other series). This book did not meet that expectation but its not necessarily a bad thing. The tone of this series is different and seems appropriate given the target audience.

Good story narrator could be better.

What did you love best about Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1?

I haven't seen unicorns used this way before.

Would you be willing to try another one of Christine Padovan???s performances?

The narrator was plesant voice. The only problem was the narrator used a falsetto voice to voice one of the instructors. The voice was very shrill and annoying. Otherwise the narration was vary well preformed and I would listen to a book narrated by this narrator again.

Unicorn Basic Training.

3.5 stars overall. A fairly enjoyable book, I suspect as a girl I would have loved it. I picked this book up because I have enjoyed both the Dead Eye and the Supervillian Series by Jim Bernheimer, plus I like to read a good fantasy every once in a while. This book is from both Kayleigh's and Majherri's point of view. Majherri is one stubborn unicorn. Kayleigh is selected as a rider and then she goes through basic training with her unicorn. Since her unicorn has already been through this before, he gets up to trouble. I liked the characters but just barely, and I did see a lot of ideas that were in this book that have been done before. Which made me doubt if I would read the next book. Fortunately the last couple of hours in this book was full of action and magic, it started to get good and I will probably read the next book. Of course this book leaves you hanging, just like the end of TV season, trying to temp you to come back. Narrator is okay, she did have a bit of a monotone voice and a couple of character voices that were too screechy or just too high pitched.

good story marred by horrible performance

What did you like best about Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1? What did you like least?

the narrator, her voice were awful.

Would you be willing to try another one of Christine Padovan’s performances?

no.. I will read the rest of this series for myself

Was Rider: Spirals of Destiny: Book 1 worth the listening time?

the story was interesting..