Rise of the Shadow Rogue

By: Mike Truk

Narrated by: Ryan West

Betrayal cuts deepest when someone you love wields the knife.

For Kellik, a once-rising star of Port Gloom's guild of thieves, it also leaves him floating in the bay, bleeding out and without hope or allies. Saved by an urchin and healed by a disgraced saint, Kellick is consumed by a single desire: to find out why his guild master ordered him cut down moments after passing his initiation trial.

Burning with injustice, Kellik recruits a number of gorgeous rogues to his side: fallen assassins, dark elf witches, and unnervingly polite necromancers. Together they journey through the shadowy underbelly of Port Gloom in pursuit of bloody revenge, daring to face impossible odds and uncover the grim truth: not only the reason for the guild's unnatural monopoly on crime, but why his guild master might have been justified in ordering his death after all.

Warning and minor spoilers: Rise of the Shadow Rogue is an 18+ audiobook intended for mature listeners. It contains graphic sex, medieval violence, and nudity. People swear, betray their loved ones, set each other on fire, seduce each other, and are scared witless by abysmal horrors. Most importantly, you'll meet gorgeous, powerful women, some capable of twisting the very fabric of fate, others of tearing a man in half with their bare hands. All are willing to enter unconventional, polyamorous harem relationships if it means helping Kellik achieve justice, and with this many powerful women on his side, he just might stand a chance.

©2019 Mike Truk (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Masterful use of the language, but

Okay, I think Mike Truk has the strongest grasp of more-than-two-syllable words of any author I've "read" and read, without going all hoity-toity on the reader. I really liked the book. HOWEVER, magic and thieves and swords and sorcery in a great story is why I bought the book - the sex was over the top. Don't get me wrong, I'm a guy and like that stuff, but not sure if this was the place for it.

Anyway, Book 2: I'm in!

All Around Fun

The story is interesting, the characters are creative, and the plot continues to thicken. The most enjoyable factor for me personally was that the narrative was unapologetic in violent and romantic encounters alike. The narrator being excellent was an added bonus. I highly recommend this series to any fantasy fans who enjoy the dark side of literature or simply tire of heavily abridged content.

Slow start to an intense and twisting story.

As the title states, it was a bit slow in the beginning as characters are introduced and the world is detailed. Once most of the cast makes an appearance it starts really picking up and by the end becomes pretty non-stop.

The story is why you stay.

This book reminds me of a few games I've played in where there's a fantastic world you're dropped into and forced to learn the concepts from the authors suggestions instead of having them spoodfed to you. It's worth the buy.

Awesome book, definitely recommend!!

It is excellent in the author’s ability to create an enticing story and have things based in reality in a sense that you can envision that is really how it would happen rather than everything being just fairy-tailed and easy for the main character.

After listening to the first hour I bought the next two books just because I knew I was going to love not just the story but the mature content. It is overwhelmingly just X-Rated stuff, it has a good story with the right amount of adult themed material.

Great book, highly recommend!!!

Great except for the porn.

Sex because it's part of the story is fine, porn for the sake of porn, no thanks. Sadly, the story is great and doesn't need to stand on the porn. If I want graphic porn, then I will go buy some audio porn, but really I like better fantasy. Hopefully, Mike will let his stories stand on their own merit and realize he doesn't need a gimmick like gratuitous sex scenes. Thankfully I can use my 30-second advance button to skip ahead to the rest of the story. I could have lived with it for the most part, but damn, one scene just dragged on for several minutes, I just wanted it over so to hear the story again(was in bed). Wish that Mike spent the same amount of time and detail for the fighting and action scenes. Not finished with the book yet, so I will have to see by the end if I want to pick up the second book later or not. Like I said, great story, just divided by non-story parts.

Need next book ASAP

***No spoilers, just praise*** There aren’t enough nice things I could say about this well written introduction to Mike's new world. The city is a living/breathing character! The main actual character is a slick dude with funny banter. The harem aspect is wonderfully brief and doesn’t ruin the sword and sorcery action.

great twist at the end

Got this book on a whim and was engaged they entire time, great action, great story and an arsenal of unique characters, I'll be definitely looking forward to the next installment.

An Adult D&D adventure that holds your attention.

As I said, this is an adult oriented Dungeons & Dragons style story.

There are numerous sex scenes, but done in a way that they do not get boring. Each encounter leaving a different taste in your mouth, if you will.

Additionally this isn’t just smut. There was definitely a lot of thought and effort that went into this. As most topics that seemed to not make sense one moment, were explained shortly there after. Most of the time those explanations only leaving you with more questions as to further implications. I only found one topic that didn’t sit well with me but I recognize it as a personal preference and not actually anything against the writing itself. I don’t want to speak to it though as it could be a bit of a spoiler.

Overall, the pacing was good, the MC was likable and fleshed out thoroughly, the love interests were equally as unique as were the supporting characters, the story as a whole was interesting, and in true D&D fashion there were some curve balls that really seem to come out of nowhere but it just made it all the more interesting.

Love the warcraft universe

0rcs, Tr0lls, magic... fricken awsum. Kinda geared twards a man's fantasy, as women, although strong, are the hero's toy