Speaker of Tongues

The (Second) Life of Brian, Book 1

By: Chris Tullbane

Narrated by: J.S. Arquin

Length: 28 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The season of peace has ended, the dawn of war has come, and even the gods are restless...

Brian Fieldings just buried his dad and lost the only job he's ever had. Waking up in an unfamiliar, pitch-black room the next morning feels a lot like the rotten cherry on a particularly awful sundae. Especially given the inhuman howling coming from the other side of the door.

He's only been conscious for a minute or so, but Brian already has questions. Where is he and how did he get here? What is making those terrible noises? And why does the room he's in have an altar?

First, he’ll need to survive long enough to get answers… then he’ll have to survive those answers. Because Brian has been tapped to play a role in a bloody drama that spans multiple realities, and nothing from his short life in Midton, Ohio has prepared him for what's next.

Speaker of Tongues is the first book in a slow-burn progression fantasy where the numbers and stats typical of LitRPG books are grounded in an epic fantasy world and balanced by a focus on party-based adventuring, group dynamics, and themes of personal growth.

©2024 Chris Tullbane (P)2024 Chris Tullbane

Exceeded expectations: overall good writing

The book needs more visibility at r/litrpg (reddit).
- Good character development
- Great side characters
- Interesting setting
- Unexpected story developments
- Meaningful numbers (slower progression)
- Not just another LITRPG book

Exellent narration. Enjoyed looking at the stats from ebook while listening the audiobook. Still, the stats weren’t so massive that they couldn’t be listened only.

The ebook was a lucky find from a recent sale and I bought also the audio with a credit as the book seemed promising.

a jewel of the genre

first it gets poison and venom right, as in venom is poison. second triple questionmark not qm qm qm. the story also doesn't make Gods by ranks, allowing the strongest to be with down by enough numbers. more like this!

Excellent audiobook that should have ten times the reviews that it has right now.

It took me a while to pick up this audiobook because it only had a few reviews. Even though the ratings were all positive, I’ve been burned before by this situation; you never know if 5 positive reviews just means that the author’s immediate family and friends decided to help them out.

I’m glad to say that regardless of their origins, the positive reviews for Speaker of Tongues are wholly deserved… there are many things that set this book apart from many of the others in the genre. The one I appreciate the most is the gradual and more meaningful progression of the MC’s accrual of power.

Instead of racing through the first several fights and rapidly powering up the MC, the author has actually made the power-progression follow along with the character’s emotional and intellectual development.

The result of this is that our protagonist’s personal power doesn’t overtake the pace of the plot and therefore leaves a ton of room for the character to continue to grow going forward.

I feel like the vast majority of LitRPGs end up having to nerf their MC’s with every new installment just to keep them from being godlike and invincible after the second book. The slightly better authors only have to completely redefine the plot and setting with every new book, just to keep up with the MC’s meteoric rise in power that paints the author into a corner with the original world they built.

Chris Tullbane manages to keep the runaway power progression fully in check while still advancing the characters and plot enough to keep the pages turning and hold your interest through to the last sentence of the book.

If you like the GameLit, Isekai, Fantasy, or even Adventure genre’s then this book is definitely for you.

Good first book

A slow roll but ultimately good character development despite the slow progress. Will try the next book.

Very slow start but tons of potential

Overall a great book - interesting world, real feeling characters, well written. This was not the book I wanted it to be, but I will be continuing. As someone who likes OP characters, I was a bit disappointed - but that just my preference. Mild spoilers ahead.........

This is NOT the story of an OP or unique MC. He is weak & unskilled (though not whiney), and remains that way the whole book. Progression reminds me of Cradle: there are hints at the power he could reach but it is going to take a very long time at current rates. Skills and abilities are quite boring at their current levels, no interesting techniques or magic system (yet).

Author is also fairly heavy handed in killing off characters. I like that it adds weight to the action, but this one risks harming my ability to stay invested... I'll likely drop the series if introduced characters die at this rate in the next one.