Tattered Pawns

Endmage, Book 1

By: C. D. Corrigan

Narrated by: Nick Mercer

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

In a world brimming with magic, Whistler stands apart. A rare endmage, he’ll never sling a spell or speak a magic word—but he can nullify even the mightiest wizard with a snap of his fingers. Little loved and often feared, he’s made his way by selling his unique gift, hunting powerful spellcasters who would use their magic to kill and conquer.

It’s...usually enough to put food in his belly.

When Whistler learns that a string of deadly incidents are connected by a shadowy puppet master, Broker, it kicks off a continent-spanning chase that has him crossing swords with devils, angels, and kings, unravelling ancient secrets, and racing to catch Broker before his mysterious plans can come to fruition. Along the way, Whistler is joined by Ivy, a cocky thief with an infernal bloodline and secrets of her own, and Gruff, a mage-bred warhound who manages to be the most well-adjusted of the three, despite being a quadruped. The trio fights to keep one step ahead of their quarry, even as they themselves are hunted by powerful outside forces with agendas of their own.

©2022 Christopher David Corrigan (P)2022 Christopher David Corrigan

Great Story and Performance

from the start, the book hooked me I and kept listening. love the performance and how it made the dialog between characters fluid and very relatable. Gruff by far is the best sidekick and loved the interaction between all the characters. the performance during the more somber parts of the story really helped set the mood and I could feel and relate with them. can't wait for the second book!

Solid story carried by the narration.

As someone with ADHD the narrator can make or break an audiobook for me, but I great narrator can only do so much. All in all the story was good in my opinion, but the narration took this into the realm of an audiobook I will recommend to friends and family!

You’re an idiot

If you don’t read this book. It’s fun, quick, and nicely narrated. Don’t get thrice-f*&$ked by missing out on this one.

Fantasy Adventure with Great Characters and Dialogue

I LOVE fantasy novels, particularly ones with strong ensemble casts, and especially with flawed main characters who grapple with their traumas along with the events of the story. This book was right up my alley.

The main character is something of a pariah who earns his living as a bounty hunter of dangerous and powerful mages. Over the course of the story, he learns how to let a few people get close to him, and that it doesn’t always end poorly when he does. This personal growth is naturally interweaved into the larger plot, in which he discovers more and more about his next quarry and how the world/cosmos/gods operate at large.

The book felt a lot like a D&D campaign put to page - building a party with complimentary skills, encountering memorable NPCs who may or may not reappear later in the adventure, and lots of silly banter or otherwise ridiculous situations. I literally had to pause the player because I was laughing so hard at one point. Also, not every plot point is a win. It’s tiring when protagonists go undefeated, so it’s nice to experience a story where the heroes have to deal with things going sideways.

This book is just a blast to listen to, and anyone who enjoys fantasy adventures will absolutely love it.

The performance: the reason I give the performance 4 stars rather than 5, is that the performance IMPROVES noticeably from the first 8 chapters or so, throughout the rest of the book. There are a couple of not-perfectly-articulate words or rushed phrases somewhere in those first handful of chapters, but these flubs go away and the pace of the narration opens up to an even easier-to-listen-to cadence the further along in the book you listen.

That being said, the narrator was basically performing a one-man audio drama. Every character, no matter how minor, has a unique voice, accent, or manner of speaking. The narration is from the main character’s point of view, and much of the time is his internal monologue. The character’s mindset, mood, or attitude to the situation is ALWAYS evident in the tone of the narration itself. At no point was I ever bored more made uninterested in the content because of the delivery.

I cannot wait for the second book. I desperately want to know what comes next for Whistler, Ivy, and goodboi Gruff.

Fun adventure full of laughs

The narrator is dynamic and engaging although a little fast. The story is engaging and full of laughs with plenty of emotions and character development

The performance was phenomenal,!

Ready for book 2!!!
The performance felt as if there were 10 actors reading.

Okay at best

Some plot holes, immature and childish MC who tries to be funny but doesn’t succeed. I can not imagine any character in this book as a realistic , relatable, or competent person. Barely got through it.