Tuyo

By: Rachel Neumeier

Narrated by: Patrick McCaffrey

Raised a warrior in the harsh winter country, Ryo inGara has always been willing to die for his family and his tribe. When war erupts against the summer country, the prospect of death in battle seems imminent. But when his warleader leaves Ryo as a sacrifice—a tuyo—to die at the hands of their enemies, he faces a fate he never imagined.

Ryo's captor, a lord of the summer country, may be an enemy, but far worse enemies are moving, with the current war nothing but the opening moves in a hidden game Ryo barely glimpses—a game in which all his people may be merely pawns.

Suddenly, Ryo finds his convictions overturned, and his loyalties uncertain. Should he support the man who holds him prisoner, the only man who may be able to defeat their greater enemy? And even if he does, can he persuade his people to do the same?

©2020 Rachel Neumeier (P)2020 Rachel Neumeier

Fantastic worldbuilding, with new ideas

This is one of my favorite fantasy books because of the daring creativity of the world and the consistent believability of the so very different protagonists.
The narrator does a great job in getting the laconic (or wished-for laconic) voice of young Ryo who so very much wants to be unmoved by the world. it's a good choice to let his voice be so even, only to sometimes change when his composure is cracked - Roy's emotions are instead so clearly expressed in the beautiful poetic yet extremely precise, language Neumeier gives him.

Powerfully complex and interesting world

Loved the characters and richness of the cultures. I was rooting for Ryo immediately and Aras impressed from beginning to end. I couldn’t put it down.

Great book, poor audiobook

I really enjoyed this story, but found the audiobook bordering on unlistenable, because the narrator does a poor job of conveying the writing structure, and feeling of what's being read.

I usually get both the kindle and audiobooks together, so I can read while at home, and then continue on audio when walking or driving. For this book though I ended up reading most of it because I found the audiobook to be so bad. I don't need a narrator to be a great voice actor, but I at least want them to make the structure of what I'm listening to clear, like when the writing switches from narration to dialog, or dialog switches between characters. This narrator didn't do that, so I sometimes found it hard to even follow. Also, the emotion they conveyed with their tone was often at odds with what was going on, which was jarring. I'd rather a narrator not try to convey emotions at all than convey the wrong emotions for the scene.