Waterstone

War of Light and Shadow, Book 1

By: Ryan Kirk

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

An ancient evil rises. A trio of unlikely heroes must find the will to stand and fight.

Ronan dreams of wandering beyond the thick stone walls of his town. Unfortunately, he is the only youth unable to wield the magical force of onda, which means no caravan will risk bringing him into the wild.

The walls that protect him from the monsters of the night are also his prison.

In the capital of Lindra, Count Jamie Pierce is coerced into stealing an ancient book. As he plans the theft, he comes to learn that all is not well in his homeland. An ancient foe prepares to attack, but no one is sounding the alarm.

The thief who has never stood for anything must decide whether he'll fight or flee.

Laran is a sumar, one of the select warriors who wander the wild to protect the citizens hiding behind their impenetrable walls. He's more at home among the trees and the stars, but when he stumbles upon a new breed of demon, cleverer than any he's fought before, he'll need to learn how to trust the very humans he so despises.

Don't miss the start of this epic fantasy adventure from Ryan Kirk, best-selling author of Nightblade andd Blades of the Fallen. As dark forces gather quietly around our heroes, fate throws Ronan, Jamie, and Laran together for a task that will carry them across their duchy and into the heart of a malevolent enemy.

©2023 Aethon Books (P)2023 Aethon Audio

great Story

i had fun listening to this story. it was greatly enjoyable and had a lot of interesting twists.

Genre classification unclear

Ryan Kirk has several lead characters in the book, from coming-of-age youth, to grizzled middle-aged warrior misanthrope, to a youthful flippant lord inwardly wanting to make a difference. The 3 eventually form an untrustful fellowship as they venture to investigate the recent deaths of several warriors and merchant caravans. There's also a beautiful princess who is orchestrating this venture in an adjunct activity to the reigning duke.

In all, the story and characters are interesting and fairly easy to become invested in them. However, the author has a tendency overdo the various character plot situations, to the point where one gets frustrated by the effect of slowing the pace of the story unnecessarily. Also, at least with Book 1, the genre appears to be mostly a fantasy but hints at some possibility that future books will introduce some progression elements to it.

Even so, I enjoyed the book and plan to continue with Book 2 of the series.

Peter Berkrot's performance was well done.

A fantastic new take on a cultivation novel!!!

What a fantastic new take on basically what amounts to a cultivation novel. And I loved it. As Ronan tries to unsucessfully cultivate his powers at school. We also meet Jamie Pierce a count by birth and thief by profession, and lastly we meet Laran a sumar of the warrior class. Especially trained to protect the people from the monsters. It takes a while to do some world building as these three unlikely characters are drawn together. But, once the ball is rolling, you can't help but be mesmerized by this enthralling story!
What's so different about the cultivation is that instead cultivating the power already within Ronan as everyone else does. Ronan discovered quite by accident that if he sends his power away 😳 that he's actually very strong during a fight.
Go add Waterstone to your library and enjoy listening to Peter Berkrot tell you a story!