Wraithblade

The Wraithblade Saga, Book 1

By: S.M. Boyce

Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell

Length: 27 hrs

Publisher's summary

Connor Magnuson is going to conquer Death itself.

A penniless drifter, Connor has survived the last eight years alone in a cursed woodland teeming with monsters that eat grown men whole. Shunned, forgotten, and with nowhere else to go, he looks death in the eye every night and draws his sword to face it. The forest, after all, burned the fear out of him long ago.

Still, it hasn't hardened the last shreds of his heart quite yet. When Connor hears a mysterious girl scream in the middle of nowhere, he ends up in a brutal battle that nearly costs him his life. His bravery does not go unrewarded, and in the aftermath of the fight, he finds himself bonded to the most infamous enchantment the world has ever seen: the Wraith King. The undead abomination grants him godlike power, but legendary magic always comes with a cost. Even as his fellow outcasts flock to him for help, Connor is branded as an outlaw. Kings and lords alike know where the wraith has gone, and they'll slit his throat to take it from him. To them, a peasant like Connor is unworthy. He's a mistake to be corrected, and nothing more.

But Connor is no ordinary man, and he'll drag those hunters to hell with him if that's what it takes to protect what is his.

©2020 S. M. Boyce (P)2021 Tantor

Good story, Bad narrator

The story line and characters was enjoyable, but buy the Kindle version!! The Narrator is terrible! Just a bunch of over excited dramatic yelling THE WHOLE BOOK!!

Really Good

I really liked this book and look forward to the next one, wondering if the second book is the final or if there will be another one afterwards, however I'm sure I'll find out at the end lol

The thieving of the alchemist story was just bad

The thieving of the alchemist story was about the main character quizzing the witch character about everything while robbing a store of its ingredients and forcing her to answer dumb and stupid questions.
it took him 25 minutes of stupid questions, during a robbery.
The author just wasted my time to fill his story with garbage.

Campy, very campy...

The voice work doesn't match the story, at all. sounds like a cowboy was given a sword by a ghost. The narrations is peppered with all of this cowboy grit that's out of place for the story. very distracting.

MC is insufferable

Connor is the most boring goody toe-shoes in the universe, not a person who survived eight years in the most dangerous forest on the continent and had his family killed. It seems like the author liked the idea of someone hardened by their environment yet is a bleeding heart in a place where everyone wishes to murder him and steal what he is now cursed to bear.

The main character's inability to act appropriately in nearly all his conflicts makes him insufferable as the writing is meant to display competence even though it makes him looked naive or incompetent. His complete hypocrisy in the face of others not spelling out their backstory while excluding his own. The complete inability for him to understand socializing with others while being able to read tell when someone is lying, EVERYTIME. It does not lead to a good character that is interesting or capable of rooting to succeed. The in inconsistent in power he has convenient for whenever the author wishes to make something challenging or absurdly easy.

The chapters with Zander, Otmund, Murdock, and Sophia should be cut out because they detract from the story of Connor and building relationships with characters he should be amicable towards or have a friendship. Have Quinn, the person hunting him be the other POV and show the villians perspective we learn through her. Other than that, another user pointed out the miss use of words like calling 10 soldiers an "army." This persists calling tens of people armies.

I won't expand on the narration as everyone more or less agrees it's terrible. It just doesn't fit the narrator and makes the fights even more unbearable than a person being exhausted four times in a row yet still able to move.


This could have been lower but it being in a series gives some of the omitted information the plausible ability to be expanded upon later

narrator detracts from a decent story

I made it most of the way through this book and with only a few hours left I needed a break. The story is decent, if predictable, but the narrator makes everyone sound so unrealistic that even after 20 something hours of acclimation I still find myself compulsively rolling my eyes or wincing. it's hard to describe what the problem is beyond that so I just recommend listening to the sample and understanding that it is the tip of the iceberg.

Needs some work.

The story itself is ok but the author uses a lot of words to convey simple ideas. Some outcomes are so obvious that it's hard to listen too. The characters are likable but the depth and development are lacking. I love long books but this could have had 4 hrs cut and it would not have changed a thing.

a review

The story was interesting but at times I found it hard to stay focused with the narrator. best way I can put it, he read the boring going through the motion parts like it should be interesting and I found that distracting. Definitely was trying to hard.

Great and refreshing story!

loved the book. I could not put it down. really enjoyed the character development. well done!

The Wraith Blade (book 1)

This was the most exciting performance I’ve ever heard! Never a dull moment and it seemed when there were parts of the story where I would compare what I would do for a situation, so did the character. Conner was amazing as a leader. ‘The leader who lead without any intentions” sums it up perfectly. Got to say, ’m impressed. The only down fall of the whole story was Zander lived. Getting book two now.