House of Blades
Review #1
House of Blades audiobook free
he book opens with Simon in a forest with his mom and dad. Dad quickly gets killed by a pair of Travelers. Mom is driven insane and a swordsman steps up to slay the pair of Travelers, saving Simon.
He tells Simon his mother might never recover, but there is a chance. Then to come back to the woods in a couple of years and he will teach him how to never fear Travelers again.
Fast forward several years and Simon is trying to take care of his crazy mother. The Overlord Malachi has sent soldiers to gather 9 people for the sacrifice, but the townspeople refuse. Chaos ensues.
Review #2
House of Blades audiobook Series The Traveler’s Gate Trilogy
As a child, Simon is traveling with his parents when he is forced to witness to two Travelers murder his father and destroy his mother’s mind. He is saved by another Traveler, who intervenes before they can kill Simon and kills both of the attacking Travelers.
Years later, the village in which Simon has been eking out an existence, caring for his mother with the small amount of money he is able to earn and the occasional handouts from others in the village. Suddenly, his village is attacked. The Overlord has declared that the year’s Sacrifice will come from the village, but the soldiers and Traveler sent to gather the nine individuals who will serve as sacrifice do not do so peacefully. Killing indiscriminately, the village is nearly destroyed. Of those taken for sacrifice is Leah, one of Simon’s only friends in the village.
Determined to save her, Simon returns to the site of his father’s murder in search of the Traveler who had saved him. After several days, he finds Kai instead. Kai brings him into Vallin Hall and begins to help train him as a Traveler. Will Simon gain the skills he needs to save Leah? And what about Alin, who discovers he is also a Traveler, and he is apparently a prophesized Traveler? Will Alin’s ego help him or hurt him?
I really enjoyed his introduction into this world. Both the character development and the world-building were good. From the beginning of the book, I was drawn into the story and found myself cheering for Simon. In addition, though I initially found myself glad that Simon would have a second Traveler on his side through Alin, Wight did a wonderful job of writing Alin’s character development such that he could easily go different ways. I look forward to reading/listening to the next book to see how that goes. Finally, after that revelation at the end, I definitely want to see what’s going to happen between Simon and Alin, and whether or not Simon will reveal the knowledge he gained about Leah when he was rescuing her.
I also had the opportunity to listen to part of the audiobook, newly re-recorded by the wonderful Travis Baldree. I started listening to the audiobook about halfway through, as it was just released yesterday. I look forward to listening to the other two books as Travis Baldree is one of my favorite narrators.
Review #3
Audiobook House of Blades by Will Wight
Afraid that I’ve abandoned this at 20 something % as I just can’t get into it. I read a LOT and, in between more serious books, like to occasionally throw in something a bit quirky and the synopsis made me think this might be something that I would like.
Unfortunately I’m finding it a bit “young adult” in its tone and it’s not gripping me. One of the main characters (at this stage I’m not entirely sure WHO is supposed to be the lead) is Simon and, so far, he’s just driving me nuts with going on about his mother. Thankfully (yes, showing my cold hearted side) she’s died a few chapters ago – but even that couldn’t endear me to it.
The author has a vivid imagination and clearly has put a lot of work into inventing an unusual World / Galaxy / Characters. But I suspect that I’m too old for his target audience.
Review #4
Audio House of Blades narrated by Travis Baldree
Big fan of Will Wight and I began by reading Cradle which I love. So far I feel Cradle is his best work.
There were a lot of interesting ideas in House of Blades but I often felt a lot was not explained and it left me without the detail I wanted. Also the power scaling is rather loose and I don’t feel satisfaction when a practitioner of a few months beats those who have been using their power for a lifetime. None of the main characters have a good or honest relationship either so this is missing too. The only person I found myself invested with was Simon.
Review #5
Free audio House of Blades – in the audio player below
The narrative world is interesting, I want to know more about Valinhall lore. I would read a whole book dedicated to recruiting the original ‘dragons’.
I’m not interested in the young love squabble. The female character is very much not a damsel in distress, it’s nice that she is critical and unimpressed with both young male characters’ actions. Having this multi-perspective narrative made some of the narrative driving motivations very shallow, it’s easy to criticise the characters, so it also made it easy to dislike the characters. House of blades wasn’t a page turner for me. Despite this, it is a well written book.
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