Seven Blades in Black (The Grave of Empires #1)

Okay so I like the book. Its weird and interesting and I like the voice of the narrator she really makes the story BUT I want to know why this wasnt edited!?!? There are bunch of stupid reading errors and mispronounced words. For example the narrator repeated says incarcerated when she means incinerated. She pronounces the word debris as deBRIS instead of Debree. Maybe its just me but I found it irritating especially as it seemed like something that could and should have easily been corrected. I have recently found more and more errors like this. Is audible trying to get books out so fast they cant edit them?!?

The start of the book was amazing, but the story started to wander aimlessly. I eventually started to loathe the main character. She\’s pretty much an over confident, inept, bumbling idiot. At some point in the book, I just stopped caring what happened to her. I completely gave up on the story after 3 consecutive encounters against vastly superior, and entirely random, foesall of which she barely escapes and is bloodied to hell. And when I say consecutive, I mean each leads directly to the next and yet there is no relationship between the foes or events. Fortunately an equally entirely random magic healing potion that cures all wounds falls out of a wagon after the last encounter. I\’m on chapter 40 and still haven\’t encountered an antagonist that isn\’t just fluff. Come on now.

There\’s a small, greedy part of me that wants to never tell a soul about Sam Sykes, because I want to use all his ideas in my DnD campaigns. Sam is an author who I consider to be part of a newer wave in fantasy – he doesn\’t play to the clich of Tolkienesque elves and dwarves, of not-so-subtle colonialism that has echoed through the genre for decades. Neither does he play to the supertrend of GRIMDARK, begging to outdo the tragedies of Martin or Abercrombie. Sam\’s work reliably focuses on three things: characters with deep personal problems. A grinning disregard for propriety. And perhaps most importantly, an eagerness to ask, \”What if?\” purely for the fun of it. Something I think writers of both the aforementioned types of fantasy would do well to reexamine. Seven Blades in Black does exactly that, by starting with a very simple one: \”What if we mashed together Kill Bill, Trigun, and Final Fantasy? Wouldn\’t that just take the piss?\” Sal the Cacophony\’s story is one immediately familiar thanks to riffing on these concepts, but through Sam\’s excellent world building and understanding of character becomes one very much her own. She is now one of my favorite characters of all time. Even when I hate her. Even when she hates herself. All of this brought to vivid life by narrator Daisy May. I will admit that Daisy\’s heavier cockney accent made it difficult for me to understand for the first chapter or so, but damn if she isn\’t the best for this job. She IS the voice for Sal. I just want other potential listeners to know that it may take some getting used to early on. Some names sounded a bit to close for my ear since I hadn\’t personally seen the exact spelling (Galta and Calto especially come to mind, apologies if I\’ve spelled those names wrong). I rarely write full reviews as I always end up going on longer than I intend, but I hope that conveys to you how much I enjoyed this story and cant stand that I have to wait to read more. See, Sam and me, he and I had a deal. He\’d write the books and I\’d read em, revenge for ruin. And no one will say that Kael McDonald doesn\’t keep his word.

I\’m still trying to get through the book, because the story seems genuinely entertaining. The narrator, however, is absolutely awful. Her accent is a bit difficult to understand, she trips over names, and every \”S\” is hissed and whistled into the microphone. The audio and narration quality make this an excruciating experience. I\’d love to hear a different version of this novel, but this narrator just isn\’t up to par.

Kept me engaged, weak characters, nothing but one fight after another. Daisy May was good.

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