"The Dame" by R. A. Salvatore
"The Dame"
by R. A. Salvatore
read by Erik Singer
produced by MacMillan Audio
Approx 12 hours
After becoming a fan of R.A. Salvatore's writing through "The Demon Wars Saga," I became curious about some of his other works, I'm constantly hearing about his famous anti-hero, Drizzzt, but have yet to tackle that side of Salvatore's worlds. I decided to stay within the realm of Corona with this audio book, "The Dame." I rarely ever read the middle of a saga but this time I started with the last of the 3 books in "The First King Saga." During the first section I had to listen very closely this was when the characters were pretty much introduced, but having a past history in previous books there was some information that was assumed to be known so it took a bit of deciphering, once the story evolved the enjoyment of the adventure moved along so that the listening was easier and made for a nice fantasy novel.
The reader, Erik Singer, had his work cut out for him with numerous characters and several different races and different types of regions from where they came. The nice thing about fantasy is that the accents are the reader's choice. The choices made by singer were a hit. With one of the bands of characters involved they were a combination of what could be construed as Turkish assassins and Ninjas. Singers accent for these characters were a perfect combination of the two, making these characters really come alive.
"The Dame" follows the continuing adventures of Bransen Garibond, The Highwayman, and the land of Honce's continuous battle over who would be king of all Honce. Bransen wants no part of the fight that is continuing between the Lairds of Honce. Bransen only wants peace for his family.
However a recent occurrence not only puts Bransen in the sights of one of the Lairds who now calls himself King, because one of the Lairds, Delaval, is assassinated by a group of mystic warriors whose abilities could only be the Jhest warriors. The Jhest warriors use a type of blade that is curved and has intricate carvings along the blade, Bransen's mother was Jhest and he uses her blade. One of the warriors blades is broken during the assassination and the blade found is wrongly identified as that of The Highwayman. More intriguing to Bransen is the chance to connect with his mother's people and to delve more deeply into the abilities that he has developed and possibly even to find a Jhest teacher that might free him from his dependence on the gemstones.
Bransen Garibond was once known as The Stork, due to his clumsiness. A brother of Mere Abell gave Bransen a soulstone so he may become more in control of himself and led to Bransen to become the legend known as the Highwayman.
Speaking of the Mere Abell church, the monks of the church are caught in the middle in the battle for King of Honce. The church has been a neutral party to the war and have healed and housed soldiers from all sides of the war. Now the new king wants all that opposed to him to be put to death at the hands of the monks. They rebel, and establish their own sovereignty, creating St. Mere Abell as a power to be dealt with in the land of Honce.
If you have read any of "The Demon Wars Saga," books then this one will give you a nice background on how the world of Corona developed.
Labels: audio book, audiobook, book review, books, bransen garibond, corona, demon wars saga, fantasy, high fantasy, r.a. salvatore, the dame
posted by Gil T. @ 10:01 PM
"The Demon Spirit - Part 2" The Demon Wars Saga by R.A. Salvatore
"The Demon Spirit - Part 2"
The Demon Wars Saga
by R.A. Salvatore
Multicast production
Produced by GraphicAudio
Approx. 5 hours
R.A. Salvatore created a phenom in the Demon Wars Saga, spanning seven books and a role playing game. This saga of high fantasy in the Land of Corona is one of action and adventure equal to that of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy by Tolkien. In the first book, which Graphic Audio produced in audio form in three parts, the listener was introduced to the Heroes; Elbryan the Ranger, Jilesponie the warrior and wizard in training, Avelyn Desbris the Wizard Monk, Bradwarden the Centaur and Juravial the elf. The all went to battle the Demon Dactyl which had awakened and sent it's armies of dwarves/powries, goblins and giants into the Land of Corona to clear the way for the Demon to take command. Avelyn and Bradwarden and many humans lost their lives in destroying the Demon Dactyl and Elbryan and Pony returned to the humans in hopes the evil was gone.
"The Demon Spirit - part 2" continues with Elbryan, Pony and the elf, Juraviel trying their best to rid the land of Corona of Fomorian Giants, Bloody-Cap powrie dwarves and goblins. This time they run into the generals of the powries and giants and decide to destroy those higher ranking officials in hopes that without leaders the powries and giants will leave the lands and the goblins will soon follow suit. The battles ensue and when it looks like a major victory for the humans a problem arises. This problem is from one of its own. A thief turned hero by the name of Roger Lockless is Jealous of Elbryan, otherwise known as the ranger Nightbird.
To Roger it seems as though Nightbird is stealing his thunder and his possibility of being the leader of the rag-tag band of humans wanting to get their towns back from the leftover armies of the destroyed demon dactyl. Nightbird is constantly making plans for skirmishes and for routes the band should take to which Roger thinks Nightbird wants to take control. Roger must be taught the big lesson of humility, if he wants all his townfolk to remain safe, and realize his own pride is getting in the way. Juraviel, Pony and Nightbird are just the teachers for that lesson.
On the other side of the land the Abellican Church led by Father Abbot Markwart have found and are torturing the Centaur Bradwarden. Yes Bradwarden lives! Markwart is out to make the hero Avelin Desbris, who gave his life destroying the demon dactyl, seem as though he joined the dactyl and died deceiving the humans. Master Jojonah knows different and begins to see that the Church is turning into a very dark force. Pony's adopted parents are held captive by Father Markwart in hopes to find the stolen magic stones of Pimaninicut which Avelin had "stolen."
Pony's Ex-Husband, the nobleman Conner Bildeborough, learns of this and seeks out Pony, known to him as Jilly, to warn her of the danger.
Once again GraphicAudio continues the "Movie in your mind" tale in the audio book with great acting and production. This time around I found myself fascinated by the sound effects of the horses. All sound effects of the horses in this production are perfectly placed. When they need to run they run when they stop they stop. During one battle it sounds as though they recorded an actual horse stomping in the skull of an actual giant. Very realistic. Giants don't really exist do they?
Labels: audio book, book review, books, corona, demon wars, demon wars saga, demons, elbryan, fantasy, high fantasy, pony, r.a. salvatore, the demon awakens, the demon spirit
posted by Gil T. @ 10:50 PM
