D Martinez

Reader, Be Warned!

Revisado: 04-14-20

This is an EXCELLENT series of books. If you like epic fantasy, you won't be disappointed to start on the story of Minalan the Spellmonger. But be ye warned... if you start, you'll likely want to keep going until the very end of the long journey.
Terry Mancour does a marvelous job of pulling the reader into the story, where you experience the harrowing account of an emerging goblin war from the perspective of a retired, but still relatively young, War Mage and now local Spellmonger named Minalan who, along with his loyal (and brash) apprentice Tyndal, is dragged into grand events that suddenly turn his simple, provincial life completely upside down and bring him dead-center of political, military, and arcane plots, all while trying to counter the designs of the mystical "Dead God".
I am writing this review after having finished all the available titles in this series on Audible and I'm ready to go back and start them anew in hopes that the next title will be published by the time I finish them again. Terry Mancour composes the epic tale with intrigue, suspense, action, a little sensuality, and lots of humor thrown in.
John Lee's narration is absolutely masterful. He is able to effortlessly (it seems) transition the listener from one character to another with simple shifts in his inflection and subtle changes of accent. I got to the point where I could tell who was speaking simply by the tone that Lee used for that character's voice -- not a small feat, considering the huge number of characters that appear in this series of books.
This series is a lot of fun and I don't hesitate to give it my highest review.

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I Swear by Ancient Oaths, It is REALLY Good!

Revisado: 11-01-19

I wasn't sure what to expect from this title, especially when I realized that it was translated from a Swedish book, originally published in 1941. I don't want to say that I was "surprised", but I was more than pleased with the story and as I continued, I realized that I was fully immersed in the varied adventures of Orm Tostesson ("Red Orm") and was disappointed when it came to an end.
I will end this very short review by agreeing with the concluding remarks from the introduction by Michael Chabon: "Even though I have just finished reading the book for the fourth time, I envy you the pleasure you are about to find in the pages of “The Long Ships.” When you arrive at its bitter-sweet, but mostly sweet, conclusion, I trust that you will turn to your shipmate, your companion in adventure, and swear by ancient oaths, as I hereby swear to you, 'It is really good'.”

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Couldn't Get Past the Narration

Revisado: 11-01-19

I appreciate that this is the author's personal story of courage and overcoming obstacles, but I had a very hard time with the author's narration. Professional narrators are talented actors who train to perfect their art so it doesn't sound as if they're reading from a page. Unfortunately, the author sounds to me like she's reading a book report in front of a classroom. Her style became difficult for me to listen to and I had to stop. I wanted to finish her inspiring story, so I went back to continue listening several times, but each time I had to stop and I eventually gave up.

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