I’ve been hoping to find alternatives to Shadowrun and other books like it, and this book certainly scratches that itch for me. It takes place in a future with ogres, trolls, elves, and other mythical creatures. You also have mages, hackers, and gunners with cybernetic enhancements. There is also quite a bit of necromancy and reincarnation. I listened to this as a standalone book, and I did feel like I missed out on some of the references, but overall I don’t think you would have had to start at the beginning of the series to understand the book. There are a lot of unanswered questions at the end of this book, and unfortunately book four isn’t out yet, so I think I’ll have to wait a while. The narrator did a fantastic job with the sound effects. He created the distortion you would hear when talking to someone over a radio, and added slight coughing when someone would cough. Overall, that added a lot to the book that created a sense of immersion that I haven’t felt with other audiobooks. This is the first book I’ve listened to that was narrated by Jeff Hays and I definitely plan on listening to more of his work.
This audiobook was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.