The Golden Queen

The Golden Queen, Book 1

By: David Farland

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Insectoid Dronons have slain the queen Semarritte, throwing into chaos the ten thousand worlds over which she reigned. Desperate to save mankind, Lord Veriasse, Semarritte's near-immortal consort, has created a new queen: Everynne, cloned from her dead mother. Born to rule, Everynne instead is on the run, often only one planet ahead of advancing forces of the invaders, who recognize that Everynne is a powerful rallying point for threatened humanity.

Hotly pursued by the dronons and their armed forces, the Vanquishers, Everynne falls in with cocky bodyguard Gallen O'Day; the pious Orick, an intelligent black bear; and the beautiful orphan, Maggie Flynn. With these new allies sworn to her service, the young queen begins the great struggle against the aliens. Leaping from world to world via an ancient system of instantaneous transport gates, the heroes face terrible dangers and great wonders as they seek the heart of the Dronon worlds, carrying the battle straight to the enemy.

Listen to the rest of the Golden Queen series.©1994 Dave Wolverton (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This book is so mature in its sensibility, so strong in its artistry, so deep in its invention that most of us who write science fiction would be proud to have such a novel as the culmination, not the beginning of our career." (Orson Scott Card)

Captivating Story

I thoroughly enjoyed The Golden Queen. It had the winning combo of an interesting and varied setting, fascinating three-dimensional characters and a captivating storyline. Perhaps it was having a bear as one of the main characters but I found the story reminded me of The Golden Compass. I also found the narration very well done. The varied accents of the narrator made it easy to keep the characters apart without being over stated or distracting. An overall well done reading/listening experience.

Not as good as Runelords, but not bad

The Runelords saga, by David farland, is my favorite series of all time. I saw this series by the same author, and got excited. after finishing the first book, I find myself disappointed. it's ok, it's definately original, but the world just doesn't pull me in. the world is almost too different. ir doesnt make logical sense. iwould recommend it, but it's not gonna set the world on fire. it's merely ok.

Not good/not bad just average.

Story is a decent mix of sci-fi & fantasy. The problem is sometimes it drags on and I would lose interest, and other times was quite entertaining. The overall result is just okay. Also, the reader is somewhat drab which does not help. I did enjoy all of the different characters/villians in the book. That being said, the second book in the series is just AWFUL!! Not sure how I made it all the way through, and tuned out large sections while listening. It is to this date the only audiobook I have ever returned for a credit and I only paid $4.95.

Fantasy, SciFi, Adventure

The main characters of the book are Gallan, Maggie and Orick, the talking bear. They are going about their daily business when two strangers enter their lives, Everynne and Veriasse. Everynne is the clone of the queen who had ruled 10,000 worlds until she was killed by the Dronons who then took over and she and her bodyguard are trying to regain control since the Dronons are not very nice rulers. Gallan, Maggie and Orick join in to help. They start hoping different worlds through gates and have all kinds of adventures, sometimes together, sometimes separately, until they get to the final showdown.

I started out getting caught up in the story, but at other times my mind would wander until it got interesting again. There's plenty of fighting since they're on a mission, of course. You get to hear about the different worlds they go through to get to their final destination. Plus there's a little romance thrown in.

I thought the narrator did a great job on the different characters.

The creative flow of the amazing read makes it a hard one to put down.

Absolutely nothing to dislike about this book. I have read it twice and love it.