Ordination

The Paladin Trilogy, Book 1

By: Daniel M. Ford

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

For generations, warlords fought bitterly for dominance in a land without a king, leaving a fractured, war-torn country plagued by thieves, slavers, and the servants of dark gods and darker magic.

Allystaire Coldbourne travels a treacherous path toward his Ordination as a holy knight of legend, a Paladin, a savior of the people. But to fulfill this role, he - and the unexpected allies he finds along the way - must face the demonic, sorcerous evil that stalks the land, the wrath of gods and men, and his own dark past.

©2016 Daniel M. Ford (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Starts off amazing!

The book opens up on some solid ground, I felt like " here comes an epic tale of general badassery" it does deliver! I did find that it got repetitive near the mid all the way to the end, the book becomes a little predictable as well but that can't be helped if you've read a lot of epic fantasy. If you have no patience for a hook repeating the same explanation for multiple occurrences then this may not be the best book for you. Overall a decent start to a series!

Great beginnings...

This first book was captivating and entertaining! The characters were all interesting and I’ve already purchased the second book and I’m looking forward to see where things go next.

awesome

I generally judge books with how quickly I go through them. This one went very quickly

Nice story, quality writing

Enjoyable story about a man finding his moral compass and becoming an avatar.

Nice immediacy to the writing. Fun characters.

I subtracted a star from perfect as there is little overall arching plot that is resolved. In fact, there is a cliffhanger ending that Tom me completely by surprise as the story just ended at what seemed like a random point.

Entertaining. I look for are to the sequel.

Interesting version of a common theme...well done.

Many stories I've read, or listened to, have ups and downs in the action. Often the story starts off slowly, then a burst of action, then a lull, then another burst.

Lately, many authors try to engage in non-stop action, right from the first page.

This story is different.

Rather than a start, then peaks and valleys in the action, suspense, tragedy, or whatever mechanism is being used, this story starts and then begins a slow, upward climb in the engagement. No OMG page turning, then a lull, and not a dullard, monotone plot. This slow, steady ramp-up of the plot is not common.

This means, like some reviewers have noted, the "beginning" feels like it goes on for awhile. However, that does not mean it is disengaging, just a different kind of pacing than most heroic tales. I've told others that it feels "slow", but I keep wanting to hear more.

This pacing is made more pronounced by the narration. First, between dialogue, it sounds like narration and the book's Narrator, sounds like a narrator while reading these sections. On the other hand, the Narrator does a great job voice acting the characters, especially the protagonist. Good job on this.

So, overall, 4 stars for everything. It is an interesting take on a common theme, which overall, was enjoyable for the ride.