The Librarian Gladiator

Tallindran Trilogy, Book One

By: Dustin Bilyk

Narrated by: Kevin E Green

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Hamelin, a village separated from the rest of the world, has a deadly problem. Fierce, flying beasts ravage and cull the sparse human population, forcing Hamelins citizens to live within the safety of her boundaries. With no help in sight, the village leaders look to their god, the Provider, for salvation, and they unearth a chilling answer to their problem. The Tournament of the Kindred—a much-celebrated, barbaric event that pits four gladiators against each other in deadly combat.

Winning the Tournament brings rich rewards, fame, and glory to ones bloodline. Losing, however, results in a lethal trip to the Sacrificial Altar for you and all those who share your blood: man, woman, and child. The sacrifice is said to be a blood offering to the Provider for reprievea necessary evil for the greater good of all. Neven Oakfall, adolescent town historian and librarian, is chosen by random draw to fight for the survival of his bloodline.

After a life behind a desk, Neven must find the courage deep within himself to defeat his stronger opponents, for he discovers that much more than the lives of those he loves hangs in the balance. An evil lurks, waiting for its moment to deliver the death blow to the village, and Neven is all that stands in its way, whether he likes it or not.

©2024 Dustin Bilyk (P)2024 Dustin Bilyk

Nice plot twists!

Loving the heroic librarian turned gladiator! This story has nice depth to the main and supporting characters. It also has unexpected plot twists that keeps the story engaging. Performance adds to the story.

A great start to a new series

I want to state that I received a copy for free before continuing with my review.

The Librarian Gladiator is an entertaining listen. The dark fantasy universe contains mystery, unique ideas, and a surprising turn. The characters are well-written, none of them felt like they were here just to fill a role or niche. I found the Tournament of the Kindred idea refreshing. The fate of what the "ultimate loser" has to suffer is something I have not heard of in other books.

The narrator is good but his audio seems quiet. I had a hard time hearing him while I was at work or driving with moderate levels of noise around me. The book also has sound effects in certain parts. These effects are not overused and added to the immersion/entertainment of the book

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone interested in dark fantasy. It's not Joe Abercrombiei levels of dark/grimdark. But the universe has a dark tone with interesting monsters and characters that will keep your attention. I will most likely pick up the second book, especially after the cliffhanger this book ended on.

A slightly different twist on a classic trope

Despite the somewhat provocative title, it was the dark world building premise that I found interesting enough to pick up the story … of course, high stakes, tourney style combat has been done before; but I had not yet encountered one where the penalty for the loser was the sacrifice of the entire family line and I was interested in how the author would implement this. Over all, this was a pretty entertaining story, first introducing our “librarian” hero as one of the selected four (4) before cramming a ton of action, adventure, mystery and surprises into the few days before the combat. The characters were well developed, if prone to some of the typical navel gazing that drives me to distraction (oh no I don’t want anything at all to do with that mysterious power that guarantees I can not die today cause it is just too scary or evil or what ever). The story does throw in a few good monsters that actually become an important part of the plot and a solid resolution at the end … with an obvious lead in to the next book (but this story is reasonably complete). All in all, the story would be a good 3.5 and the solid narration makes it easy to round up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheLibrarianGladiator #TheTallindranTrilogy #FreeAudiobkFacebkGrp #KindleUnlimited

A world where survival hinges on courage & cunning

The Librarian Gladiator by Dustin Bilyk, narrated by Kevin E Green, delivers gripping storytelling with a unique blend of suspense and fantasy. Bilyk's writing is captivating, immersing readers in a world where survival hinges on courage and cunning. Kevin E Green's narration enhances the experience, bringing depth to the characters and the intense Tournament of the Kindred.

An absolutely enjoyable listen

I didn't really have any expectations going into this listen, just hoping for the best and honestly I was quite surprised by how captivating, entertaining, and engaging this book was from beginning to end, I finished the entire book in approximately two days, absolutely bingeing it. I found the characters to all have unique and interesting personalities and not feel like cut-outs of basic tropes. There was no "filler" at all and it really felt like every chapter had a purpose and a reason for existing. Generally I find that books are a bit too predictable, but the entire time I listened to this I had so many questions, that eventually got answered neatly. (I still have many more things I'd like to know)

The world of this book starts off small and opens up dramatically by the end, Even so, I found the depth of the worldbuilding to be both interesting and vast. There are so many things I'm excited to see get expanded upon in Book Two. In fact if I were to have anything negative to say, it would probably be that I found the narrator's voice acting of the main character to be a bit off. The main character is in his late teens, but still extremely soft spoken. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but until I learned his age I was under the impression our hero was around the age of twelve or thirteen. It threw me off a bit, especially considering his friends sound roughly age appropriate.

Needless to say I would highly recommend picking this up, I didn't regret listening and I don't think you will either.

Looking forward to book 2

Very fun story. Last dozen or so chapters were very good. Brilliant cliff hanger. Didn’t care much for the narrator at first, but he did grow on me quite a bit. Also, the effects when characters were speaking telepathically were cool.

Excellent First Fantasy

I thoroughly enjoyed this title. I thought it sounded somewhat like the premise of the Hunger Games, with a grand tournament to the death, but it absolutely wasn't. In fact, only a small amout of time at the back of the book is actually about the tournament itself. A lot of time is spent on building out a bleak world on the precipice, holding on against overwhelming dark forces looking to wipe out everything. I found the world to be interesting and well described.

The only thing I didn't really like was the narrator's voice for the character Delgado. He just sounded a bit annoying and like an evil street gang urchin, even though he's a pretty good guy. Also, there's a fair bit of cursing and some intense gore depicted, so trigger warning if that might bother you. I myself am looking forward to the next entry in this series and give kudos to Dustin Bilyk on his debut. I can easilly recommend this book to fans of fantasy, and hope that the coming volumes are even better.

Good story but not sure about the narrator

Full disclosure, I received a free copy of the audiobook for a review. The title is somewhat deceiving, as the protagonist is no gladiator, but rather more of the magician type (or will be, eventually).

I will admit the story took a turn I did not expect in the least. It kept me engaged and made me wonder what the heck was going on. At first it seemed like a contained world, like a bubble, but the hints of a wider, richer world keep appearing.

The main criticism I have is the narrator. I’m not quite certain the voice is the best for certain characters, like Delgado or Neven, sound not like teens, but as if they were mere children. I think thicker voices would fit better.

Great fantasy, creative and fun

I enjoyed the book through and through. It was a creative world, but nothing so far suspended from belief, and a compelling story. I wouldn’t say this stands out among fantasy books in any particular way but it’s well written and quite enjoyable. The reader is good and has good voices but he is a little monotone during some moments that are supposed to be suspenseful. Otherwise, he does a great job!

Fun Magical Story - Definitely Recommend

I was very surprised at how much I liked this story. It's about a town who hosts a yearly tournament with 4 people. Whoever loses dies along with their bloodline and they do this in order to have their god not bring wrath upon their village.

Narration: I liked the voice of the narrator but he does have a limited amount of voice differentiation. He essentially has a high pitched voice and a lower pitched voice. You can tell apart the different characters but they don't have a lot of personality when it comes to the pitchiness of the narrators voice. I was fine with this but I can see people not enjoying this aspect. The narrator does do a good job with giving each character individual personality.

Characters: I think the author wrote the characters very well. Each character is written to have their own quirks and each backstory is given enough attention to care about the characters even if they are minor characters.

Story and Pace: I thought the story was perfectly paced and written. There was never really a time where I wanted to skip ahead to more "entertaining" parts. There were times where I would listen for 3-5 hours and thought only 1 hour of listening time had passed and surprised at the ease of how new plot points were introduced.

If you're looking for a solid magical story with fun creatures, then I 100% recommend this book.