The Other Battle

Passage to Dawn, Book 3

By: Derrick Smythe

Narrated by: Greg Patmore

The award-winning series continues in book three, The Other Battle!

The fate of the world hangs on choices Kibure hardly understands, and the ripples of victory could just as easily turn into waves of defeat. Kibure and Sindri set off in pursuit of allies in a world beset by distrust and the schemes of their enemies.

As the Lugienese Empire sweeps across the continent, Rajuban uses his cunning to consolidate power as he prepares to unleash ancient monsters of myth and seeks a weapon capable of vanquishing an entire people in moments.

Meanwhile, a prisoner extraction gone wrong forces Dwapek to add an unexpected companion to a quest that will return him to the demons of his past.

Dagmara and Kyllean find themselves confronted with choices of loyalty as they watch the threads holding the defenders of the free world fray against an enemy united.

Don't miss the third installment in an epic fantasy series abounding with unexpected heroes, betrayal, magic, and non-stop adventure. This series will continue to be enjoyed by fans of Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Michael J. Sullivan, Edward W. Robertson, and Michael Wisehart.

©2024 Derrick Smythe (P)2025 Podium Audio

A well threaded plot if not terribly interesting

So my biggest issue here is this author seems to hate to describe most of what people who read things like this would really want and likely expect an author of this genre to describe, Does he, Yes, three ways and that is the only way you are ever going to get so be content because if you are hoping for more, NOPE. He also has an irritating tendency of writing characters who never seem to ask the most obvious questions, EVER. To the point of plot idiocy. Which can be especially annoying when the characters in the book keep asking themselves these questions, and only to double down on that same frustration when they literally say to themselves...(paraphrasing here to avoid spoilers) Oh I have this question that this person can probably answer I should ask them. They will tell another unrelated third person about this inquiry and who they want to ask about and the two discuss it several times, are around the the person who would be the one ask and do they ever, NO. He will character flaws, not characters to move the plot, which becomes increasingly common when the same personality appears over and over and over only with a different accent, OH AND THE ACCENT, For some reason the female lead character just starts speaking every language like a inbred cave man and it ruins her character, In even when speaking her native language to other native speakers. It's like listening to Tarzan practice slam poetry but worse. I did start of really liking it but it fell off near the end of the first book and I didn't have enough balls or blood, bones, and binding to flesh it out in a way that made it seem as alive and real as it began and it instead of pick it back up or steady he just gave up. Im not sure if the series is done, The Other battle's ending was not really ambiguous, because Im pretty sure I'm leaving it here. I dont regret my time or my money being spent here but fort what was given and what I got, you shall get no more.

Love it!

I have loved all of the books in this series. Each one is a page Turner and I cannot put down the books. Every book and this one especially, draws me in and takes me on their adventure. This is worth the read.

Narration

Narration is great. The series started off very strong, I was impressed, hopeful for an epic conclusion. The story veers off from the main character and magic wielders to everyday people and goes on and on…is this about the other magic or stones? I want to hear about the prophecy bearer! I want to know about Ks magic, too many plots going all over the place! I thought this was the final book in the series but there’s no way it’s going to be wrapped up with the pace it’s going mid book 3, I find myself losing interest.

narrator

Narrator continues to be the stand out. He kills the voices wether it be man women young or old good or evil he's able to put so much of the character into the voices.

Rambling and disappointing

If you read the synopsis of these books you would be led to believe that the main character is Kibur, that is not the case. as in book 2 he is referenced in passing in most of this book so far. In fact it takes 8 hours for him to get discussed.
Why is this important? Well it's not if you don't care about the story synopsis. I was expecting that Kibur would develop his skills and begin to show his potential. I am sadly disappointed again. The author spends more time on the other characters and that is fine but it's not what I believed the story to be about.
Now I am 75% complete but getting more irritated as I progress. I was expecting this to be a 3 book story, I don't think that is possible given the pace.
There is so much ado about nothing I started to skip which I never do. I was unsure about buying this book after the meandering of book 2, now I wish I never bothered. The first book offered so much potential for the series but in my opinion the story struggles to keep my attention and leaves me frustrated and eager to finish. It's not that it is a terrible story, just misleading on its so-called main character and it rambles around with characters making stupid decisions, getting into ridiculous scenarios.
Others may like it, I do not.
I completed the book and my view had not changed. The story is okay and just okay. I found myself wanting to get to the end to see if the story could be retrieved (for me). I know there is a need to develop characters and to build a world full of interesting cultures and places, but this book just goes on and on and nothing substantial happens until 30 minutes from the end. So, a very frustrating story that had so much potential.