Brightblade (2nd Edition)

UnderVerse, Book 1

By: Jez Cajiao

Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell

Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A realm aside from our own. The center of the realities. Home to every spectrum of magic.

From the beautiful to the terrible, it was all held in delicate balance by the Eternal Emperor and his immortal children. For 10,000 years, the empire was the bastion that protected the sentient races from the darkness, but the revolution, and the War of the Gods has changed all that . . .

Jax seems like a regular guy, except that he fights creatures from a strange place called the UnderVerse in his sleep, leaving him covered in horrific scars when he wakes up. The mysterious disappearance of his brother five years prior has forced Jax into a holding pattern, with a job he tolerates, a girl he kinda, sorta loves . . . until he's kidnapped and given a stark choice by his asshat of a father: Go to the UnderVerse in reality, travel to the capitol of that ruined realm at the center of reality, and open a portal for the Noble Houses to return home . . .

Or die, slowly.

That's the good news. The bad is that he has to survive the arena first, to prove his right to go. Twelve will enter, only one can leave . . .

©2022 R J Cajiao (P)2022 Tantor Audio

Horrendous narration

What is this accent? Sounds like a bad rendition of Russel Crowe fighting around the world from South Park. So so so bad.

Wow... Worst narator on audible?

Its unlistenable. Trully horid narator, has no clue whatsoever. If angry british drunk yelling at you is your fetish you might enjoy this. Otherwise stay away.

Fast paced, amazing adventure!

The changes made to version two are incredible! The story was always great, but you can truly see the great improvement in writing style in these new versions, I love the new content, and feel like I was even more deeply immersed into the world. Wayne rocks the narration, each character with a unique and different voice, making it easy to follow and engaging! If you've listened to the first version - totally worth listening to the new version. If you haven't listened to any of them- what are you waiting for?

Doesn't let up, narration is great!

I have listened to all the other series by Jez Cajiao and I was hesitant to start this one, mainly due to the unique narration by Wayne Mitchell. Boy, am I ever glad to have purchased and listened fully to the story and Wayne's narration.

The story is great, MC grows, has some soft heartedness, but is merciless with those who would harm others.

As you listen you get to really appreciate Wayne Mitchell's performance. The brogue of the dwarves is hilarious and really makes you listen! Jacks exclamations are intense, funny, and appropriate (at least for his character) all at the same time.

Thank you Jez Cajiao for the story and thank you Wayne Mitchell for an original and amazing narration!

Great performance and story

5 hours in:
I enjoy the story & the performance of the narrator. Some have complained about the main characters accent but most of the voices remind me of European accents & mannerisms which I enjoy.

So far I highly recommend this audiobook. I will update this review roughly every 5 hours.

10 hours in:
This audiobook was so enjoyable I stayed up til 6am or so last night to listen to it. Story & MC still great.

Rest of the book:
Was a great listen to the end, One certain female companion is annoying but other then that it is amazing.

Brilliant story and audiobook.

I wasn’t sure I liked the main character and narrator at first, but both quickly grew on me. I know this is a second edition and my only gripe is why not get a second, female narrator for the female voices if doing a second edition? Otherwise, I love Jez’s style, story telling, humor, world building and character development. I can see why this is one of the most popular LitRPG recommendations. Enough with the review, I have a 2nd book to start!

Fun Listen

Once you get past the backstory in the first 20 minutes, everything starts to roll in as you get more into the book you start to understand the backstory

Bad narration

I do enjoy the storyline at least as much as I can. The best part of narration is announcing the chapters followed by some skill descriptions when the narrator doesn't get to uppity. As for the main characters' narration, it's probably the worst accent I've heard in multiple series of litrpg books. It seems like the narrator is in a giant rush to get every word out to the point of a 3rd of the book listening to him gasp for the next breath. Ontop of that, the thicker the action the louder he apperently needs to be to the point of yelling at the listener. Thankfully, I got the books when they were on sale for $3-4 each, so I'm not out much money. I might listen in spurts when my ear drums feel like needing abuse just to see where the story goes.

Worst narration ever

Story is pretty good but the narration is just so over the top. Any time anything mildly dramatic happens it’s like being screamed at by a drunk Englishman/Australian. Seriously derails any chance of enjoying the book. This could be a really good series if it wasn’t for the narration style.

A satasfying twist on a well run track

I will start here as many have already, the narrator did a really poor job on this one. The heavy accent is hard to get accustomed too for the main character and his brother. Although you do see how the poor accent matches the brain dead MC it was the wisps that nearly made me give up on the book as a whole. Between the narration sounding like the main character pinching his nose and speaking in a squeaky tone which was grating at best to the same character trying to speak in a sultry tone was cringe worthy. There was some decent humor written in for Oracle, but it felt like a sex object trying to keep the reader interested because the writer forgot how to keep the story straight. Overall it’s a good time killer if you don’t have something better, I may even give the next book a try but be warned if you put much thought into this one it may make you rage as much as the MC. Oh and what is with his problem with Gingers?? For calling out speciesism then going into a tirade about gingers being soulless was odd to say the least.