Darkening Skies

Path of the Thunderbird, Book 1

By: Eden Hudson

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A boy abandoned at an ancient school of warrior arts. A princess bartered away as a treaty bride. A lurking evil with the power to topple the world.

Ji Yu Raijin is happy to live out his life serving his school, cultivating his life force, and learning the Path of Darkening Skies, an ancient and noble warrior art—until the day comes when he has to choose: Remain true to the teachings of his path and allow his art to die out or commit an unforgivable sin and save the world.

Second Princess Shyong San Koida was born the only cripple in a dynasty of powerful warriors. With a broken life force, the only way Koida can contribute to her family’s empire is by sealing a strategic alliance to a barbarian leader with her hand in marriage. But hidden forces within the court conspire to stop the union and obliterate the Shyong San dynasty at all costs.

At the intersection of the servant boy and the princess’ stories lies a secret, malignant art bent on destroying not only them, but the entire world.

Darkening Skies is the first novel in the Path of the Thunderbird series, for fans of wuxia, xanxia, cultivation novels, demon beasts, and all styles of martial arts. Darkening Skies is written by Eden Hudson, enthusiastic but terrible martial arts student and best-selling author of the Jubal Van Zandt and the litRPG fantasy Rogue Dungeon series.

©2022 Shadow Alley Press Inc (P)2023 Shadow Alley Press Inc

Incredible!

Absolutely loved it. The time switches were interesting and handled well, the characters are interesting, and the story is engaging. Only complaint is that it was over too soon!

Fun and entertaining read

I was looking for something to hold me over until the next cradle book and came across this gem, it’s not what I was expecting from the description of the book but I was pleasantly surprised with the direction the story took and how it presented its characters, definitely going straight to the next book!

Fun Cultivation Book 1!

Great beginning book to this series! The next promises more intrigue and excitement! Buy this!

Cut up

The story is actually pretty good and the Travis Baldree does a great job. The one glaring issue. Is how the story is put together. Every few chapters it the story goes from past to present and back again. There is no reason for it. It doesn’t add anything to the story. There is no real mystery to what is going to happen. The only thing that the time change does is irritate.

Great start though it feels like 2 books in one

This was a great start though it feels like 2 books in one where they just Took a great story and tried to fuse the 2 characters together should have been story of his Origin and then a meeting in the 2nd book it's a great story great overall cultivation and the performance was nice .There's just When they switch from characters it just gives you that feeling of why not give us one book concentrating on The main character book 1 And then Concentrating on the meeting of the 2 characters afterwards In the 2nd book ?

A great first entry!

I did enjoy the story and the setup a lot. Strong characters and interesting core mechanics. Travis Baldree is amazing as always. Very much worth checking out.

Abrupt Ending

The characters were pretty interesting and narrative kept me engaged, but the ending just sort of happened. It felt like I missed a few chapters of development. Things were just starting to move along when the twist happened and then a couple chapters later the book ended. I want to say it was like watching half a movie and then skipping to the end, but I did understand what was happening and why,

Enjoyable.

Book is fantastic, almost wished I'd waited for the whole series. Granted, all this means is that I'll be relistening to this one before I start on the next and so on.

If you've been reading through the comments to find out if it's worth the listen, I would say yes and do hope that you agree after you listen.

my favorite cultivation story!

i just finished the new edition of Darkening Skies and forgot how absorbing and enjoyable it is. wonderful world building, fascinating story that jumps between two timelines, and best of all, amazing characters you can't help but to root for. I got all the feels.

it goes without saying that Travis Baldree rocks the narration

Loved it! But feels short.

I guess I'm just spoiled with books closer to 14+ hours, I'm liking the concepts and the characters and looking forward to the next book