Origins of the Never

By: CJ Rutherford

Narrated by: Katie Welburn

Length: 1 hr and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Teralia, thousands of years ago. A world of light and beauty, holding the core of magic that infuses the universe.

Here, two friends who are closer than brothers are destined to become the mightiest among the immortal Elven race.

One will fall, ensnared by an ancient evil thought to be destroyed eons ago.

The other will face a desperate choice to save a doomed world.

Ultimately, only one can prevail.

Origins of the Never, a science-fiction and fantasy audiobook, is perfect for dragon lovers everywhere. It's the prequel to the Tales of the Neverwar, a young adult series about an awakening evil and the battle to save all reality.

©2014 Colin Rutherford (P)2015 Colin Rutherford

Great story

I really enjoyed this book and Katie Welburn brought it to life for me. This was such a great audio I ended up listening to it in one walk. I highly recommend.

Good Prequel Story

Good background information on the history and characters that are to make up the world of Neverland.

sets up the scene for the next book

I received this book from eblast, and this is my unbiased review. Short and set the scene for the next book. kind of predictable. But definitely worth a listen

From utopia to wasteland

I haven't read the other stories yet. This prequel is setting the stage for me. It is setting up the series and showing the origins of the characters in it. The story is set up with the king to be and his friend in a utopia. This is a mystical land with dragons, magic, and other fairy-tail beings. With hunger solved and all the worlds at peace everything comes crashing down. This story seems to be intended as a back story for the characters and I think does a good job in doing that. I will be listening to the next story soon to find out what happens next.

Great Origin Story

Storyline: The story is great. It is most definitely an origin story, but an interesting one at that. It focusses on two Elf ‘brothers’ (well, people raised together) who are polar opposites of each other – One uses magic for good and to help others, the other uses his for bad and to control others. This is the key ingredient to the storyline, however, it also includes parallel universes, dragons (two things I love) and other mythical beings. I found the story engaging and understandable throughout – a compliment to the author as there are many ideas within this short book.

Narration: I think the narrator did a pretty good job. As others have said, the voices are not ideal but the personalities show through. This means that you can still always tell who is talking, despite my preference for accenting.

Overall: A thoroughly enjoyable read and I look forward to the rest of the books in this series.

P.S. This audiobook was provided by the narrator free of charge in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

an honest review in exchange for a free copy

a truly enjoyable book. looking forward to the rest of the series. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good read.

Longest short story ever! LOL

I only say its long because the timeline is long. The story itself was great. This usually isn't my type of book but I enjoyed it. Looking forward to starting the next book!

Prequel to the Neverwars

Elves, dragons, portals to other worlds, good versus evil. All the elements of a good read. This book is obviously the back story for a series but it does a good job of getting you interested in the series.
Brother vs brother, good vs evil. I have to go get the next book now.

I was given this audiobook in exchange for an honest review

Really Enjoyable Sci Fi Fantasy Prequel

ORIGINS OF THE NEVER was a great prequel for this trilogy. It was solid with awesome characters and I look forward to continuing on. Fantasy is a genre that I'm beginning to like a lot due to authors such as C.J. RUTHERFORD. This story has likable characters and good world-building. It's three-dimensional in that the listener cares about the characters. For this being a prequel, it was full of excitement and backstory.

KATIE WELBURN did a marvelous job narrating this book. She has a nice voice with excellent inflections and tone demonstrating excellent vocal skills. She was perfect for this book. I look forward to moving on to the next. Great work by both author and reader.

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

If there's no greed, there's still jealousy

In the land of Teralia, there is no greed or avarice. Life is good. That is until jealousy sneaks in between best friends Tenebris and Olimay. Both elves love Linaria, but one will go to questionable lengths to show that love.

This short tale definitely reads like a prologue to something bigger. I think it’s a good place to start the series. Early on, we can see that there’s going to be trouble between Tenebris and Olimay. Tenebris has a bit of a darker nature where Olimay comes off as a bit naive.

The dragons, especially Gleerin, play an important role in this story. Tenebris attempts to use them as game pieces. However, Linaria has the friendship of Gleerin. I suspect the dragons have their own society and such, though that is only hinted at in this story.

Magic plays a big part in the tale. The land of Teralia itself is enchanted, preventing feelings of greed and avarice while also providing all the basics needed by every living soul. However, other negative feelings do occur. At first, this came off as a little too happy-happy silly for me. But as the story progressed, I saw that this particular magic (preventing greed and avarice) was a more complicated magic and had complex ripples throughout the culture. Perhaps if Tenebris had been able to channel his lust for Linaria into merchant greed, the fall out would have been less. Anyway, it was an interesting point to ponder as the story unfolded.

Throughout the entire story, there is only 1 female character (Linaria) and she doesn’t really get a personality but is rather solely a love interest for both main male characters. Sigh…. A little cliched. OK, a lot cliched. But I expect this is set up for Book 1 of the series so I hope this doesn’t turn out to be the norm for the series in regards to female characters.

All in all, this is a great set up to a bigger story and I look forward to the rest of the series.

I received a review copy at no cost from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The Narration: Katie Welburn did a good job with the characters’s emotions and all the fantastical names. However, her male voices often blended into the same voice and sometimes lacked masculinity.