Realmbound: Sword of the Scion

By: Darren Hultberg Jr

Narrated by: Sean Duregger

"Forge alliances. Gain powers. Save the realm."

In the realm of Valion, a war is fought between the vile demons of the under-realm and the mighty scions, mystical beings with the power to wield super-human abilities. It is a war that turns cities to ash, that leaves the very land itself ravaged and uninhabitable....

The scions fought valiantly, but even with their powers they were no match for the demonic horde. With the realm in ruin and no one to oppose them, Valion’s dark forces set their sights on a new world...Earth.

Now, fierce dragons rule the skies of North America. Savage hordes burn and pillage the world's great cities. Civilization sits on the brink of total collapse. People have been forced to end their lives of convenience and pick up swords in a bid for survival. Rian Asher, a young man chosen by fate, must form an unlikely alliance of heroes from both his world and theirs to fight against the growing darkness in a battle that will decide that fate of the realms.

The scions must rise again....

©2017 Darren Hultberg Jr (P)2019 Darren Hultberg Jr

pretty good, all things considered

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Overall, I rather quite liked this book. The narration was a little dry and sort of...jerky at first, but as the book progresses, it gets better. The story, though, is what truly captured my interest and kept me engaged in the book. It was a little formulaic, but really well executed. If you are a fantasy fan, I think you'll enjoy it.

Solid

There's a lot to like about this book, both audio and story wise.

Story wise, it's fun, engaging with many characters to get to know and like. Also loved the D&D feel/references within the story. I will say that there were times that I wished for a tad bit more, but it was well executed.

Audio wise, the narrator is talent, and did well at protraying the many different characters within it. Though, it did sound if he struggled with the Darion character.

overall though, extremely fun world, concept, and storyline. I will definitively be looking forward to the next one.



I received this audiobook as a free copy at my request, but my thoughts are entirely my own.

Fun Fantasy Apocalypse

I received a free review copy.

I enjoyed this book. In it, Earth has started to merge with a fantasy realm and an apocalypse ensues. The main character, Ryan, is being especially pursued by nefarious characters and monsters. Can he figure out exactly what is going on? Can he and his friends stand up to the antagonists? Can he rescue his girl? The story answers those questions.

I thought the book was fun. The various characters have unique abilities that come into play. It has interesting premises. I liked how parts of it happen in places we are familiar with, like stores or houses, but it is intriguing to think of fighting fantasy creatures in them.

When worlds collide what will be left of ours?

An involuntary joining of realms. The evil of another realm has found a way to join our world to theirs and potentially eliminate all the good of their realm overwhelming ours with evil. Hero’s will rise, civilizations will fall, what will be left of our realm is uncertain. You must listen to find out what will become of the realms. Really great story with some unique properties. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

It just kept getting better!

I honestly want sure if I'd make it all the way through when I first started this one. The narrator's timing and voicing made me cringe for the first few minutes. He got better, and I got used to him, it just took a bit. Thankfully, the story didn't need him to help it along!

It started with the odd experience of not liking the MC but connecting with him anyway, because he didn't like himself. This character was different than most, in that he had to learn to cope with his insecurities long before he came into any power. I very much enjoyed watching this character grow. By the end, I was completely into the story and cheering him on!

This was a great take on post apocalypse fantasy, and I look forward to seeing where the series goes as more magic and other races come into play. It's definitely worth a listen, just give yourself time to get used to the narrator.

This is a good LitRPG listen

I received a copy of this book and volunteered to provide a review.

I'm relatively new to LitRPG and I have to say that Hultberg did a fine job with the plot and the battle sequences. The characters were introduced very well in the beginning and even the mild love interest was handled tastefully. I finished the book earlier this morning while I was mowing my lawn and the ending really got me - it left me with an "oh wow." Hultberg had a masterful ending and set us up for a continuation of the series.

I hope he would find another narrator, though. When I first started listening, I thought the narrator was a text to speech convertor - almost a robotic voice. I got used to Duregger after a while and finished the book, but I was also listening to two other books in parallel which were much more pleasant productions. If the performance were better, my overall score would clearly be higher.

If you're a LitRPG fan, I'd recommend this listen, knowing that you will eventually get used to Duregger's voice.

Unfortunately, the narration isn't great.

The truth is that the story was actually okay. A boy (Ryan) is chosen to protect his people and defeat evil without him having any knowledge. A person (Darius) in his life has known he was the chosen and has been sent to protect him. The story follows that journey.

The problem was that the narration is very stunted, jerky, and seldom fit the situation that was being read. I don't like being negative when someone has worked hard to put something out into the world but I was asked to give an honest review.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

4.5 ⭐️

Great story...totally enjoyable. Well worth the listen and the narration is great to boots fits well with the story!

Very good first in series.

A well told take by a narrator that fits the book. I received this audio book free and voluntarily reviewed.

Realmbound

What would happen if the world you knew turned upside down and you were caught in the midst of it all? This is what Rian must figure out. One minute he is living a boring life and the next thing he knows the world is thrown into chaos and he plays an important role, but no one knows what it is and why? We join Rian as he learns to fight and the friends he makes along the way.

This is an engaging young adult story. While Rian is the main character many of the supporting characters shine. I found Rian to be a fool hearted young man who always puts himself into danger and never learns from his mistakes which are glossed over, and he never realizes them himself. He is given power but has no intelligence or thought to learn from those trying to teach him. Rian becomes the ultimate hero, but he is not a worthy warrior. I hope that in the second book he begins to grow. The story moves along pretty well but I found the writing a bit choppy. As entertaining as this story was there were many plot holes and things that were never explained. Narrator Sean Duregger keeps the story moving along at a good pace and keeps the listener engaged in the story.