The Stone Knife

The Songs of the Drowned, Book 1

By: Anna Stephens

Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama

Length: 23 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

A fantasy epic of freedom and empire, gods and monsters, love, loyalty, honour and betrayal, from the acclaimed author of Godblind.

For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs - and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain.

The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.

As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love - a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will.

©2020 Anna Stephens (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"The Stone Knife has everything you’d hope for in a Stephens novel: sharp action, cracking pace, and a brutal disregard for our poor feelings. A compelling story of clashing cultures, of duty and ambition and change, that will leave you desperate for the next instalment." (Sam Hawke, author of City of Lies)

"A brilliant, grim, and joyous opening to a bloody new trilogy." (Stewart Hotston, author of Tangle’s Game)

"An epic tale about the bloody repercussions of expansionism. The Stone Knife explores the cruelty of empire through the eyes of characters from vastly different backgrounds, weaving a tapestry of conflict, injustice, and determination." (E.J. Beaton, author of The Councillor)

Stand out in a genre glutted with Euro fantasy

Here are some of the things I loved about this book!

1. PoV Characters who are deaf and visually impaired, characters with a variety of sexualities, and subversion of common gender stereotypes and roles
2. Solid grim dark setting
3. Intense and well written violence, and depressingly miserable situations
4. Compelling and believable characters who I became deeply invested in
5. Exciting, intriguing, and well paced story in a variety of locals and political settings
6. Tight worldbuilding in a geopolitical region I'm excited to dig my teeth into as the series progress and more history and lore is revealed
7. Believable, understandable decisions and choices by main characters
8. Heroic characters who still deal with tragedy and confrontation
9. Building suspense and tension throughout
10. Dynamic and well acted narrative performance with a great range of tone, accent, and delivery by voice actor Joseph Balderrama

Attempt at Stone Age GoT, but TV-14 Net TV Quality

Here are the main things that I didn't like about this book.

1. A bit woke, just enough to be mildly disruptive.
2. Not grim dark (only relevant because it has been showing up on grim dark lists).
3. Not nearly as brutal as people have been claiming.
4. Boring, whiney characters for the most part.
5. Boring story, lots of political intrigue that is not intriguing and an abundance of unintelligent dialogue/monologue.
6. Bland world. Basically no world building is done or background given.
7. Irrational, unrealistic decisions.
8. Invincible main characters.
9. No suspense.
10. The narrator.... Okay, the other stuff can be summarized, but I have to expand on this guy.

I don't know what kind of accent this narrator has, but every word that should be pronounced with OR is instead pronounced with AR. Here are some examples of words that I remember him saying frequently: CARdoor instead of corridor, CARLation instead of correlation, FARest instead of forest,  CAResponding instead of corresponding, HARRER instead of horror and also nonSHILINCE instead of nonchalance. I'm sure there were many more, but you get the picture.

On top of that he uses ridiculous accents for a lot of characters. Keep in mind, this story is taking place in a fictional Mesoamerica amongst an Aztec type civilization.

Here are some of the accents used for the various indigenous Mesoamerican characters: Scottish, every variety of English and Welsh, Italian New York, angry Brooklyn, distinguished southern gentleman, grizzled cowboy, redneck Texan. Again, that's not a comprehensive list, but it's enough to demonstrate the point.

In short, I don't think I know anyone who would like this book... Especially with this narrator.