The Sunset Sovereign

A Dragon's Memoir

By: Laura Huie

Narrated by: Ethan Fifield

When a dragon finds an assassin sneaking into his lair, he tells her of his life's work and his soon to be final chapter.

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For the past thousand years, the dragon Vakandi has watched the people of Vakfored grow from a wandering band of refugees to a glorious city of art and magic. Under his protection, the city has survived monsters, floods, and wars all without building an army, dam, or even a wall. But time changes everything and now the citizens of his beloved city want him dead. Vakandi spends his last day telling his assassin why he loves them, and why it's his time to die.

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Listeners who love dragons will get their fill with the most lovable dragon. A quick standalone fantasy listen that will entertain those who love a bit of soup with their story.

©2023, 2024 Laura Huie (P)2024 Laura Huie

Critic reviews

"I'm happy I found this. Best short story I've read in a while. Well done."—Astrowoud

"Vakandi has been added to my list of favorite dragons. The Sunset Sovereign is a great book for fans of subverted tropes and complex characters."—Witty & Sarcastic Bookclub

"It had a cozy and slice of life feel at times and then bam - epic action! It was so good and the dragon had the perfect voice for the stories it told."—P.M Hammond

Love the style

This was a great fantasy read, and it’s basically the memories of a dragon before he’s being thrown out of his and you get to hear about how he got started in the town and how he protected them and the mistakes he learned from. Different things that happened overtime that brought about the assassin in his cave right now. This was a very interesting book 1st and it took me a little bit to catch on in the beginning to what was happening but once I figured it out, everything flowed really well. The writing style really fit, and it was great to actually kind of envision this dragon as a storyteller, even though he made a bargain to leave after telling his story to the assassin. Plus you get the assassins ark growth & how she started to view the dragon and to how she ended up viewing the dragon and it’s a good character development. if you want a good fantasy storytelling, watching a city build through the dragons eyes this is definitely the book for you.

Nice compact story

I enjoyed the story. It wasn’t really long though and could be easily completed in a day or even a sitting if you were listening at a higher speed. I would listen to the author and narrator again.

A Dragon's Love

A dragon, and the assassin sent to kill him, sit down and discuss history over some soup. Sounded strange enough, so I wanted to see what it all led to. Without giving anything away, the dragon is just misunderstood and all of the rumors about him are not what they seem. It's a quick read that gets right to the point and tells a heartwarming story.

The narrator did a great job as well. Some might find him a bit intense at certain parts, but such is the tone of a dragon I guess? I would gladly listen to other stories told by this narrator.

Final thoughts, but I hope the author continues writing and building their own worlds without too many of the common fantasy elements that are found in other texts. We had a magical never-ending bag, healing elixirs, life/death magic, orcs, dwarves, limited use magical shield, and all the other common fantasy stuff. None of them were too important to the story, and honestly not a big deal, but it would be interesting to see the author come up with their own unique elements to build their world.

Dragon’s perspective

The story was well developed and I cared about the characters. I loved reading the story from the dragon’s perspective.

I loved it

I really enjoyed this story. A bit surprised by that actually. The story is not entirely surprising, but that is not the point. It is engaging and the voice acting sells it. Will definitely listen again and perhaps get my kids to listen in as well.

Hard to ignore

It's one of those stories that capture the entirety of your attention!

Without spoiling anything, The story tackles a conflict of perspectives while masterfully building upon it's fantasy world.

My one complaint is that I couldn't just put it on in the background. Believe me I tried, and failed.

Everytime I'd go to fold laundry or perform some sort of task I'd instead find myself several chapters later having realized that I didn't get a thing done because that's how well written and narrated the story is.

It's great for road trips! 10/10 would listen to over and over again!