The Way of Renegades

The Bards and Dragons Saga, Book 1

By: Steve D. Wall

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

An action-packed flintlock fantasy audiobook about guns, mages, bards, and dragons!

Ulric, former war hero, has been living a quiet life of exile in the frontier city of Quinport and wants only to continue hiding from the mistakes of his past. But then he discovers the invention of a revolutionary new kind of rifle, and worse, the ruling Coalition discovers his identity.

Enter Dellioph, no mere bard, who just arrived to Quinport and wants only to play his music and to keep his secrets. But trying to do both lands him directly in the path of one of the Coalition chancellors, who wants to use Dellioph and his secrets. Dellioph must choose to keep his secrets, his freedom, or his music. But when the choice is between anything and his music, it’s no choice at all.

And Gali, future chief of the one of the Teo tribes, who wants nothing more than to save her people, even if that means forcing them to change. She disobeys her father, lies to her people, and travels to the Coalition city to learn how to do some of the things they do—making and using muskets foremost among them. But the people of the Coalition are not ready to accept the Teo, and Gali will be forced to learn the hard way that a renegade’s only friend is another renegade.

Meanwhile, two mysterious strangers from opposite sides of the world come hunting a sorcerer who has unbelievable power, a hunger for more, and dragons, but they are nothing like the stories.

©2023 Steve D. Wall (P)2023 Steve D. Wall

Loved it!

Can’t wait for more—loved the characters, descriptions, magic system, and worldbuilding. Great narration too!

Fantastic Characters

Lovely story, fast paced with interwoven plots. Loved it. Cant wait until the next book.

Absolutely a great start. Do not miss this one.

It can be frustrating trying to find a new series that is well written and performed. This has great promise. The only thing I do not like is having g to wait for the next book. Pacey is excellent as usual.

An engaging story well performed

Pacey is an amazing narrator suited for a great story like this. I'm really excited to see where this saga goes.

Stellar first novel, but is it a debut?

If Steve D. Wall really is a first time author, then I hope this is a compliment, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he's actually Joe Abercrombie in disguise. The book is so well developed, so well polished, that when I finished the book, I immediately went back to his author page to buy everything else he's ever written. Turns out it's just this one. Allegedly.

Well, I'll go forward assuming that this really is the work of a debut author and, boy oh boy, is it a good one. The Way of Renegades is an engrossing semiheroic fantasy which reminds me of The First Law, but with muskets and dragons. While this story has less immediate combat than The Blade Itself, and a notable lack of schizoid berserkers, the plot flows at a steady pace, the setting is continually more and more interesting as we learn about it, and the characters are about as loveable and hateable as you want out of a book like this. I literally can't find anything of substance to complain about. Just read the book.

I mainly grabbed this title on a whim because Steven Pacey was reading it. No surprise there, but his narration is perfect. If you haven't listened to a Steven Pacey audiobook before, check out The Blade Itself or any of the sequels, then come back here and read/listen to this book immediately. He elevates already outstanding material.

I'll be snagging the next one the moment it's available.

Interesting mix up of tropes and genres.

Enjoyed the characters, story is exciting and solid. definitely strong Abercrombie flavor but overall stands well on its own.

Great Beginning

This was an excellent beginning to a story, but it feels more like Part 1 of a novel, rather than Book 1 of a series. Still, what is there is excellent and Steven Pacey of course knocks it out of the park.

Amazing narration brings to life a great story

This is a really great story brought to life by Stephen Pacey. After finishing all of Joe Abercrombie‘s books, I was looking for something to scratch that itch of adult/dark fantasy in this book did the trick.

Fantastic debut!

Truly hard to believe this is a debut. Really loved how the characters are fleshed out and how smoothly the story develops on its own. It feels like an Abercrombie book in a way, more so because it’s read by the incomparable Steven Pacey. I was really a pleasure to read this book, and I can’t wait to read the next one when it comes out.

Pure fun, give us more!

This book was everything I hoped it would be. Hopefully the wait for the continuation won't be too long.
Impressive world building and cool characters, Just a fun ride throughout really!