Narrator: Kevin Meyer
Series: Corruption Cycle #1
Published by Lilydog Books on 07-18-17
Genres: Fantasy
Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audiobookworm
Goodreads
Overal Rating:
A dishonored swordsman running from his past.A city shrouded in dark magic.An antihero born.
Daniel Harper was champion, until a single mistake destroyed his fencing career forever. With nothing left to lose, he flees to Eastern Europe, where he can start over... where he can be someone else.
In the exotic, lantern-lit crevices of a nameless city, Daniel meets two people who open very different kinds of doors than the ones he is searching for: the troubled flower girl Kashka, who holds the key to a nightmarish otherworld; and the enigmatic street magician and self-professed love tourist Ink, who has the power to bend others to his will.
As Daniel plummets into a downward spiral of hedonism and dereliction, he is tormented by macabre visions of a frozen world in endless darkness where an evil tyrant has stolen the sun, where humanity's remnants fight to scrape out a cruel existence underground, and wandering spirits inhabit the bodies of the recently deceased. Daniel is doomed to return to this Night Country every time he falls into a deep sleep. But the longer he spends there, the more Daniel realizes his curse is anything but an accident...
Part one of an epic duology, CORRUPTION is the vodka-drenched tale of when living by the sword goes wrong.
Author: Adam Vine
Narrator: Kevin Meyer
Series: Corruption Cycle, Book One
Length: 13 hours 57 minutes
Publisher: Lilydog Books
Released: July 18, 2017
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Synopsis:
A dishonored swordsman running from his past.
A city shrouded in dark magic.
An antihero born.
Daniel Harper was champion, until a single mistake destroyed his fencing career forever. With nothing left to lose, he flees to Eastern Europe, where he can start over… where he can be someone else.
In the exotic, lantern-lit crevices of a nameless city, Daniel meets two people who open very different kinds of doors than the ones he is searching for: the troubled flower girl Kashka, who holds the key to a nightmarish otherworld; and the enigmatic street magician and self-professed love tourist Ink, who has the power to bend others to his will.
As Daniel plummets into a downward spiral of hedonism and dereliction, he is tormented by macabre visions of a frozen world in endless darkness where an evil tyrant has stolen the sun, where humanity’s remnants fight to scrape out a cruel existence underground, and wandering spirits inhabit the bodies of the recently deceased. Daniel is doomed to return to this Night Country every time he falls into a deep sleep. But the longer he spends there, the more Daniel realizes his curse is anything but an accident….
Buy Links:
Author Bio:
Adam Vine was born in Northern California. By day, he is a game writer and designer. He has lived in four countries and visited thirty. He is the author of two novels and many short stories. When he is not writing, he is traveling, reading something icky, or teaching himself to play his mandolin. He currently lives in Germany.
Website⎮Twitter⎮Goodreads
Narrator Bio:
Kevin Meyer is a devoted Midwesterner, raised in rural Wisconsin and transplanted to Tulsa, Oklahoma over three decades ago. A career-long voice-over and music radio guy, his iPhone playlist ranges from Alice Cooper and Waylon Jennings to Twenty One Pilots and The Zac Brown Band. Favorite reads are dominated by political biographies (Lincoln, Truman, Kennedy)… and Stephen King.
Website⎮Facebook⎮Twitter⎮LinkedIn
Audio Excerpt:
Review:
After accidentally killing his girlfriend on an accident and spending two years in limbo, Daniel finally decides to break from everything and have a fresh start on the other side of the world. Accepting a job as a translator, he moves to an Eastern European country, where he will catch a mysterious disease which will transport him to another world.
It took me a while to get into this book and follow the three different story lines: first, we have Daniel’s story in Country; second is the story line happening in the Night Country; and last, the story in the poem Daniel has to translate. We get excerpts from the poem at the beginning of chapters, and there is a duality shared with the story in the Night Country. As soon as I got a grasp about the structure of the book I couldn’t stop listening.
The story is set in an European Eastern country, called Country in the book, and the city is simply the City. The city is referred to as the City of Churches, which made me think of Vilnius (Lithuania), Krakow, or Przemysl (Poland). But other references and the use of crowns made me think of the Czech Republic. The fact that everybody drinks vodka made me think of Lithuania and Poland. I know Vine took the liberty of just using Country as a name to avoid being tied to a specific geography, but I enjoyed guessing where this could be set.
I was completely absorbed by the story. I think Vine did a good job in building up the intrigue about the Night Country, and I found the characters there interesting. I had issues trying to like Kashka, and I am still puzzled about Ink. I wondered why Daniel insisted on meeting with them both since they didn’t offer much to him. I guess their role is more about the Night Country, and there will be more about them in the next book. The story about the Night Country amazed me, and the details we learned just had me wanting to know more. I hope my questions will be answered in the next book.
Despite the fact that some of the characters were not very likable, I think the characters were very developed in general, especially Daniel. I really cared for him, and suffered seeing how he took wrong decision after wrong decision. The way Dan spiraled down was very well described, and it was easy to connect to him . The torture he felt due to the ‘disease’ felt very real, and in a way I could almost understand why he did what he did.
I really enjoyed this book and I want to know what happens next, but there are a couple of things that got me puzzled. When does Dan work? In the book we follow him around while he visits the Night Country, and when he goes to bars and drinks himself to death. But when does he really work and translate the book? Also, how does someone get a job as a translator when they do not speak the language? There is a mention in the book about Daniel reading a Google translation of the book while on the plane, and his job is delivering a professional translation. How did Dan get this job when at the beginning he didn’t even know a word in Country? It is not that he learned much with time, either, apart from cheers, yes, no, and thanks. Maybe I am missing something here but things just don’t add up.
Kevin Meyer delivered an excellent narration, transmitting the characters emotions and interpreting them very well. I already liked his work on Lurk, and I was happy to realize he was narrating this one too. There is just one setback for me, and it is the voices for female characters. They sounded exactly the same as males, and at times I had troubles to follow the dialogs between Dan and the women he interacted with.
Despite the minor setbacks I found in the book I think this is very original fantasy, and I would like to see how it plays out in the next book.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Adam Vine. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Giveaway:
Corruption Giveaway: $10 Amazon Gift Card (5 Winners)
Schedule:
Sep. 13th:
Notes from ‘Round the Bend
Sep. 14th:
Dab of Darkness Audiobook Reviews
Sep. 15th:
Sep. 16th:
Sep. 17th:
Sep. 18th:
Sep. 19th:
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My name is Elena. Since I was a little child I loved science fiction and fantasy, and I can’t resist a good novel. In 2015, while wait I started to listen to audiobooks and I discovered the pleasure in being able to read while doing my daily tasks, so there’s always an audiobook playing on my phone. If you see me with my Bluetooth headphones on, please be gentle, I get easily startled.
I live with my boyfriend, which I met during my six-year stay in Belgium, four cockatiels, eight lovebirds, and a hamster in Madrid, Spain; and I like to spend my free time knitting and sewing while listening to audiobooks.
