Shadow of the Conqueror

Better as an audiobook

Michael Kramer and Kate Reading do a wonderful job narrating this book. Despite a few rookie flaws (excessive dialogue attributions, too much info dumping, etc.), I would rank this book up there with Brandon's Mistborn series. If you're a fan of Mistborn or Brandon Sanderson in general, then you'll love the Chronicles of Everfall by Shad Brooks. I anticipate this series to be a slow burn, but I have no doubt it'll hit the best-seller list in due time. Shad does an amazing job with his world-building and thinking about how certain magic systems interact with the world in a way that I haven't seen other authors do before. It's obvious that Shad did his research, and he did it well.

Some people complain about the main protagonist being a Gary Stue, and under normal circumstances I'd have to agree. While I do think having a talking head would have been a better route in terms of Dayless knowing everything, the main thing keeping him from being a Gary Stue is his character flaws. His flaws are enough to offset the amount of power he's been given, and you'll often times see that they lead him to great misfortune. I think it's disingenuous when people say things like "I never felt like the main character was ever in any real danger," when the fact is that you can say that about any book, regardless of their Mary Sue status or the lack thereof. It's expected by the end of the book that the main character will generally be alive, or some part of their existence will persist through a good chunk of the story, otherwise there wouldn't be a story in the first place.

That said, there's a couple major flaws with the story. For one, it feels like the main character is just doing random stuff for a good portion of the book. For another good portion of the book, time is spent lecturing to the audience about how the world or magic systems work. It's quite a bit of overkill. I didn't feel like the book started going anywhere significant until about the 2/3rds mark.

I also felt like character's reactions to things were unbelievable, especially when it came to the main character's cold-hearted slaughter of random people. I'm sorry but, some of those incidents you wouldn't just shrug off and say, "Yeah, you're right. You were justified."

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

You can judge a audio book by it's narrators.

I had to check if this was someone writing under a pseudonym, Best new fantasy series of 2019 Imo. This will soon be a bestseller, it really is that good. I'm horrible at writing reviews but I am sure there will be hundreds to come.

12 of 14 people found this review helpful

Good first book

I’m a fan of Shad, love his youtube vids but I’m going to look at this book with a critical eye still.

I enjoyed the story a lot. The interactions and dialogue between the characters were amazing. Easily the best part of the book was the humor and how everyone talked to each other. I just couldn’t get enough of it. Masterfully done, I couldn’t get enough of it.

I found the world to be interesting and I do want to see more it be explored to a greater depth. I hope for more books in this world as I have many questions about the lore and world.

Now first I want to say, I think Daylen’s personality was pretty good, however as a character he is pretty over powered with his abilities and in some parts of the book makes him almost a Gary Stue in places, or like Superman when he just suddenly gets a new power right at the correct time. I just didn’t feel like he was in any real danger at time. He also seemed to have pretty much invented everything in the world. Like literally everything, he pretty much knew how everything worked even though he was hermit for over two decades. There should have been some inventions or progress that left him at least a little dumbfounded or a challenge to his knowledge. Not to mention he seemed to be the best at well everything that mattered in the book. Cooking and gardening were never critical to the plot. He just doesn’t have any real flaws besides being a real bad guy in his past. Overall it’s like Daylen created the world instead of him being a product of the world he is in. In my opinion that made the plot weaker as the only real obstacle he has is his past in this case.

While I’m a fan of quick and brief fight scenes, I think having a little more detail of what they’re doing would be of a better benefit or more use of metaphors to describe the struggle than just block, parry, counter strike, etc. The big climatic duel at the end of the book was well done however in my opinion. I also believe the characters could use more description but that’s more or less my own bias as I’m used to novels graphically describing gore, nudity and such in higher detail.

I really enjoyed this book and I think Shad put in his best effort and I really want to see more. I rated the story 3 stars mostly because of what I stated about Daylen, even though I really enjoyed his personality, especially old grumpy Daylen.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

An enjoyable book with a problematic protagonist

On the whole I liked this book, though there are certain aspects that didn't quite work for me. The world building is in depth and interesting. There were a few times I found the exposition laying out the magic system and the world to be a bit heavy handed and dragged the book down a bit. That said I generally enjoyed the bits where the protagonist explored his powers.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the supporting characters. Lyra and Kuseg (not sure on the name spelling as this is an audio book to me) were particularly interesting and I enjoyed Arek's terrible humor immensely.

The main issue with the book for me is the protagonist, Daylen. I get that he's supposed to be a former bad guy trying to be good, but I can't help but feel that Shad, the author, went a little too far in making him a monster in his former life and didn't do quite enough leg work to justify him as the protagonist through most the book. The simple fact is that Daylen commits too many brutal and barbaric acts in his new life for me to ever truly root for him. It doesn't matter that he feels bad about them or that he did them to terrible people. It just feels like there's a disconnect, if he is a despicable person who has seen the error of his ways and is seeking redemption, then he shouldn't be so quick to deal death to others. The first time it happened I understood as he is reverting to his old ways, but each time it happens after that it is harder and harder to empathize

All that said, I found there to be some legitimately touching moments between him and the supporting characters toward the end and found his over all fate and conclusion to the novel to be satisfying.

I would definitely like to see more from this world now that so much of it has been explained and the story can just get moving. I also have hope that I may like Daylen more in another installment.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

A whimsical mesh of a medieval world with fun fantasy elements

More of an adult adventure than I expected, but not in a bad way. The story was captivating and I was tempted to fight sleep to finish it. The performance was fantastic and the characters and world were remarkable. It’s definitely worth the read and listen.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

For you Shads

You got me interested in the book may as well see if it becomes a series. Keep up your good work!

8 of 12 people found this review helpful

A must read

Amazing book, great world building, and truly a binge worthy book. Will read again just to absorb some of the details i missed the first time

Give Me More!

Absolutely fantastic, can't wait for book two. The meticulous worldbuilding and thoughtful, consistent characterization really brought the story to life.

By the light a great book. Good job Shad.

To anyone who dislikes Shad's book. " The light blinded blackheart can go get stoned"

Loved it!

This book was amazing, the story the setting and characters. I can't for the second book.