The Waking Fire cover art

The Waking Fire

Book One of Draconis Memoria

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The Waking Fire

By: Anthony Ryan
Narrated by: Steven Brand
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About this listen

The new star of British fantasy returns with The Waking Fire, book one of the Draconis Memoria series, a thrilling new epic fantasy of exploration and adventure, spies and assassins, explosive magic and the battle for empire.

For decades the lands of the Ironship Syndicate have been defended by the 'blood blessed' - men and women able to channel the powers contained in the potent blood of wild drakes. Elite spies and assassins, their loyalty has established the Syndicate's position as the greatest power in the known world.

Yet now a crisis looms. The drake bloodlines are weakening, and war with the Corvantine Empire seems inevitable. The Syndicate's only hope of survival lies with the myth of a legendary drake whose powerful blood might just turn the tide of the war - if it even exists.

The task of hunting down this fabled creature falls to Claydon Torcreek, a petty thief and unregistered blood blessed. He's handled many valuable things in his time (most of them illegal) but nothing as priceless as his nation's future.

©2016 Anthony Ryan (P)2016 Hachette Audio UK Fantasy Fiction War

Critic Reviews

"A major new talent." ( Buzzfeed)
"Anthony Ryan is a master storyteller." (Mark Lawrence)
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Loved every chapter of this riveting story. I would definitely recommend that you give it a go!

Fantastic story and excellent characters.

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I really enjoyed the book. Time to start book 2 and continue the saga.

Great book, story draws you in

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This was an interesting, action packed, and enjoyable story. The three main characters developed nicely and had lots of adventures. All in all a really well rounded novel.
The only thing that let it down was the narration by Steven Brand. He did an OK job but really did just read it without much characterisation. By no means as bad as some (Tim Gerard Reynolds anyone?) but he's no Rupert Degas. Hopefully the new narrator for the second book will lend some gusto that this series deserves!

Actually a really great story

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loved the book, the characters and pacing. A quasi steam punk world with unique magic which is foundational to the book. Audible version is very poorly read by Steven Brand, the monotone, zero character voices.. often had to rewind as dialogue was one big blue.. best thing is book 2 has new narrator

Amazing Story, performance is sub par

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Got good near the last third of the book. Corporate character is hard to like at all, despite being such a bad ass. Clay is underwhelming and hard to like or care about. The whole blood vial drinking is interesting. by the end I was cheering for the Bad guys to be honest. I prefer The Raven's Shadow series by far.

Took a long time to get going.

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(Possible spoilers)The story is intriguing and the notion of planting the world in roughly the early 20th century greatly aids in the visualisation of the landscapes, the people, their environment and ultimately their everyday struggles.

I found the notion and theme of the key antagonist as a drake to be somewhat coy and the whole colour scheming somewhat overly simplistic. I think Anthony Ryan relies mostly on the richness of the prose and the hear and now as opposed to too much focus on the back story or the lore as it were and that can work really well but with this book I thought perhaps there wasn't enough of either.

Clay is also a bit of a poor anti-hero. He's not flawed enough. Yes he has many moments of doubt and the like but his character didn't really convey the vastly flawed and deeply self interested persona one would expect him to have after spending the majority of his life living on the streets and barely scrounging a life from a career in common crime.

In saying that, I still think this book will appeal to Anthony's fans and also more open minded and somewhat less detail oriented readers. Stephen Brand is also very good at the narration.

Great story and well performed.

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Struggled to get through first chapter. Doesnt pick up from there. I would not recommend

Very Dull

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Good story line and read in an engaging way. The book has left me looking forward to the next installment.

A soild book that will keep you engaged

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The story was good. I feel that if it was read better I would be able to get into it and potentially enjoy it a lot more. Steven Brand brings so little to the performance. Every character is read exactly the same, no emotion. There were multiple times that I didn’t know if someone was saying something in conversation or internal monologue. Two characters talking to each other was particularly painful, no idea who say what.
I think if you are considering this audiobook you might be better served just reading it yourself. I wish I did.

Solid book let down by a very poor narrator performance

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Such a great story but delivered in a monotone voice that forced me to constantly go back and listen to what was said. Almost impossible to distinguish between different people speaking and changes in scenes.
Persisted because the story is great.

Terrible delivery, awesome story.

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