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  • Ascendant

  • A Dragon Rider Fantasy (Songs of Chaos, Book 1)
  • Written by: Michael R. Miller
  • Narrated by: Peter Kenny
  • Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (151 ratings)

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Ascendant

Written by: Michael R. Miller
Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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Publisher's Summary

From the author of The Dragon’s Blade Trilogy and the narrator of The Witcher series, comes the start of a new dragon rider epic combining the best of Eragon and Pern with the hard magic of Brandon Sanderson and Will Wight.

Holt Cook was never meant to be a dragon rider. He has always served the Order Hall of the Crag dutifully, keeping their kitchen pots clean.

Until he discovers a dark secret: dragons do not tolerate weakness among their kin, killing the young they deem flawed. Moved by pity, Holt defies the Order, rescues a doomed egg and vows to protect the blind dragon within.

But the Scourge is rising. Undead hordes roam the land, spreading the blight and leaving destruction in their wake. The dragon riders are being slaughtered and betrayal lurks in the shadows.

Holt has one chance to survive. He must cultivate the mysterious power of his dragon's magical core. A unique energy which may tip the balance in the battles to come, and prove to the world that a servant is worthy after all.

Winner of the 2021 National Indie Excellence Award for Fantasy!

Bronze Medal, 2021 YA Epic Fantasy in the Reader's Favorite Award

Finalist, 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Fantasy

Gold Medal, 2022 Science Fiction & Fantasy eLit Awards

©2020 Michael R. Miller (P)2020 Michael R. Miller
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About the Creator - Ken Liu

About the Creator

Ken Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards for his fiction, he has also won top genre honors abroad in Japan, Spain, and France.
Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie And Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl And Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel The Legends of Luke Skywalker.
He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include The Message, under development by 21 Laps and Film Nation Entertainment; Good Hunting, adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots, and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.
Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

What listeners say about Ascendant

Average Customer Ratings
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happy reader to author

I loved it! I can't wait to start book 2. incorporating breathing exercise into cleansing the bond between dragon and rider was ingenious well done 😁

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A little trope-y but wicked story!

Honestly as much as I thought it would be geared towards a more YA crowd, this book was wicked! Definitely a few plot twists that I could call as they were happening but I loved every second of the story and can wait to read the sequel!

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A delightful dragon riding fantasy

This was a great read. I loved the Inheritance series which this had been compared to and I loved this book as well. The narrator did an exceptional job and was amazingly consistent between characters.

100% worth a listen.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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What Eragon Lovers have been Wanting for Years.

Absolutely brilliant. The settings and situations are often gloomy but the characters and their interactions make up for it greatly. I hope Ash's voice gets deeper. I couldn't be happier with the ending and it was the perfect set up for the rest of the series. I forsee at least 4 more books for this series and can't wait to see how the world changes.

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A very enjoyable listen

A fun and engaging story of dragons, magic and monsters. I really love the magic system created in the world and the way they depict the relationship between two friends who are as different as can be.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

enjoyable story

I am a fan of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, LOTR, Cecilia Dart-thornton's 'Bitterbynd' series, the Name Of The Wind series and high fantasy in general. When I saw this book, I jumped right in, but initially had some trepidation of it being a carbon-copy of Paolini's books. Where there some similarities? Yes. However, 'Ascendant' ended up being a world of its own and began to captivate me. I do have to mention that the narrator did an amazing job! I give the story a 3/5 stars. ...and now onto book 2. :)

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Reminiscent yet unique

I grew up reading the Inheritance Cycle, and since then have searched for a dragon and rider series of similar depth and caliber. I found that in this series! I very much enjoyed it, even if some elements seemed familiar. Dragon fans look no further for your newest adventure!

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*Part. Review - Ch. 41* 'Not Eragon,' but unique

Jul 12 Update: 'Not Eragon,' but unique
I was wrong. The story may start off like that, but by Ch. 41 it is so much more. The concepts that seemed overdeveloped and trope-y remain relevant throughout the story, though some aspects still give me anime vibes - and not in a cool way. All of that said, the character development makes up for it. Not to mention the fullness of the world and the wonders within it that really drive intrigue into the plot. I'm finally looking forward to what the remaining pages hold.

TLDR; 'Not Eragon' but younger
If you are an adult who loves fantasy, read and re-read the Inheritence Cycle first. If you are younger, or less expecienced with Fantasy, then this is a great place to start.

I want to love this book. So far, I love how reminiscent it is of the Inheritence Cycle and that it strives to be different enough to have substance - mainly in the magic and in the structure of the world. Still, because of the similarity in the themes, I can't help but thinking of it as just 'Not Eragon.' It feels less mature, and may be better suited for a younger audience than Eragon. The difference is stylistic, and mostly in the world-building. Paolini builds the world more naturally in Eragon, usually through characters and experiences. *So far* it feels like the exposition wants to show you the present thing and the next thing simultaneously, rather than a detailed and patient account of what already is. Exposition should give you a vivid picture of an object or scene so that you can enjoy it and wonder what might come next, but here the feeling is that of always reaching for something a little too hard without very much left to the imagination.

For example, there is a scene describing an important knights' armor in no real physical detail, only that it is less than a full set. It continues by telling you a younger character is imagining it riding into battle. The scene is set before a battle so it makes logical sense, but it is a waste of exposition because the reader hasn't forgotten about the battle and also isn't really shown anything substantial about the armor. The result is a generic image of armor and yet another reminder of the upcoming battle. Then, the author describes how the lighter armor allows the knight to be more agile - but from the POV of a child with no combat experience and, again, outside of the context of the battle.

Paolini, in contrast, would describe an object in vivid detail and then find a convenient excuse to show you how those properties manifest in a function, which is more akin to reality and feels more rewarding because it gives you at least a moment to guess at why any of that description is important. Here, I am never left guessing, and so I am left a little offended by how little faith the author has in the reader to arrive at these conclusions for themself while also wondering how a child can see and know so much about the world around him.

All that said, the book has earned itself a chance and I hope I change my mind by the end - though based on other reviews of upcoming 'plot twists' I am not optimistic.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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top notch story

great story, great take on how dragon magic works. typing now just to complete my review word count.

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Great story

I liked the story however I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it myself.

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1 person found this helpful