Happily surprised

Good story, well read, First bit felt a little slow as you were brand new to the story but as it progressed it flowed very nice. At time you could picture the battle sequences in your head. Well worth the price of admission!

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Entertaining. Plagued By Heavyhanded Moralism

Ben Hale's imaginative 'Lumineia' reality is populated by mages, assassins & warriors of multiple races: humans, dwarves, gnomes, elves, orcs, giants, goblins, and the subject of this trilogy: the systemically martial (war-like) trolls.

• In Book One ('The Flesh Of War'), Hale introduces the visionary future king of the Rock Trolls (named 'Tryton'), and leads us through the traditional societal structure of the warrior race - something of an amalgam of Spartans & Klingons [almost from birth, trolls are trained in combat: learning weapons, tactics, and ruthless dedication. They are taken from their parents at age 2; sorted into regimented cohorts by a surrogate-parent/trainer/drill-sergeant "Blademaster" by the age of 5; and ordered to fight & kill captives at age 10 as a form of "blooding" and promotion. Troll children are abandoned/allowed to die at any point by friends & family should they prove defectively "weak"].
In this installment, Tryton advances through the established military-cultural childhood regimen ("Whelp" -> "Naifblade" -> "Warsworn") and develops his vision of a redirected society based on a sense of family, brotherly camaraderie, and empathetic honor (while fighting monsters, gladiators of multiple species, and dragons along the way). The result is a thought-provoking sociological commentary overlying a respectable action-adventure.
• In 'The Age Of War' (Book Two), Tryton faces off against a bloodthirsty brother (King 'Sybrik') that seeks to continue guiding the troll people on their established racial path/pattern of brutality and bloody glory at all costs. Tryton defeats his brother in single combat, exiles him, and struggles to transform his people from feared, aggressive übersoldiers relying on a slave economy to self-reliant family units.. and respected forces for good among the neighboring orc, gnome, human, and dwarf nations.
Unfortunately, the reorganization is conducted unrealistically, Sybrik's single-minded "must-get-revenge" return is predictably plotted, and the action feels shoehorned into the story.
• 'The Heart Of War' (Book Three) disappointingly continues a pattern of story quality regression - providing a masterfully-described but relatively simplistic battle of Good forces allied against an Evil foe (a cleverly-contrived magic-infused army of summoned fiends and scorpion-like constructs fighting for the ancient "Lord Of Chaos"). Heroic Self-Sacrifice after Heroic Self-Sacrifice transforms what could have been a peerless adrenaline-soaked massive setpiece battle into a too-often eyeroll-worthy Morality Play.

On the fortunate side, Hale writes with capable vocabulary/prose, has commendable descriptive skills, employs fascinating characters (the one-time Slave/"Porgrin" dwarf 'Urthin' is particularly intriguing), and choreographs fight scenes cinematically. On the other hand, he also severely overpowers trolls (having them laugh as arrows bounce off of them while *routinely* killing dozens of enemies singlehanded is a bit much); employs too much inner dialogue among his combatants; and is over-the-top with emotional messaging (when a friend or family member dies, for example).
The biggest deficiency, however, is the ridiculously self-sacrificing (almost Christ-like) personality of Tryton. The character is so morally unimpeachable - perfect, really - that his actions make the story glaringly far-fetched. He is both unstoppably powerful in battle and headshakingly reluctant to fight. Every time I got to the point of being able to set aside reservations and just enjoy the ride, the protagonist did something so superhero-ish, virtuous, or pacifist that I was taken out of the illusion of reality again.

Similar to the writing, the reading from Ralph Lister is creditable with glaring inadequacies: namely great diction, timbre, cadence, and tone.. but a weak character voice repertoire and a natural sibilance that Podium Audio engineers struggle to soften.

Altogether, I am generally happy that the 'Warsworn' Fantasy trilogy showed up on my "Recommended Reads" list. This 5.5/10-star audiobook is definitely imperfect.. but was worth my Credit overall. It's often immature, manipulatively preachy, and requires some suspension of disbelief - but the majority of the writing is good enough to make all of that somehow forgivable.

[ATTN Producers: an appended PDF with a map of Hale's world and the dominant species in each region would improve this product immeasurably]

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Once you start ,you won't want to stop listening

I've read alot of books and listened to books. Ben hales books are amazing to me . His stories make you feel happy,sad,mad . I love his stories and the people who narrate them I am shocked how there are not many reviews . I want a story that makes me crave for the next chapter and Ben doesn't let me down. I just wish their were more in some of his series . If u haven't listened to his books ,please give him a honest try

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Binge listen

First I have read by Ben Hale and it was a doozie! Awesome straightforward story that doesn’t require you to take notes in order to follow along. Lots of battling, character development, and some magic that isn’t over-explained for my taste. (Sanderson). Hero’s become villains and villains become hero’s Not the most original plot but common for the genre. I thought Lister did a fine job with the narration. 33 hours of money well spent is my 2 cents worth.

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1 person found this helpful

Great fantasy listen

This story provided a lot of great listening. The trilogy set you up for future books and make you want to go to the next book.

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1 person found this helpful

Boring story

Completely boring story. Listened only because of Ralph lister. Don't bother with this garbage book.

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Boring and tedious

How much boring detail can anyone tolerate? This could put a cocaune addict to sleep.

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