Cephrael's Hand cover art

Cephrael's Hand

A Pattern of Shadow & Light, Book 1

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Cephrael's Hand

By: Melissa McPhail
Narrated by: Nick Podehl
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About this listen

"All things are composed of patterns...." And within the pattern of the realm of Alorin, three strands must cross.

In Alorin...300 years after the genocidal Adept Wars, the realm is dying, and the blessed Adept race dies with it. One man holds the secret to reverting this decline: Bjorn van Gelderan, a dangerous and enigmatic man whose shocking betrayal three centuries past earned him a traitor's brand. It is the Adept Vestal Raine D'Lacourte's mission to learn what Bjorn knows in the hope of salvaging his race. But first he'll have to find him....

In the kingdom of Dannym...the young Prince Ean val Lorian faces a tenuous future as the last living heir to the coveted Eagle Throne. When his blood brother is slain during a failed assassination, Ean embarks on a desperate hunt for the man responsible. Yet his advisors have their own agendas, and his quest for vengeance leads him ever deeper into a sinuous plot masterminded by a mysterious and powerful man, the one they call First Lord.

In the Nadori desert...tormented by the missing pieces of his life, a soldier named Trell heads off to uncover the truth of his shadowed past. But when disaster places him in the debt of Wildlings sworn to the First Lord, Trell begins to suspect a deadlier, darker secret motivating them.

©2010 Melissa McPhail (P)2016 Podium Publishing Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Military Science Fiction Royalty Thought-Provoking

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Nearly gave up on this book as I found it very slow to start, the list of characters and information is vast and difficult to get a hold of initially. However, it has turned out to be a gem. World and character building are intense, although I found Alyneri to be really annoying.

The realm of Alorin is dying as are the Adept race. Two brothers, Princes of Dannym, Ean and Trell, separated as children through treachery; Sebastian, the eldest brother is thought to be dead, also through treachery. Trell has no recollection of who he is after his ship was wrecked and was adopted by Zafir bin Safwan al’Abdul-Basir, Emir of Akkad, whilst Ean was taken far way by his mother. Both will be drawn onto the game board and pawns will have to become players if they wish to survive and, more importantly, if they wish their race to survive.

POSSIBLE SPOILER: I have a sense we have not heard the last of Sebastian (Eshot?). Indeed I feel he may be alive and has been imprisoned, suffering from amnesia and under compulsion by .... to forget who he is! Perhaps in a later book all will become clearer?

Enduring

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Make no mistake, this is the book you are looking for.

An engaging, gripping story that is masterfully pieced together and then equally breathed life into giving it a greater dimension by the narrator.

I cannot rate this highly enough, and would consider this tale in the category of wheel of time, mist born and words of radiance. Very nice company to be in.

Thank you Mellisa for such a wonderful tale, it has given me hours of pleasure.

Need a new world to visit?

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My first time picking a fantasy book without a direct recommendation from someone else and was not disappointed.

The characters and the world are really well put together and the multiple points of view the story is told from reminded me of reading A Song of Ice and Fire except I cared about a lot more of the characters in this.

I'm a big fan of Nick Phoehl and once again he did a great job with this story. He has a great narrator voice with perfect pacing and his character voices are all really well done.

Got the second book ready to go and really looking forward to it. Don't know if Melissa has written any other book series but I'm pretty sure I'm a fan of hers now too. Thank you for this story, it was really great.

Was hooked on this world from the start.

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Yet another fantastic read, plenty of things going on to keep your mind enthralled. Have book two locked down and can't wait to hit the play button.

Nick Podell at his best yet again

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I found listening to this book both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. On one hand, you have an interesting world with basically relatable (if a little overly zealous, pious and unrealistic) male characters, a nice interweaving of plot lines and a fun if a little formulaic narration style. On the other, you have lazy creativity, particularly around names, languages etc which use French and Arabic words amongst others rather than creating unique races and traits.

However, I could easily have glossed over these details and just given a positive all round review if it weren’t for the clumsy, adolescent handling of the female characters and anything resembling romance or lustful behaviours. It seems to me that the writer has very limited experience of both romantic encounters with women or strong female influences in his life. As such, the female characters are weak and formulaic - being either simpering idiots, obsessed with the approval and heroic masculinity of the male characters or bitter shrews with a lovely, sweet girl hidden deep...... And the painful, vomit-worthy descriptions of love and lust could come straight from the mind of a frustrated 15 year old who has yet to experience them first hand.

Finally, the narration whilst great for the male characters is read by a good reader with a nasal style of speech which makes the already whiny female characters sound unbearably whiny!

It’s a real shame, I’m a huge reader and listener of this style of fiction and the bones of what is here has a lot of potential, I just wish his writing wasn’t so stereotyped. That said, it’s fun enough that I’ll certainly continue listening to the series and will just keep the sick bag close at hand.

Both fun and yet not!!!

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It was good to keep me entertained purely through having such a long story line, but I wasn't all that impressed. Just rather underwhelming.

Alright, but not enthralling.

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An epic masterpiece. There's a lot to take on but it's worth persevering. I finished it and immediately reread it to get a solid grip of the lore and history and cast of characters. Definitely worth it, can't wait to get stuck into book 2 now!

Outstanding!

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I don’t have a bad thing to say about the book, the story or the author; it is the beginning of a truly well thought out fantasy epic.
The problem I have is with the narrator. When they are reading the text you cannot fault them as the diction and cadence is flawless. However, when they attempt to go into character the storytelling is awful and borders on misogynistic and/or racist. The accents take me back to the 1970s when TV shows used stereotypical foreign accents that were totally cringeworthy. When they try to imitate a female voice all I can hear is again 1970s “comedy” duo Hinge and Bracket. Two men attempting to impersonate aristocratic ladies.

Great story and imagination poor delivery

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Only after warning them that it had weaknesses, however it's not a bad story and is very well narrated.

Would you recommend Cephrael's Hand to your friends? Why or why not?

I was happy listening to it as I was doing so in the garden or doing jobs - if I'd sat to listen to it, I should have got very irritated by the writing style and given up.

Have you listened to any of Nick Podehl’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No, I don't think so but it was the performance that kept me listening.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, not really - found bits of the parts with the pirate amusing though.

Any additional comments?

This book really needed a severe editing. Lots of cliches and over-use of adjectives/adverbs, sometimes oddly - weird use of the word 'subtlety' and lots of repetition. An over fondness of elaborate description and names, both of which are pretty unoriginal holds up the narrative. The basic story is quite good but the writing is a bit ponderous. Hence I shan't follow up with the next volume as I don't care enough about the characters to persist with the heavy narration style.

Mixed feelings

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The problem with this book is that it has the very thinnest of overarching plots and is composed of a series of mini-adventures which do not add to or advance the plot in any meaningful way. It feels like it was written as the screenplay of a tv series and is very much the worse for it. I cannot fault the narration but the dialogue is often mangled by the flowery use of language which again adds nothing.

Serious readers of fantasy fiction will tire of this as realisation dawns.

decent screenplay for TV but a poor book

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