Harbinger of Doom (Epic Fantasy Three Book Bundle)

By: Glenn G. Thater

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir, Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Unabridged

Claradon never led his House's forces into battle before. But now he must. His father, the mighty lord of Dor Eotrus, went missing, along with his men, heroes all, while investigating a mysterious fog and otherworldly howling. It's up to Claradon to find him, to bring him home, or avenge his death if he has fallen. Claradon is a brave knight—noble, skilled, and courageous; a warrior born and bred; a northman, tall and strong, but he's not prepared to face the ancient evil invading his lands. An evil with powers beyond mortal imagination. An evil that threatens to overrun Midgaard and destroy all that Claradon holds dear.

This three book bundle includes the first three volumes in the acclaimed epic fantasy series, Harbinger of Doom.

©2008 Glenn G. Thater (P)2017 Glenn G. Thater

Critic reviews

"Thater is one of the most talented and exciting authors of our time. He is right up there with Tolkien, maybe even better. His unique writing technique leaves you pondering what is going to happen next and yearning for more." - Google Play reviewer

"...a masterfully crafted epic fantasy about the ages old struggle between good and evil." - Carol Marrs Phipps, author of Elf Killers

Great book to listen to

I really enjoyed the book and narration. I would recommend the story for anyone. Awesome

cheesy barbarian pulp.

Lacking the character development and depth of great Epic Fantasy it was still enjoyable enough to plow through. Certainly not Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, the prose wanders from simplistic to overly ornate, sometimes seeming entirely out of place. Yet if you are looking for action, magic, demons and Warfare you will find enough to slake your thirst here.

great book

good story but narrator's voice is very deep, makes it difficult to hear while driving.

Great performance, lackluster story.

As always, Stephan Rudnicki gives us an amazing performance. The only mark against him is a couple of the voices were not consistent.

Now, the truth is I only listened to the first part of this collection. I just couldn't go any further.

Okay, first, let's talk about the author's "foreword."
Is there some sort of factual basis to this character (Angle Theta) or is this a fabrication similar to what William Goldman did for The Princess Bride?

I honestly don't know, but I lean toward the latter. Either way, it comes off as gimmicky and disingenuous. If it's true, well that's cool, but it doesn't change the story. And if it isn't, then it's a heavy handed gimmick.

Either way, in my opinion it should have been omitted.

Now, as to the story itself, I have to confess myself disappointed. I knew going into it that I'd be getting something Conan-eske in A Norse setting, so it would be brutal yet heroic and relatively simple.

Had that been what I got, I would have been reasonably happy with it.

Unfortunately, rather than resembling Conan the hero (I hesitate to call him main character or protagonist as he's not actually the focus for that much of the story) is more like superman.

He's brilliant, he's immensely strong, incredibly skilled, possessed of powerful magic, and seems to know things far beyond the ken of ordinary mortals. The stories say he's killed giants, dragons, even gods.

All this has the unfortunate side effect of making him rather boring. He has no weaknesses and no character arc.

Also unfortunate is that we learn about all this not by seeing it but by being told about it.

The other hero, Gabriel, has a similar history. Yet for some reason, everyone else around them scoffs at the reports of Theta's accomplishments while accepting Gabriel's as gospel.

All that aside, my two biggest complaints about the story are so common as to be almost cliche. Unfortunately, they were common of books written in the 80s. It always frustrates me when I read a new book that does these things because it screams loud and clear that either the author learned to write during that period and hasn't kept up with modern standards, or has only read very old books and never bothered to learn about writing techniques and grammar standards at all.

They are,
1) Head-hopping. Bouncing around between the POVs (being inside the heads) of multiple characters within a single scene.

Yes, there is an argument to be made for it being in an omniscient POV, but it doesn't seem that way. We don't consistently see every character's thoughts in each scene and each POV seems to be in the voice of the character rather than on omniscient narrator.

2) Lots and lots of back story. Excessive back story. Most of it completely irrelevant to the story. For example, shortly into the story we have a MASSIVE aside about one character's past love interest who never reciprocated. We hear about how their friendship began, how it progressed, and how it was finally expunged, all in the middle of some fairly interesting things happening, so it completely killed the tension of the plot.

And did that information matter to the story?
No. Not one little bit. The love interest makes no appearance in the story and none of the information given comes into play in any way.

The only thing about the entire aside that means anything at all was learning that for members of the warrior order this character is part of, marriage is frowned upon.

During the first half to two-thirds of the book, I would say (I'm guessing, so don't quote me on this) the story is about 60% back story.

Almost everything we learn about each character is told rather than shown, and their actions in the present largely do not support those things we have been told about them.

There is a surprising amount of cultural detail, but surprisingly little description about the things I would expect it of. We get rather long descriptions of rituals and the like, as well as the appearance of main characters and their weapons and armor, but almost none of any of the monsters until the big ones at the end. I got almost no sense of what most of the creatures are meant to look like.

As expected, the story is very straightforward with no real twists or turns. In the end, it's largely a battle between larger than life heroes and godlike demons.

There is some decent action, but the lack of vivid details of the action makes it read like a summary, which unfortunately takes away almost all the tension and makes it quite dull.

The ending does come off as something of a blending of the Cthulu mythos and Conan the Barbarian, which could have been amazing if the author had pulled it off.

In the end, if you enjoyed the tone and style of the Howard Conan stories but found the action too intense or the back story far too light, this might be a book you would enjoy.

I love everything about this series

Narrator is amazing, great pace and action. amazing world building, one of the best on the platform.

A Great great introduction to G.G. Thater ...

fantastic audio version of a fantastic series. I am excitedly waiting for more to be converted to audio books. I have read many books of this series and I have to say I really enjoy Glenn G. Thater's work in this series. They are fun easy reads that will keep you wanting more.

Book brought down by narration

This book was not bad but the narrator was so distracting in a really bad way that the book was a struggle to finish.

enjoyable Norse fantasy fiction

i picked these up off a 3 volume set from a link on Facebook. I'm glad I did. The story is excellent and a welcomed departure from the standard FF fare. The narrator does an excellent job with the story and kept me engaged throughout all three books!!!

addictive

by far my favorite series. I don't usually listen to books more than once but I keep coming back to the series

A Fantastically Epic Horror Fantasy Story

My new favorite series, an amazing combination of genres and mythologies, great acting by narrator.