• Nightblade

  • By: Ryan Kirk
  • Narrated by: Andrew Tell
  • Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (2,674 ratings)

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Nightblade  By  cover art

Nightblade

By: Ryan Kirk
Narrated by: Andrew Tell
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Publisher's summary

Ryuu is a boy orphaned by violence at a young age. Found by a wandering warrior, he learns he may have more strength than he ever imagined possible.

A quiet child, Moriko is forced into a monastic system she despises. Torn from her family and the forest she grew up in, she must fight to learn the skills she'll need to survive her tutelage under the realm's most dangerous assassin.

Young, beautiful, and broke, Takako is sold to pay for her father's debts. Thrust into a world she doesn't understand and battles she didn't ask for, she must decide where her loyalties lie.

When their lives crash together in a kingdom on the brink of war, the decisions they make will change both their lives and their kingdom forever.

If they can stay alive.

©2015 Ryan Kirk (P)2015 Ryan Kirk

What listeners say about Nightblade

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Such a Fantastic Hidden Gem

Nightblade represents a whole year spent taking chances on books I’ve never heard of, all with the hopes of finding new authors and hidden gems. Some didn’t turn out that way but most turned out to be excellent and fun choices. Nightblade is truly one of those gems.

Instead of your run of the mill, European based fantasy we are treated to a world with Japanese/Chinese parallels with a very rich history. The land is split into three main Kingdoms, with other nations surrounding that, and each has a tenuous and fragile peace with the other. But our story takes place on a smaller more personal scale. Ryuu isn’t tasked with changing the world or bringing peace to a set of kingdoms, instead he us simply trying to live a life where he can use his strength to protect those without choice or means of doing so themselves…which is refreshing after reading so many books where the main character sets out to utterly dismantle the status quo. I think that difference really brings the raw emotion of the experiences he goes through to the forefront. The kingdom itself is oddly beautiful despite it’s issues and the author’s skill with building worlds is fairly apparent. I could see the busy streets of the city, and the shadow streets of the red lit road where men go for companionship, I could easily picture the old forest and stone paved courtyard of the monasteries. One can go a long time without experiencing world building on a scale where everything becomes an actual sensory memory, as opposed to just a plot line, and I never realize how starved I am until I find one.

Ryuu is definitely a fantastic character to follow, as is Moriko and Takako…who all come together in different ways. Each of them shares the loss of their family and the chance of a normal life but the way the view the world is different. Ryuu is headstrong and curious, and he wants to help others no matter what and most of the story centers around each consequence of his actions and the weight it puts on a single person. While he is skilled and hardened in many ways in some others he is a bit naive, which joins nicely with Takako’s loving personality and her knowledge of what the world is really like.

Nightblade is definitely a highlight to this year’s books, and I’m glad I took a chance on it when I did.

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62 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Cliche and predicable with robotic narration

With all of the positive reviews I was expecting a lot more out of this book.

The narration struck me first. The narrator is emotionless and robotic. The times that he does try to put an emotional inflection to the dialog the result is often the opposite of what the book explicitly states as the manor or emotion the character is experiencing. Long pauses when switching between the speech of characters gives it the feel of badly dubbed old anime.

The dialog is so full of cliches that it become painful.

It author tries to create layers to the characters' personalities, but I believe he fails. The emotions or thoughts that he writes a charter is feeling is often contradicted by their immediate actions without any justification or explanation for the change.

I would not recommend this book.

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

How does this have a high rating?

I think I have listened to over 200 books on audible. I usually give a 4 or 5, rare occasions a 3 star rating. This book was horrible. The dialog is written very poorly, making mistake after mistake. There is a lot of "telling" and little action; the author constantly fails to describe what is going on, and simply summarizes everything. This simply exacerbates the issues with the dialog, as often the characters say and do things that are just....dumb. The characters are all carbon copies of each other, have zero depth and are just robots acting out the poorly designed scenes. The story appears to be fan fiction based on the video game Ninja Gaiden. Seriously. I am blown away by how bad this was, it was painful to finish, and please God do not listen to the other reviews, the must all be written by 5 year olds.

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent new fantasy!

First thing, this is an adult fantasy. While not grimdark, it is more oriented to adults, with violence, rape and other adult themes. That being said, those parts are organic to the story, not gratuitous. There are 3 different storylines following 3 different characters, who proceed through a series of tragedies in their lives that shape their futures. Ryuu watches his parents murder at the hand of bandits, and is rescued by a warrior passing by, who happens to be a banned Nightblade, kind of a magic using warrior/assassin. He decides to train Ryuu, who he senses has a lot of power. Ryuu spends years training with his master, building mastery of his skills, all while avoiding the monks who convert or kill all Sense (the magic) users.Moriko is taken by the monks as a child, to be raised in a monastary, with harsh discipline and an austere life. She is physically abused, as are all the novices, and trainined to use her power to sense magic users. Her magic is differnt, though, being more like Ryuu's. She is then trained by an assassin to use the power offensively. Takako is sold by her father to a brothel to pay for his debts. She is groomed for years for the part, but a General has plans that include her being a consort for his son that derail her plans. The crossing of Ryuu and Takako sets off a chain of events That will change everything, and when Moriko crosses thir path, you can feel the strings of fate shifting.
The plot is fast moving after the initial introductions, with a lot of action and some well drawn out fight scenes. The magic is fresh and fairly original, without being too overwhelming. The setting, the Three Kindoms, is somewhat underdrawn as far as the Northern and Western kingdoms, but the Southern Kingdom is well described. This is just a minor thing. The characters are a real strength, being interesting and engaging, if not always likable. The villains are well drawn out, with realistic motivations for their actions. Andrew Tell, who I had never heard previously, does a great job narrating, really differntiating the characters and bringing the story to life. Any fan of Anthony Ryan.s Blood Song books should enjoy this book.

I was given a review copy of this book by the narrator at no cost in return for an honest review through Audiobookblast dot com.

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

If you like Manga tropes you will love it!

I don't! I found the characters very formulaic and I had a stacato Manga film running in my head as I listened to it. Personally I found it lacked innovation, I didn't care about the characters particularly either. It felt like it was written for 12 year olds boys and maybe it was, am then definitely not it's target audience.

The reader was OK.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as the reviews

I have no idea where all the positive reviews came from for this book. It really sounds like a rough draft of a book and not a finished product. The narrative is relentlessly third person with very little dialog making it very hard the get to know or empathize with the characters. The author tells rather then shows. A large number of the characters and places don't even have names just 'the merchant' or 'the butcher'. Same with place names. All in all its a very 2 dimensional world with almost no color or detail. A few of the characters have vaguely Japanese names but the places do not, and the culture, what we see of it does not resemble anything recognizeably Japanese.
The story itself is ok but nothing terribly original or unexpected. Overall very disappointing.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining but simplistic

I enjoyed the book but the writing needed a bit more editing and the narrator sounded like he was half asleep. I don't regret buying it though.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Fantasy Story!

(This review does NOT contain spoilers.)

What you have in store ~
+ Amazing, Oriental inspired combat scenes
+ Intricate characters, each with realistic motivation, goals and actions
+ An alive, complex world setting
+ Interesting "magic" system, which is subtle enough to keep the reader immersed.
+ Lightheartedness when it's appropriate, but extremely serious, detailed and sullen moments as well
+ Gritting your teeth at the tough moments, smiling in the happy ones

Overall ~
Nightblade is a story of three children connected by fate with the ability to change the world. Their paths are clear from early on, and while each character has very different experiences, the reader/listener can feel them coming together. Characters, actions, combat, the setting, everything seems very real and immersive. I grew very attached to all three, and found it hard to put down the headphones. After finishing the book last night, I am very satisfied and just purchased the sequel.

Brief description ~
This story follows the separate lives of three children who grow up under very different circumstances. Two of them are blessed with an rare ability known as the Sense, considered a gift by some but a threat to most. The two become highly skilled in combat, which is beautifully depicted by the author. Our third character is unfairly thrown into an awful life, and quickly becomes adapted to their poor environment. Our characters develope deeply and each chapter of their lives has a real impact on the world in some way.

Writing and Performance ~
Ryan Kirk has a great writing style which is complimented by Andrew Tell (narrator) perfectly. It's a bit hard to explain, but both do an awesome job in their roles so I'll leave it at that. Kirk is able to paint amazing scenes of combat, portray characters' feelings, and use just the right amount of detail. Enough to make you grit your teeth at a character in pain, but not enough to turn you off completely.

Final thoughts ~
In this review, I've restated several times the feeling of "realism", which is a bit uncommon in this genre. Everything feels natural and the reader can become very immersed in this complete world. I felt like the ending was complete, yet I am very happy to know sequel exists and look forward to listening.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading this review and I hope you enjoy Nightblade as much as I did!

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Had potential. Some may like it.

This could have been a great story but the writing needs work. There are too many flaws in the storyline. The performance is difficult to get past.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic!!!!

This was fan-feaking-tastic!! I didn't just read this, I devoured it. Everything about it was phenomenal, but non more so than the character building. Every character in this was extremely well written and developed.

We have Ryuu, a boy who saw his parents being killed and who was rescued by a mysterious man. This warrior is a Nightbade. Ryuu had heard that the Nightbades were the enemy but the man who rescues him, is anything but. He is kind, honest and wise. He passes on as much as he can to Ryuu and thus changes the boys life.

We have Moriko. She is taken from her family by the monks, whom she despises, and taken to the monastery. There she is trained to use the powers they sense in her, but with her inquisitive nature, she doesn't follow direction good, and she hates the way the monks treat her, and other people. She is sentenced to death, but ends up training with the assassin the monastery use. She soon realises that this assassin, is in fact a Nightblade, and she might just have their powers too.

Lastly, we have Takako. Her father sells her to a Madame at a young age, and she captures the attention of an important man. He wants her for his sons consort but Takako soon realises that the boy isn't a nice person. How can she escape this life that has been forced on her.

3 different people, 3 different lives, but when they all collide, their lives are changed forever.

As I said. The characters in this were amazing. The character growth was practicably amazing. Poor Ryuu learns that his actions have consequence, sometimes deadly! Moriko learns that what you are told, isn't ways the truth. That you have to trust your instincts and do what's right, even if it hurts. And Takako learns that life is hard. One mistake is all it takes.

Another plus with this is the world building. The lore behind the magic and the Nightblades was amazing.The descriptive way the author writes the world, makes it impossible not to be drawn in. The writing just grabs you and weaves the story around you. It really is amazing!

In all, this was an amazing read and one I can't recommend enough. The authors writing was phenomenal, the characters made you love them and the whole story will devour you. I listened to this over 2 days and had a hard time unplugging from it. I need book 2 to come to audio ASAP.

Andrew Tell was amazing. He gave each character their own voice and really brought the story to life. He brought the heartache and sadness that each one experienced expertly to life and really gave his performance his all.

*I received a copy of this for review. This in no way affects my thoughts.*

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14 people found this helpful