Rise of Legends (The Kin of Kings: Book 2)

By: B.T. Narro

Narrated by: Brad C. Wilcox

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Basen's unique skill with energy leaves him hunted by a psychic of legendary power. But that becomes the least of his troubles when an enemy army of unknown numbers, loyal to a murderous pretender to the throne, surrounds the Academy where Basen has honed his talents. As he begins uncovering the truth about his enemies, it does little more than show him how powerful they really are. But the most dangerous of all, the one who hunts him, will shock everyone by accomplishing something so diabolical, so utterly insane, no one would've guessed it was possible.

©2015 B.T. Narro (P)2016 B.T. Narro

Another great book

I was sidelined by this series I was just going to read it while I waited for other books to come out but now it’s in my top 5 favorite series.

good book, bad narrator

Great book, but that is unfortunately brought down by the narrator. his voice lacks a smooth cadence, almost robotic in timbre. his phrasen is very jaunty almost as if he's the first learning to read the book and needs to stop, think about and pronounce each word before moving on to the next one.

Bad. Not even as good as book 1.

This was just bad. Sorry. The war idea should've waited until book 4 or something.
The idea where Basin could rise in an academy setting, showing off his unique abilities with wand and sword should've been more of a focus. As he gains the respect of his peers. But it seems like the author wanted to throw in this war. War-- we as fantasy authors overuse this objective.
The idea that Sonya was the first woman in the academy, rising up to be a legend. And even as a potential rival for Allabel.
There was so much potential in this but it was bogged down with boring backstory, history, awful scenes.

This book just seems like it was too early. And it was predictable. Way too predictable. Sonya is basically a necromancer. I immediately knew Alex was coming back --and it seems like Steph suddenly knowing how to make a potion that erases memories--- *sigh*

I'm stopping there for now. I'm done with this series. There wasn't enough here to make me really care about the academy. There should've been more.
A rival for Basin? More time in the academy before the war come in? Maybe some warning that Tackery existed in the first place? Maybe it should've been mentioned a little bit before, I don't know.
The takeover came out of nowhere.
Nevermind. What's written is written. This is my opinion. The first book was way better.
The performance of this just didn't work. Boring. And what's with Cleave's voice? Monotone, really? A lot of the performance was monotone, probably because even the narrator was like, "wtf?"

Sonja: Looking for love in all the wrong places

I was expecting book 2 to merely progress the tale in a more or less linear fashion but was curiously surprised to find that Sonja's ability to bring back her dead mother from the spirit world was rather novel and, therefore, interesting. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of what such an ability would have on those who were exposed to it and the ramifications of such an event.

Clearly, Sonja is a tortured soul who committed cruel and murderous acts to attain her goal to bring back her once ever-loving mother, the only person who had truly loved her, but we find that she is not as two-dimensional a character as had been implied in book 1. This is also true for other characters as we find out during the unfolding of the story.

The plot arc involving Effy and Alex also has shades of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" to it and is seemingly working up to be a very heartfelt, traumatic and poignant conclusion.

Kudos to the writer for breaking what I feared would be a predictable follow-on and for the narrator who gave realism to these characters and their personalities.

Onto book 3...

it's a fun book but not spectacular.

the narrator might be the biggest problem. he speaks slowly and sounds like a high school teenager moping around while mom is asking him questions about his day

All Stars

Loved the first and second books. Can't wait for the next book! Hope it gets here soon.

eh...

it was okay, better than the first one with less unessary passages. I will try the 3rd book, but only because I have an unlimited subscription.

Good story

This book really grew on me . Glad I gave the second one a chance . The narration seemed to improve as well .

OK follow up

It was a little slow and boring. The narration got better. Not much to say. It was alright but I will not be continuing this series.

Did not finish

I had to stop listening. The book just got booring. There are several books before the first book that you need to read before this series for it to make more sense. I wouldn't recommend it.