• The Guardian's Grimoire

  • The Guardian Series, Book 1
  • By: Rain Oxford
  • Narrated by: Todd Menesses
  • Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (567 ratings)

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The Guardian's Grimoire  By  cover art

The Guardian's Grimoire

By: Rain Oxford
Narrated by: Todd Menesses
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Publisher's summary

Dylan thought he was an average man with a dead-end job and no great aspirations. When he finds a black book lying innocently on his lawn with peculiar words and markings, he discovers the universe is bigger than he imagined. The guardian of Earth, who kept the book and its immense power safe from falling into the wrong hands, was killed. Now Earth needs a new guardian.

The battle to protect the book begins early for Dylan, as he must rely on his newly discovered powers to defeat the creatures sent to take the book. Dylan's life is sure to be full of adventure, danger, and magic.

To protect his book and the world that now relies on him, he must learn to survive in a foreign world, fight fierce horrors beyond imagination, master the magical arts, and ultimately battle a dark god who has already destroyed one world.

©2015 Rain Oxford (P)2015 Rain Oxford

What listeners say about The Guardian's Grimoire

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Different spin

This book is the first in a series that promises to be outstanding. Oxford's world-building skills are phenomenal! Initially, Earth seems exactly like we know it to be, a young man working a minimum wage job, with a pretty girlfriend and a crappy apartment. That is, until he is shown he can be something more, and that the world(s) isn't what it seems. I listened to this with my 12 year old son, during our long commutes, and we were equally enraptured!

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome and adventurous!

I really enjoyed Rain Oxford's The Guardian Grimoire! The story was amazingly adventurous and Todd Menesses did a wonderful job telling it. Oxford did a great job creating a vivid tale of of adventure that I will remember for a lifetime! I don't know if she made up some of the words in the story, but if she did, that made it even more intriguing to me. I'm definitely going to do some research about this genre because before this book, I really had only ever entertained works oike The Hobbit, Lord if the Rings, etc. But, this has reminded me that there's a world of fantasy and adventure stories to dive into! Great job, Rain!

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16 people found this helpful

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

Stupid, silly, and for preteens.

I would have loved this when I was 11, or 12 years old. As a full fledged adult, and then some, not so much. The magic system was simplistic and the narrator was just ok. Since this book is really for preteens, at least in my opinion, I'm not giving 1 Star, but 3 Stars instead. I don't think its fair to give the book a really bad rating, just because I didn't do my homework and determine that it wasn't for adults.

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15 people found this helpful

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

This could have been so good

Dylan, a student in college with little aspirations, finds one day a book that will change his life. Kiro, the guardian of a distant world explains to him that this book is the door to Earth, and that Dylan will have to be its guardian, protecting it to be taken by an evil god.

I like reading modern fantasy, and I am usually pleasantly surprised. This could have been so good, but it ended up disappointing me. The premises were good, but the execution and technique were subpar. I had many issues keeping my attention on the book, and this was due to how information was given to the reader. The book is overloaded with very detailed descriptions, so much that it is difficult to know which information is important to keep in mind for later. In many cases, most of the information is not. The other way of giving away information was through dialogues and monologues, sometimes so long and artificial that made me cringe. The characters were interesting and had potential, but they remained undeveloped and quite caricaturesque. Dylan is an ironic and cheeky person, and through his thoughts, the book promises to be funny and light, but the this impression fails when we see the story unfold. The plot is disorganized and chaotic, and Rain Oxford  abuses of the literary device of Deus ex Machina. The characters are thrown upon event after event without a clear build up to the climax.

Something I consider important when reading fantasy for adults or even young adults is how hard the writer works to make things believable. This failed a bit for me here, since Dylan leaves everything behind without thinking it twice. I would expect this more from a children's book.

There is a lot of Japanese influence on the book, so for people into this sort of thing, this could be an enjoyable book. I do not speak Japanese, so I ignore if the languages in the book are really inspired by the Japanese language.

Todd Menesses had quite a repertoire of voices but at times I think he tried too hard. Using hard accents and tones on main characters can be very tiresome to the ear, especially with the very long dialogues explaining everything.

I think this book could succeed when aimed at a young audience, and I am sure Rain will surprise us with future great books if she polishes her style and improves her technique a bit.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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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

Real characters

The characters were fantastic and realistic. Could easily relate to Dylan. Epilouge was a great lead in to the next book. Fun and entertaining, worth the credit.

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13 people found this helpful

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

The Guardian's Grimoire

This book was actually really good in my opinion. I really like books that contain magical themes. I'm usually more of a horror reader/listener. Although I'm really a horror, fantasy, mystical type guy. I thought the narrator did a superb job of making each character unique and distinct. Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. I can't wait to listen to the other books in the guardian series.

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12 people found this helpful

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

Fun

This is Damn good book with awesome characters, personalities and world building that is not to over whelming. The VA ( Todd Menesses ) that was chosen narrate was awesome!

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12 people found this helpful

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

Fantastic magical journey across different worlds

Would you listen to The Guardian's Grimoire again? Why?

Yes I would. It was 17 hours long and I'm sure there were things I missed the first time through I could pick up a second or third time through. I enjoyed the journey the book takes you on and enjoyed each world we traveled to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I love Shinobu the squirrel cat with retractable teeth, the species that caused leprosy on earth. That was a cute touch. I want one If I have to pick a human character I like the most, I like Nano, he wasn't around for most of the book, maybe two chapters at most but I enjoyed his entrance and exit.

Which character – as performed by Todd Menesses – was your favorite?

I love the voices he did for the villain were amazing! I felt like his voice was perfectly evil and like a dragon!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Will Dylan be able to handle his new powers in time to save the earth?

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

What a wonderful surprise. Truly entertaining. I wish the other books in the series were on Audible.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very entertaining

Good book. Lots of detail, believable characters, and magic. It's clearly the first in a series. The main character is in his early twenties, but there are a lot of references to historical events/people and psychology.

The narrator did a great job at keeping so many characters straight. The alien language is well thought out. Dylan's voice suits him well.

I would recommend this for people in their twenties who enjoy sarcastic humor and a LOT of imagination.

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11 people found this helpful