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The Summoner  By  cover art

The Summoner

By: Gail Z. Martin
Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Gail Z. Martin
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Publisher's summary

The comfortable world of Martris Drayke, second son of King Bricen of Margolan, is shattered when his older half-brother, Jared, and Jareds dark mage, Foor Arontala, kill the king and seize the throne. Tris is the only surviving member of the royal family aside from Jared the traitor, and he flees with three friends: Soterius, captain of the guard; Carroway, the courts master bard; and Harrtuck, a member of the royal guard.

Tris harbors a deep secret. In a land where spirits walk openly and influence the affairs of the living, he suspects he may be the mage heir to the power of his grandmother, Bava Kaa, once the greatest sorceress of her age. Such magic would make Tris a Summoner, the rarest of magic gifts, capable of arbitrating between the living and the dead.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author Gail Z. Martin.

©2007 Gail Z. Martin (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Summoner

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

How do I put this...

Well, to be brief: DO NOT BUY THIS. I think most of the critiques of the narration are accurate. This guy's reading doesn't flow very well. The pauses are in all the wrong spots, and he emphasizes words in such a way that the meaning of the sentence is altered. If it weren't for his (American) accent, I'd assume he wasn't a native speaker. Not to mention he doesn't use the voice that the author describes. He'll use a strange high pitch voice when the author mentions the character is whispering. Odd. The whole thing is choppy at best.

That being said, I'm doubtful that even a superior narrator could do much for this story. It's INCREDIBLY one-dimensional; there's no depth here at all. I felt like I was watching some second rate TV show where the characters have to complete a series of inane quests in order to save the world (think 24, or better yet, the TV version of the Sword of Truth - and yes, the plot in that show IS bad).

Additionally, there's a lack of any glimpses into the character's psychology. Essentially we get a laundry list of the facts that compose the story; there's no internal struggle or personal burden that the characters have to get past. This contributes to a lack of connection with the characters, and ultimately results in the reader not caring who lives or dies in this world because he doesn't know anyone who "lives" there. Dunno if that resonates with anyone else.

I could go on, with other things I don't like, but I'll close with one last point: To be honest, I wouldn't really mind these mediocrities, if there was at least one redeeming factor out there somewhere. I mean, couldn't you have a cool system of magic, or a vivid world, or, or...SOMETHING??? Not here.

Go check out the Mistborn trilogy if you haven't. It's about 27.54 times better than this. Give or take.

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47 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

good story, decent narrator

Okay, I admit that this narration is not as wonderful as seen with huge series books like LoTR or Harry Potter, but I keep seeing very bad reviews of narration (as for this book) which, when I get into the book, are perfectly acceptable. I have to give the narration reviews a far worse review than the narrators themselves. My recommendation is: listen to the sample, if it doesn't really turn you off, ignore the narration comments. If I hadn't done that, I'd have missed some very good books.

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14 people found this helpful

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

A huge let down

If this audiobook has any redeeming qualities at all it is that it has matched the narration, which is on par with Microsoft Readers Text-to-Speech function, with a book of suitable depth and quality. It is truly a match made in heaven.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Great story, terrable narration!

I really liked the story & want to follow the adventure, but I really don't know if I can stand to listen to Peter Ganim tell it any longer. All his pauses are in the wrong place & his voice depictions are terrible. Loose the haughtiness & just tell the story.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

ugh

I think the story is mediocre to weak and the narration is flat. Don't waste your hard-earned cash. Try "A Game of Thrones" by George Martin instead

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good Author Bad Narrator

The story is definitely fun. The first reviewer is right about the narrator...listen to the sample before buying and decide for yourself.

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6 people found this helpful

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

It's okay

This series reminds me of The Sword of Truth series, only more formulaic and without the unrequited love. It's not a bad series, but its not great either. If you're looking for sword and sorcery and all that goes with it, then this will do. The narrator is marginal,but if you listen at 1.25 then he's not that bad.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Not bad

Narrated not the best. give 4 out of 5 for that reason. however series is amazing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, but author lacks detail / clarity

I gave this 5 stars because the book itself is not at fault for the authors mistakes.

The author tends to use the same expressions repeatedly and seems not to notice ending chapters in the same vain over and over. The author also does a pretty poor job of describing some of the villians and even heros in the title.

The "Summoner" is not given any detail and/or reason behind his power, some vague instances of insight are caught, but not enough to yield any rhyme or reason to the "power". You might say, "This is a fantasy novel, not a scifi, deal with it" if it werent for the blatantly made-up situations that seem to come across. Basically, not justifying ones actiosn early in the book yields less than surprising results later on and i know from experience that the sequels are less than grand.

On another note, I'd like to speak to the ediotr to ask what he was thinking letting the author repeatedly use the same dry expressions (after book 2 they get old...).


5/5 for an amazing start to the series. Great book, good hook, perhaps a little wordy, good storyline.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Mage coming into his power

If you like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series...you will like this book.
Narrator does a good job (not annoying)....and the story is interesting and has good development.
I kept imagining the Necromancer Avatar in Diablo II (computer game by Blizzard) while reading. It made Tris Seem more badass to me. It's like when I see a lame movie, that is from a good book. If I see the movie first i can't get the actors face out of my head and annoys me. So having some reference pictures in mind make the listening experience that much better.

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2 people found this helpful