Aching God

Iconoclasts, Book 1

Winner of 2019 Voice Arts Award, Audiobook Narration - Fantasy

"Closer, mortal. You are here, finally, to feed the Aching God...."

The days of adventure are passed for Auric Manteo. Retired to the countryside and isolated with his scars and riches, he no longer delves into forbidden ruins seeking dark wisdom and treasure. But just as old nightmares begin plaguing his sleep, he receives an urgent summons back to that old life.

To save his only daughter, he must return to the place of his greatest trauma: the haunted Barrowlands. Along with a group of inexperienced companions and an old soldier, he must confront the dangers of the ancient and wicked Djao civilization. He has survived fell beasts, insidious traps, and deadly hazards before. But how can he contend with the malice of a bloodthirsty living god?

©2018 Mike Shel (P)2018 Podium Audio

Outstanding

It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to a book that has both poetic prose and engaging characters. Highly recommended for those who like old school fantasy.

a great story

a great fantasy novel well written I say give it a try and find out for yourself every book is a world and this find out for yourself.

Fantasy sci-fi worthy of beingcalled literature!!!

Beautiful writing.

I love fantasy sci-fi but most of these Audible titles make me feel like I lose 4IQ points for each one I listen to. They feel like they are written by junior high school students, and not very brights ones at that. Mike's writing is the OPPOSITE. If you have ever read and appreciated (not even necessarily enjoyed) Shakespeare, you know that almost every line he wrote was worth studying on its own as his writing was so packed with immense meaning, wit, allegory, imagery and just overall language mastery. Well, Mike is NOT the Bard, but then again who is? However, he is so much closer than any recent fantasy sci-fi writers on Audible. He is on the side of literature that reminds of how beautifully eloquent many old letters were from the 18th and 19th century even from regular people compared to our current Tik-Tok and Instagram culture of verbal ignorance.

His characters are so well layered and their relationships with others are profound and appreciable, it really gets the reader vested into the story's outcome.

The story itself was very original, creative and also very ambitious, which could easily have turned into a disaster, if it was not so well written and thought out.

Simon Vance is a decent narrator but his voice sounds too old, which is tolerable for this book as the main and other key characters are themselves old, but his voice really does not fit any of the younger characters I'm afraid.

Wow.

Onion. Ok bear with me. This story unfolds with the timeless, tasty, pungent, patterned, tear-wrenching consistency of that ancient vegetable. It feels ancient. it feels like a lost story, a cautionary tale of antiquity, perhaps burned at the library of Alexandria?
The dialog is like smooth music. Invasive. Seamless.
Simon, fabulous as always.

Not for everyone.

Was gripped by the story in the first few chapters. Simon Vance made the tale come alive as usual. It's not the epic fantasy some may expect, has more of a ravenloft/darkest dungeon approach. looking forward to the rest of the series .