The Orb and the Airship

Turrim Archive, Book 1

A rogue airship captain. An ambitious youth. A clash of powers beyond their imagination.

With scholarships to a prestigious military school, Grayden and Wynn are thirsty for adventure. But the night before they leave, they discover the mysterious Dalmir and his arcane orb in the forsaken tower outside of town. The old man, who seems to have a wealth of knowledge of what came before and yet so little of the now, insists on accompanying them as they travel to the academy.

Meanwhile, all pirate Captain Marik wants is to keep to the skies, take his due, and care for his crew. Then, a straightforward pillaging mission on a ship of fresh academy students leads to betrayal from one of his own, and an unlikely friendship forged by necessity.

Yet, this new alliance stirs up ancient foes and a conflict too terrible to ignore. Despite Grayden’s inexperience and Marik’s skepticism, working together with Dalmir is their only option.

The fate of the world depends on it.

A clean gaslamp fantasy adventure filled with steadfast friendship, brotherhood, twisty politics, and epic airship battles.

The first book in the Turrim Archive series:

The Orb and the Airship
Mantles of Oak and Iron
Hearts of Stone and Steel
The Prisoner and the Pirate
Towers of Might and Memory

©2023 Jenelle Leanne Schmidt (P)2023 Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

The magic fantasy trope folded into origami

While you might think the first few chapters is setting up a Hero's Journey of the same stale adventures we've all read before, astute listeners soon realize that nothing could be further from the truth. Each carefully paced reveal about the main characters current motivations or mysterious past reshapes and reforms the direction of the story, and keeps us in suspense until the next chapters do it again. Ample effort was put into the world building such that the language and descriptions feel familiar, yet also foreign. There's a steampunk edginess throughout the settings and contraptions, and magic is still a dark secret only few will encounter. Benjamin Fife provides an exquisite and charismatic narration throughout, giving each character distinctive qualities and charm. I look forward to continuing this series to see where it leads, and what the origami unfolding becomes. [Disclosure: I received this title for free and listened at 1.85x.]

good story and world building

I enjoyed this book and look forward to the rest of the series. Very entertaining good story line, and nice job of world building. interested in seeing where the story goes next!

An Amazing Time (from a gamer and anime nerd)

I love to turn something on while I do something else, in this audiobook's case it was mostly during my fourth or fifth playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild (haha)
Benjamin Fife's wonderful narration and dynamic variety of character voices is easy to follow and I was never confused about who was speaking even as I was parrying Guardian lasers or getting lost looking for shrines.
I like to listen to things on x2 speed especially when i have my headphones on but I find the speed that Benjamin reads normally to be very nice, bright and to the point, never dragging on when there isn't the need.
This book was so fun, I am guilty of reading Jenelle's other series The Minstrel's Song before which I adore and you should read if you like this book, so I may already be biased in liking her style of writing.
Jenelle's work to me feels like a timeless story classics up there in my favorites along with things like Lord of The Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and I recommend anyone who loves things like that to at least give her work a shot at least once.
Bit of a spoiler warning for this next bit, I won't go too in detail but I like to give a heads up anyway.
I love me a good alternate world with history I get to learn about over time, it's almost drip fed to you with hints here and there and obviously I'm sure I'll learn more in the coming books but what I know so far is a delight for my imagination!
There were moments I got hints of things that reminded me a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood the anime) with an immortal man trying to save the world from a deadly threat that's tied closer to him than you may think.
I've learned after a long time to shut up when watching movies and things because I've got this annoying habit of guessing plot points too well and that extends to books I'm reading (or listening to) as well.
The setting feels very Treasure Planet, probably because of the pirates and airships but just another thing that if you like that you might enjoy this book as well.
At this point my favorite character is Beren and I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Evil Has Awakend And Good Rises to the Challenge

Woken from centuries of sleeping existence, an old man sets out with his new companions, a military trainee and an airship pirate, on an adventure that will change the world. Jenelle L Schmidt’s Gaslamp fantasy series wasn’t even on my radar, but I am grateful from the nudge a favored narrator gave me to give her classic-style swashbuckling adventure fantasy a try.

So yes, an old man- not human and imbued with magic- has held watch on his orb against the improbable day that wickedness will return to the world. He has drowsed for centuries, hoping for the day he will slip into eternal sleep and be spared this half-existence in his watch tower.
But, as life does, he is startled back to life when fresh-faced and eager youth come across him and his orb. They are on their way to school and leaving their isolated small-town home behind for the great wide world out there. Even with their limited knowledge, they know more than Dalmir who has been isolated for centuries. Dalmir needs to get caught up quickly because the evil he was meant to guard seems to be not as imprisoned as before.
The journey to the military school is not without incident because pirate captain Marik intercepts them. And, the adventure comes roaring into play. Fight scenes, heists, airship thrills, political intriguing, magic, and cunning crisscross among the story threads as the world of Turrum, the principal characters, and the situation is slowly unveiled in this opening book of the series.

The Orb and the Airship is called a Gaslamp fantasy, but I wasn’t past the prologue and was thinking High Fantasy and, not just that, but in the style of the great classics. Oh, and then the steampunk vibes hit, cozy fantasy, and yes, this was a fabulous blend of all the above.

I loved the characters- good solid Grayden, mysterious Dalmir, larcenous, but loyal Marik and hearts to Beren the giant as this team grows as the adventures come.

Learning each other, getting in tough spots so trust and camaraderie grow, discovering the world and magic, fantastical beings, and the growing unease of the evil that his building throughout the book makes this an excellent intro that ends on a reverberating ominous sense of what is coming on their horizon.

Benjamin Fife had loads of characters to voice and a crew of central figures at the heart of them all. I never had trouble distinguishing who was who and picked up character and plot clues from his excellent narration and voices. This was a rip-roaring good tale, but even better with him lending it sound, fury, and voice.

And so, lovers of fantasy in most of its forms, there is something for you within the pages of this book and the audio telling of this tale. Old-style storytelling that left me nostalgic and anticipating the next installment. Don’t hesitate to tune in to the Turrim Archives.

Can't wait for the next in the series!

I was very reluctant to listen to the last chapter knowing the next one isn't available yet! But I finished listening yesterday.
It's so amazingly written, and perfectly narrated that I could imagine everything as it was being read to me. The characters, the storyline. It had me hooked from the first page, to the last.