Angst

By: David J. Pedersen

Narrated by: Michael Troughton

When Angst turned 40, he knew it was over. Angst had longed to be a knight of Unsel, to make his mark in history, to be remembered for heroic deeds and wondrous acts. He grew up knowing he was destined for something great, but now, it is too late. Not only is 40 far too old to become a knight, Angst is one of the few able to wield "the magics".

For 2,000 years, magic has been outlawed, repressed, even outright destroyed throughout the world of Ehrde. By law, Angst is reduced to using his great power only to file papers. His marriage is on the rocks, his friends are bored with him, and he hates his job. The one person who makes him happy is the young Princess Victoria, who seems to adore him. Unfortunately, that makes his boss, the queen, hate him.

Without warning, Unsel is besieged with dangerous monsters - birds with metallic beaks, monkey creatures that can dive through solid ground, mindless horse-eating giants. The world that shunned magic now turns to Angst for help, and he is happy to listen once his back stops hurting.

On the edge of a midlife crisis, Angst drags his reluctant friends along with him on an adventure into the heart of magic. He's not sure where they're going, what they'll find, or even if they'll survive. But he knows this is his one chance to be a hero because the only way to fight magic is with magic.

©2010 David J. Pedersen (P)2018 David J. Pedersen

And the underdog wins again

This is the first book I have listened to by David Pedersen and I very much enjoyed the story. An underdog who dreams of being the hero and he gets his chance. He drags his closest friends who are reluctant to go along for the adventure. The story is filled with action and has a good story line. The narrator, Michael Troughton, does a good job in telling the story. The voice for he uses for the queen has a Monty Python feel.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Surprisingly good

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

So, I'm not sure what I was expecting, going into this book. I was interested in the premise but this was a new author and narrator to me. Allow me to express my delight in finding a fantastic book here. The story is colorful and well written. The characters and world are well developed and engaging. The narration is done quite well too. I think any fan of fantasy should give this one a shot. I doubt you'd be disappointed.

Good audio fantasy book with some twists

Thank you SO MUCH for getting Angst into audio format. I really enjoyed this book. I asked for Audio format from the author over several years, meeting at a central US Sci-Fi Convention, And once he got it moved over, I listened. The story and buildup for additional novels in the series has been a listening pleasure. Thanks, David for releasing the audio version and I look forward to the others, ( hopefully sometime in the near future.) I like the twists in the story and eager to start the next book in the series.

Relatable hero is RELATABLE

I really dug this book. Angst is such a relatable hero. Him being older really adds something different to this hero's journey. Gotta see what happens next.

Give this one a chance

I loved the idea of a 40 something adventurer but in all honestly I wasn't expecting much from this book. I was pleasantly surprised by the story, the characters, and the world.

This book was a great portal into a new fantasy realm. I enjoyed the suppression on magic and how the world just gave them a big F-you and magic reworked itself. I love how that parallels our own world when we try to fight the elements and end up losing more often than we are comfortable admitting.

I want to write more about everything I liked about this book but I've erased three paragraphs for giving too much away. I hate spoilers and won't do that in my reviews. So all I am comfortable saying or shouting is GIVE THIS ONE A CHANCE. You will not be disappointed.

The narrator did a good job but only got the 5 stars because I liked this book enough for it to get a full 5 star reveiw. In all fairness the narrator rated a 4 but that's still pretty awesome.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.