Golden Age

The Shifting Tides, Book 1

By: James Maxwell

Narrated by: Simon Vance

The discovery of a strange and superior warship sends Dion, youngest son of the king of Xanthos, and Chloe, a Phalesian princess, on a journey across the sea, where they are confronted by a kingdom far more powerful than they could ever have imagined.

But they also find a place in turmoil, for the ruthless sun king, Solon, is dying. In order to gain entrance to heaven, Solon is building a tomb - a pyramid clad in gold - and has scoured his own empire for gold until there's no more to be found.

Now Solon's gaze turns to Chloe's homeland, Phalesia, and its famous sacred ark, made of solid gold. The legends say it must never be opened, but Solon has no fear of foreigners' legends or even their armies. And he isn't afraid of the eldren, an ancient race of shape-shifters, long ago driven into the Wilds.

For when he gets the gold, Solon knows he will live forever.

©2016 James Maxwell (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Well written and well narrated but with faults

The author once again crafted his characters with appealing and vile personalities for protagonists and antagonists, respectively. The story is as old as Hobbs where peaceful human kingdoms are threatened by an overwhelming enemy military might commanded by a fanatical king. There are fantastical hybrid characters who are mistrusted by humans and who have the ability to transform their civilized human form into huge dragons, sea serpents and giants who end up aligning with both warring factions for their own self-interests.

There were a few glaring problems that surface early on, the biggest being that of Chloe, who is the eldest teenage daughter of a peaceful kingdom's head of the ruling high council. In the beginning, when her father hosted the visiting fleet commander of what was to become their enemy, she acted, almost demurely, as a server to the dinner feast. Later, after being kidnapped by this commander to be used as ransom she was befriended by a slave who, in a matter of a couple of weeks taught her several ninja tricks and even sword wielding. She later, like Zena the Princess Warrior, she best many enemy soldiers through guile and boldness.

Again, while the characters were well-crafted, the story is not compelling enough to keep me following it.

slow start but . . .

it started pretty slow but ended up being a great book i hope number 2 is just as good but slightly faster.

Got me hook, line and sinker!

This book was a joy to read, I enjoyed the fast paced story and wonderful characters!

Amazing book

I usually like to read YA books about vampires and warewolves (like any basic white girl 😂), so I was weary of this one just buying it. I didn't really like it for the first few chapters and considered just moving on and not finishing. Wow, am I happy I stuck it out! This book is amazing, no matter the readers preference. It is beautifully written, has out of this world imagery in its words, and the story will have you thinking you know what's going to happen next, only to be proven wrong. The audio is great too, with clear and articulate reading in a sophisticated manner, giving a very specific feel to the book you probably wouldn't get from reading the words on the pages. I HIGHLY recommend this read.

great book, good voice

book was good, nice build and relatable characters, voice was fluid and added to the story nicely