Lord of the High Reaches

By: James Haddock

Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski

His human father named him Cam, as he and his clan were chameleon cats. Kol-ha is what the clan called him, which means shame in clannish. Being a half-breed, Cam was not allowed to take the test to become a clan member. Cam decides that rather than not being worthy to be part of the clan, the clan is not worthy of him. Taking nothing, he leaves the clan to find his place in the world. Though ignorant of the ways of the "outside" world, Cam is a quick learner. His first lesson is the outside world is at war, and he is inadvertently drawn into it.

Saving the life of a nobleman’s son, from an invading army’s scouts sets him on a path to meet the King of the Eastern Kingdom. As a reward, Cam is given lands and becomes a pawn in the King’s chess game. Cam sees it for what it is and decides he doesn’t want any part of the King’s game. Fate, however, has a different plan. Cam discovers two moored airships in a plague-stricken village with a single survivor, La-mar. He also finds new weapon innovations and information that will change the balance of power in the Kingdoms.

With La-mar’s help, Captain Cam finds himself and his ships back in the King’s chess game. This time it’s with more than one King and Kingdom playing, and they’re playing for blood. When they kill some of Cam’s friends, he spoils their chessboard when he starts playing by his rules of fang and claw.

©2021 James Haddock (P)2021 James Haddock

Easy to listen.

I enjoy all your books, would love to listen to a sequel on either of them.

A most enjoyable Audible.

This was a fun Audible, Daniel Wisniewski once again showcasing another aspect of wide range of voices dialects with all characters being unique. Note too that this Audible narration was very different from "Mage Throne Prophecy".
It was left open ended so there must be another book in the works. At least I hope so. Loved the conniving greedy Royals.

Not what I expected…

Saying that I say this, good story line, extremely good narration and good character growth. Nuff said

Fantastic narrator performance; one of the best Audible performances I've heard yet!

Brilliant world-crafting/creation & development/growth of its key characters. Cam is delightful, with a wicked humor, keen intelligence and initiative,all wrapped up in an exotic half-cat exterior that's in turns irresistibly charming yet dangerously lethal. There's never a dull moment with him exuding danger despite being exotically intriguing and considered too dangerous a threat by two key hostile countries, who repeatedly try to kill him, much to his irritation.

I enjoyed this storyline immensely despite frequent typos and other minor grammatical errors (just a little distracting, but did not take away from the story's charm and brilliance). The narration deserves a repeat kudos - he's very skilled and comes across as very seasoned, experienced, despite his apparenr youth. Well done, both author and narrator!

Diverse set of developing characters

Good listen. Interesting characters. Probably best for teens as each character develops in straightforward ways for coming if age genre