Shards of the Suns

Bearer, Book 1

By: N. J. Evans

Narrated by: Reuben Ashcroft

Restore the lost light, O' Bearer of Bells.

Allen had already lost everything—his home, his love, his best friend, and the fragile sobriety that held him together. But that wasn’t the end. That was just the beginning of his nightmare.

After a betrayal that shatters his world, Allen wakes up imprisoned by a deranged scientist named Dr. Bill, a man obsessed with alternate realities. Without consent, Allen is cast into a foreign, dying realm called Roya Hadoon, a world fractured by mysterious cosmic cataclysms and haunted by the Sunless—twisted, undead husks of once-living people.

Now called a Bearer, Allen finds himself in a decaying land governed by cruel game-like rules. He is given no guidance, only a mandate: “Find the shards. Restore the suns. Save the world I broke.”

Armed with little more than rusty weapons, a spectral user interface, and painful memories, Allen must fight tooth and nail to survive. He soon realizes that every death carries a cost, every choice has weight, and every soul lost pushes him closer to a final, irreversible end.

As he battles through waves of Sunless monsters, pieces together cryptic notes from past Bearers, and uncovers ancient magic systems linked to the fallen suns of this world, Allen’s journey becomes one of transformation. With each new “death” and his few remaining resurrections, he discovers horrifying truths about the world—and himself.

Is he a pawn in someone else's twisted experiment, or the last hope for a dying realm? Is redemption even possible for someone who’s been forced to kill, die, and kill again? And when he finally discovers what the shards of the suns truly are... will he still want to save this world?

Perfect for fans of Dark Souls, The Witcher, and Ready Player One, Shards of the Suns combines brutal survival fantasy with game-like mechanics and immersive storytelling.

©2025 N. J. Evans (P)2025 N. J. Evans

Excellent and Unique

The story and world building is unique and interesting, it's quite different from the basic magic systems, and the real world connection is also a good addition I think. I was completely sucked in by chapter 3 and thoroughly enjoyed it!

There were a few small details that I'd bring up. My first nitpick was that it was really hard in the first chapter to switch between an American accent but a British headspace. I think it's was just that the internal monolog and the external speaking voice didn't match and it made for a lot of dissonance that threw me out of the story. The other characters having American accents were fine because we weren't hearing their internal monolog in an unmatched voice. Not sure what to do about that though and since it was pretty much resolved by chapter 2 it wasn't a big deal.

The other small problem was there is either an editing problem with the audio or with the book itself where periodically the same lines were repeated. It happened, of I had to guess, upwards of 20 times, where the same line would be said twice, and was obviously recorded twice because it sounded different. Probably just a QA/QC problem in editing, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. By the time i got half way into the book it was more bemusing than annoying as I was wrapped up in the story.

Like I said, Overall really great book and I'll definitely be getting the second book when it comes out. Thanks!!

Dark Souls/Elden Ring

Very similar to dark souls and Elden Ring. Great narration and story. Enjoyed thoroughly. Yo.

unique and dark litrpg, love the story

I love the unique dark theme and twist to the normal gaming logic behind most litrpg novels. I definitely love to see more. and I will be waiting not-so patiently for the next part of the Bearer's journey.

Fantastic narrator

I enjoyed listening to this book very much. The narrator has a strong European English accent that took me a minute to get used to, but he does an incredible job of narrating. The story was different, and I liked that it has a bit of darkness to it. The editing needs work, as there were multiple times where the same line was read twice in a row. Overall, I was really pleased with this one.