The Shattered Crown: A Legends of Ansu Fantasy

Crystal Crown Trilogy, Book 1

By: J.W. Webb

Narrated by: Andrew McDermott

A fiery young queen and a cynical mercenary are thrown together when a sorcerer usurps their high king's throne.

Queen Ariane dreams of her goddess who warns that the high king has been murdered and his enchanted crown broken, the remnants stolen by a renegade prince. Despairing she rides deep into her overlord's realm - a land now ruled by the scheming usurper, Caswallon, the sorcerer.

Corin an Fol returns home after many years fighting in other people's wars. But he finds no solace - instead he is persuaded to seek out Queen Ariane and assist her in the struggle against Caswallon. But the sorcerer knows their game and sends his creatures to waylay them. Corin and his queen must learn to trust each other before the enemy arrives. That's not going to be easy - she has a foul temper, and he's not fond of royalty.

The Shattered Crown is the first book in an exciting new trilogy called The Crystal King that also forms part of the Legends of Ansu, a spellbinding new fantasy series that will appeal to fans of Game of Thrones. If you like tough action featuring gritty characters set to a vivid fantasy backdrop of war, treachery, and vengeance, then you are going to love this new tale by JW Webb.

Get The Shattered Crown to discover this exciting series today.

©2015 James William Pugh (P)2019 James William Pugh

A new trilogy of Corin in the world of Ansu.

I’ve read/listened to one other of the tales of Corin in the world of Ansu before and loved it. This first in a new trilogy doesn’t disappoint. Think of Conan, braveheart, and any other tale of adventurous swordsman who get the girl face the odds of swords and sorcery and come out on top. This one finds out hero ready to settle down back in hi home town. An old employer comes to find and enlist him to protect a queen, restore a shattered crown, face an evil sorcerer, and defeat a dark god of old and its minions. Because of course, who else besides Corin an fol could manager a set of tasks such as this. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

👑 Review for The Shattered Crown 👑

If you’re looking for action and adventure, look no further. This book has it in spades! Our hero, Corin an Fol, is ready to retire to a peaceful life after so many years of living by the sword. Funny how life has other ideas. First, he must help Queen Ariane.

This story is well written, but at times I wished I had kept a journal with the character’s names just so I could keep up with all of the who’s who.

Narrator, Andrew McDermott, gives another 5-star performance. His range of voices for the different characters is top-notch! Also, his silvery voice is perfect for this genre. I could listen to him all day long! Just as a side note, I’d like to hear him do a book from a more contemporary setting. 🤞🏻

The Gods

This one spends a lot more time on what is going on behind the scenes. We meet some new characters, we get more action and we are dealt a blow. Good read. Can't wait to start the next one.

I recieved this book for an honest review.

Better to start with a different series i think

This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by this author and I enjoyed the story. It took me four tries to get into the book - I think due to the narration.
I have not listened to any other of the books. Although I did not have issues understanding this story, I felt I was missing some key backstory. I’m not sure this is the best book to start with. There is some incongruity, and some relationships that didn’t quite make sense, especially Corin’s infatuation with the queen. Despite and due to this, I’m curious to listen to more. In fact, next is Gray Wolf. It’s also a book 1, so I think I’ll get the backstory I crave.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this narrator ( Andrew McDermott ). He has a stop-start style. He’d often pause after every few words regardless of narrative or character conversation. This made me have to concentrate more on the story than usual, and therefore never really drew me in. I found I was easily distracted or background noise would disrupt me and I kept having to re-listen to parts because I hadn’t taken in anything that was happening. Most characters were spoken with the same cadence and little variation for personalities. He did use accents to differentiate some characters, and his voices female voice were good. I think it would be a wonderful narration if not for the stop-start style.

There are no explicit sex scenes although sex is discussed and rape implied, no excessive violence or much swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.

Excellent

Great start to the series. This is a fun and exciting read. I'm looking forward to future books!