The Vessel

By: W.K. Greyling

Narrated by: David Hill

There’s a secret in Abernay Forest, one that allows Doctor Taur to create miraculous cures. When his talents reach the king’s ears, he is called to the castle, where he meets Prince Oswin and is asked to perform an impossible procedure. As he struggles to decide what to do, the castle is attacked and the king slaughtered. The prince, now in danger, sneaks Taur out and they flee.

Meanwhile, an orphaned girl named Luna spies interlopers in Abernay Forest excavating an ancient entombed creature—the source for Taur’s cures. Aware that the creature harbors a dangerous otherworlder, Luna tries to halt the excavation. But it’s too late. The wraithlike otherworlder goes free…and enters Luna, taking over her body.

Fugitives Taur and Oswin must find her before she releases a deadly plague from another world.

©2025 W.K. Greyling (P)2026 W.K. Greyling

Adventure

The Vessel by W. K. Greyling is a great adventure fantasy. David Hill did a great job with the narration. The story is entertaining, enjoyable, action, adventure, interesting, and more.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is a new take on the classic medieval fantasy

**ARC Reader, all opinions are my own!**

Welcome to the mystical world of Aure, a land within the same sort of setup as Medieval Europe. The technology is simple, the lordship is feudal, and the diseases are instant plagues. Like any good case of influenza circa 1918, if you get sick with it, everyone’s going to get sick with it. Landed baron and doctor Taur Abernay has had a legacy dating back to his great, great grandfather, of being able to cure even the most tenacious of plagues.

How does he do it? How is it possible? In a time of blood-letting, leeching, and sterilization via urine (this is valid, but definitely suboptimal). The forest of Abernay, hides a secret, passed down from one generation of Abernay doctor barons, to the next, the “stone cure”. Without knowledge of germ theory, nor access to the technology required to learn about them, the “stone cure” vaccinates the patients of the doctors Abernay against these plagues of unknown origin.

But what happens when a neighboring royal is turned down? What does Taur do when summoned by the king of the realm with no knowledge of the cause? It might just be time for the keepers of the super-secret “stone cure” to pay the piper, because the Vessel must be protected…

“The Vessel” is book 1 in the brand new series by W. K. Greyling centered in the world of Aure. The character development is precise and fully-fleshed out; the settings drip with detail that draws the reader into the space, making it oh-so-real; and the surprises are genuinely unexpected. I found the book really enjoyable, and got the pleasure of experiencing the audiobook which is very well-narrated. This is a solid first offering for a new series that demands more titles. Enjoy!

Good Overall

The beginning was a bit slow and the pace only picked up slightly, but overall this was still a solid listen with a complete storyline. While it wasn’t my personal favorite from this author and didn’t grab me the same way a previous story did, I can definitely see others enjoying it more than I did.

overall

It did start a little slow but overall I liked the story. As the story progressed I got more into the story and was curious to see where it was going.

Great story!

I've listened to, I think, 3 audiobooks by this author now and she does an amazing job each time. She's creative in a way that I can't say/remember having read or listened to any other stories about her characters and what they have to go through. I like that she can go back and forth between genres and isn't "stuck" doing just one. I can't wait for the next one.

My only real issue with the narrator was how he'd overpronounce certain words. I found that annoying.