Jason Hawkins

Plot Holes and Stupidity

Revisado: 02-20-25

The number of main characters that suddenly become masterminds take you right out of the story. Choices are made using justification and completely opposite decisions made later ignoring the earlier justifications.

The author starts in on complex plot lines but then runs them dry shortly after. I received all of the books prior to this one free from audible so paying for this one with a credit is worth it overall but stay far away if you're paying for each book in this series.

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Haphazard Deus Ex Machina

Revisado: 10-30-24

Anyone rating this book over 3 stars should never be allowed to rate anything ever again... The series should be renamed since there has been little of the market leaving the it early in book one but that's just a small annoyance.

This book has taken MC power creep to a lever I've never seen in another series in this or any other genre. There are zero consequences to ANY DECISION MADE due to poorly implemented time travel and multiple dimensions. This book is just horrible. Do not waste a credit.

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Abrupt Change in Social Issues Ruin Good Series

Revisado: 10-10-24

***Spoilers below***

I am fine with using current social issues in fantasy settings but the first two books give no hints that women are considered second class citizens. They hold pretty much all main positions of power but in the 3rd book everyone suddenly uses slights like girl or lass in almost every conversation. It makes no sense.

The other issue is that one member of the royal court has survived there for years by acting like she's nothing but a pretty face and stayed out of all of the court politics by being the daft but loving relative of the queen. The queen has been corrupted for decades and is possessed by some being but right before her death she names this same person as her replacement in a whisper and no witnesses but expects that everyone should bow to her and anyone that defies her brings this fact up but it's tossed aside as a legitimate issue in favor of it being an issue of her being female. WHICH MAKES NO SENSE.

The author killed off the main protagonist and makes all leads female... which is fine. Strong female leads are great but all of the female leads should not be leads because they continually make poor decisions and have not done anything to warrant the positions.

If the female leads would have been main characters from the start instead of forced into the lead after being barely mentioned with the world treating them like they didn't matter because of their gender or age then the 3rd book would have been fine but the entire book's plotline and driving factors come out of nowhere.

With that being said if you enjoyed the first two and have an extra credit I would still purchase it just to be able to get more of the world building but you won't miss anything if you stop after book two.

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The "Hunter" Stumbles into Every Discovery

Revisado: 07-27-23

The narration is great. That and the omnibus deal helped me to get through the first 3 books and I bought the 4th hoping it would get better... It doesn't.

Almost a decade passes and our protagonist learns how to do nothing at all and none of his backstory comes into play except to wag a finger to the interrogated and say I was just like you.

He starts off by being tortured but never revealing anything then spends 4 books torturing people that never reveal anything only to continue torturing.

Magic in several forms are spoken about at length in all 4 books but we see almost nothing except that we learn certain buildings were built by some magic people we continue to know nothing about.

Every step forward is either given to him directly or indirectly by other characters just revealing it but never due to his Hunter moniker.

It's just a bad series... It almost seems like the setting and magic are just a way to dump this trash into the fantasy genre to sell the books.

Horrible.

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Great story with way too many issues

Revisado: 03-17-23

I have listened to all of the released books as of March 17th, 2023 and will continue to listen but the larger this world becomes the more its faults become apparent. However, the story is still engaging and the narration never fails to impress.

The worst part of the entire series is the magic system. How it could not be fleshed out after all of these books is beyond me but there are zero rules or explanation on why it exists, why it can just disappear or how there are so many sects devoted to historical figures, their teachings and prophesies but magic just keeps disappearing until it's needed to further the plot. It is a blatent and almost insulting use of plot armor.

Motivations of key characters rarely make sense and at times seem to purposefully be made to be 180 degrees of everything that's core to who that character has been written. The ending of this book despite what the author's wife tries to tell us while passively insulting the readers who disagree makes no sense because none of the events that preceeded this outcome made any sense with regards to how everyone played their part. The final explanation by Kyle is like lazily spackling a hole with newspaper and glue. Sure, it works but it looks horrible.

I believe that his wife's editorial position seem to be at odds with the beta reader's input and ignoring that input has severely restricted how much better this world and its characters could be and that's just tragic.

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Worth listening to!

Revisado: 07-12-22

I've always known of this series and some facts here and there but I never read the series. I have watched the movies many, many times so I was hesitant to buy the audio books with the voice of Gollum providing the narration. I am currently in a dry spout and had 6 credits so I decided to give it a try.

First thing that amazed me was how faithful the movies were to the books and the second thing was how great of a job that Andy Serkis did at narrating. It really was a treat listening to these first two books and look forward to the rest.

Highly recommended no matter your preferred medium of the series

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Good Series Made Worthless By Conclusion

Revisado: 05-08-22

Do NOT purchase this series due to its ending.

I would have recommended this series all the way up until the final chapter of the last book. Nothing was settled. Nothing was brought to a conclusion. No plot lines were resolved.

The first two books laid everything out in a way that teased a great payoff. The magic system just like everything else seemed to lead somewhere until it didn't. This essentially ended up being used in a way that allowed the protagonist to succeed in a situation that he was stuck in but then it stopped so you never truly get to understand how it works or its limitations.

Why do some have wells but the one's from the other world do not?
How did they get to this world?
How do those that are from the Shattering which was thousands of years ago not know how anything works? These are ancient beings with lost knowledge but a young adult is able to figure out by just wondering if something can be done then giving it a shot?
What happens to Calden?
Felise knows he's alive just... Because?
She's going to chase him down eventually because he's too powerful but she needs to take care of local infrastructure first?


This series ends like a TV show that was canceled at the end of season 3 but the writers weren't prepared to tie everything up until season 5. I can understand how this happens with television but this is unacceptable in a book and even though I enjoyed it up until the end I will never purchase another book from this author as it is evident that he doesn't care for his reader's time or money.

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Good Series Made Worthless By Conclusion

Revisado: 05-08-22

Do NOT purchase this series due to its ending.

I would have recommended this series all the way up until the final chapter of the last book. Nothing was settled. Nothing was brought to a conclusion. No plot lines were resolved.

The first two books laid everything out in a way that teased a great payoff. The magic system just like everything else seemed to lead somewhere until it didn't. This essentially ended up being used in a way that allowed the protagonist to succeed in a situation that he was stuck in but then it stopped so you never truly get to understand how it works or its limitations.

Why do some have wells but the one's from the other world do not?
How did they get to this world?
How do those that are from the Shattering which was thousands of years ago not know how anything works? These are ancient beings with lost knowledge but a young adult is able to figure out by just wondering if something can be done then giving it a shot?
What happens to Calden?
Felise knows he's alive just... Because?
She's going to chase him down eventually because he's too powerful but she needs to take care of local infrastructure first?


This series ends like a TV show that was canceled at the end of season 3 but the writers weren't prepared to tie everything up until season 5. I can understand how this happens with television but this is unacceptable in a book and even though I enjoyed it up until the end I will never purchase another book from this author as it is evident that he doesn't care for his reader's time or money.

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Good Series Made Worthless By Conclusion

Revisado: 05-08-22

Do NOT purchase this series due to its ending.

I would have recommended this series all the way up until the final chapter of the last book. Nothing was settled. Nothing was brought to a conclusion. No plot lines were resolved.

The first two books laid everything out in a way that teased a great payoff. The magic system just like everything else seemed to lead somewhere until it didn't. This essentially ended up being used in a way that allowed the protagonist to succeed in a situation that he was stuck in but then it stopped so you never truly get to understand how it works or its limitations.

Why do some have wells but the one's from the other world do not?
How did they get to this world?
How do those that are from the Shattering which was thousands of years ago not know how anything works? These are ancient beings with lost knowledge but a young adult is able to figure out by just wondering if something can be done then giving it a shot?
What happens to Calden?
Felise knows he's alive just... Because?
She's going to chase him down eventually because he's too powerful but she needs to take care of local infrastructure first?


This series ends like a TV show that was canceled at the end of season 3 but the writers weren't prepared to tie everything up until season 5. I can understand how this happens with television but this is unacceptable in a book and even though I enjoyed it up until the end I will never purchase another book from this author as it is evident that he doesn't care for his reader's time or money.

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Gar, Ga, Dar, Da, Corbin, Coren, Cowen?

Revisado: 02-04-22

I enjoyed the story but the voice similarities between characters combined with similarly sounding names it made following the story correctly when 100% of my attention isn't on listening to the book. I had to rewind so many times to when I'd realize the character wasn't who I thought they were.

That shouldn't keep you from getting started with this series. However, this will be frustrating if you gravitate towards books with narrators that give characters very distinct voices. This narrator does have a few different voices and accents.

The story is told in 3rd person and bounces between quite a few protagonists but it's done well and none of them are boring or make me want to fast forward to the next one.

There is talk that the signs foretelling the re-emergence of the creator and another god destined to fight a final battle have come to pass. There are waring countries and factions between those countries and ever changing alliances and loyalties.

It's written well and keeps you wanting to listen and I am halfway through book 2 and have already purchased book 3.

I listened to everything Brandon Sanderson has written along with all of the standard modern epic fantasy writers and whole this series is not at that level of writing you will still find this entertaining and worth the credits... Especially, if you're like me and it feels like you're running out of choices and you've wasted too many credits on a series where you didn't even finish the first book.

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