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Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Audiobookworm Presents: Quest Of The Dreamwalker by Stacy Bennett; #Audiobook #BlogTour, #NowAvailable, #OutNow, #TBR, #Live, #Review

 

Author: Stacy Bennett
Narrator: Zachary Johnson
Length: 14 hours 49 minutes
Series: The Corthan Legacy, Book 1
Publisher: Miramae Press
Released: May 5, 2017
Genre: Fantasy
Rating:  5 Stars

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Stacy Bennet & Zachary Johnson. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.




Cara has been a prisoner all her life, shackled by a broken soul and fear of her father's temper. When a mercenary captain is taken prisoner, he sparks something in her she doesn't recognize - rebellion. Determined to save the captain's life, she flees with him intent on leaving her past behind. It isn't love that drives her father's zealous pursuit, but a hidden magical birthright she never knew about. Now she must solve the puzzle of her past before her father kills everyone she loves in his bid to reclaim her.
 

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This is a nonstop action and adventure story.  The author will take you on a journey like no other.  What is great about fantasy is it takes place in our author’s imagination.  Add in a great narrator and he makes her words sing.

Mr. Johnson helped me get lost in a world that I will probably never see.  But he has a way of bringing Ms. Bennett’s words to life so I am able to see her world in my imagination.  I could see our narrator as part of that world and he is sitting with us around a nice roaring fire.  He could be considered a troubadour or a minstrel getting us riveted to the tale he is helping to create.  Our troubadour will take this story to the next level by just the way he changes his voice.

If not for getting a tour copy of this book, I may have missed out in finding a new author as well as a new narrator.  There was not one thing that I did not enjoy about this book.  It’s an adventure that I look forward to listening to more than once.  I was happy to see that the author/narrator duo have another book that I’m looking forward to exploring.  If I had one negative it was that there is just no perfect stopping point.  I usually will not stop until a chapter is over because if I have to stop that’s the perfect spot for me.  But in this instance, there was no perfect spot.  I didn’t want to leave that world until the last minute was over.

 

Stacy has always been a nomad, but is currently residing in New Jersey. For now. She enjoys multilayered tales with simple structure and deeper intent, stories of soul and psyche and heart. There’s nothing better than a book that convinces you its inhabitants are as real as you are. Then again, maybe we are only characters in someone else’s tale.
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Lover of mathematics, devourer of science fiction, and connoisseur of the dad joke. When he's not doing math for business or fun, he's devouring science fiction and fantasy, reading up on scientific advancements, going for a jog, or, on all too rare occasions, taking a refreshing swim at the beach. At your service, you shall have an able storyteller and gifted conveyor of information. Experienced in narrating fiction, from the romantic to the post-apocalyptic, and nonfiction, from the historical to the corporate, and armed with the tools to make it all sound great, Zachary promises that, no matter the job, you'll be read-iculously pleased!
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Narrator Zachary Johnson on which reviews stand out to him most
This is my all-time favorite positive review, and it’s actually for “Quest of the Dreamwalker!”

Zachary Johnson, narrator, performs this epic novel as if he were born to do so. He owns the book with his talent to step into the story and wear each character as if it was his true identity. While his female voices are not feminine by any means, he does a good job of making them female through emotion and style of speaking. In other words, Fallon is spoken strongly – she is a strong female lead; Cara is hesitant – she is shy and unsure; Moira is in love, hopelessly with a man and is tired of waiting; her tearful voice demonstrates her passion. I enjoyed Zachary Johnson’s reading so much so that it was a disappointment to reach the end of the book.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who loves magic, dragons, and knights in shining armor (ok, slightly tarnished armor).

There were no issues with the production or quality of this audiobook.”

This one stuck with me for a couple of reasons. First, I was always afraid that I could never convincingly voice female characters. My voice is deep enough that I have trouble pitching it high without sounding like I’m intentionally trying to be ridiculous, which obviously isn’t suitable for every character I’d play, and would really only grate on the poor listener if I tried to sound “feminine” that way. My solution was not to bother trying. I would just use exactly what this reviewer describes. I would vary cadence, maybe add some of those quirks I mentioned (I’ve even used depth and gravel for female characters and it totally worked because it matched up with the characters’ personalities), maybe use accents. But really what I chose to focus on was personality over pitch. I wish I could say this was some great insight on my part, but it really was just a response to a fear I had of trying too hard to “sound female (whatever that means).” Nonetheless, reading this review taught me an important lesson: What matters, above all else, is my acting, not my range. Range is great, but acting is everything. Second, I was convinced I would never even be competent at engineering my own audio. This review dispelled that notion. And I’ll forever be grateful for this one. This is probably my favorite negative review (I got two stars for my performance):

The inflection of words and manner in which this was read was not how I pictured this beautifully written novel to be narrated. There was an underlying angst in the narration that didn't fully fit. I definitely enjoyed physically reading this instead of listening."

This one taught me an important lesson. And that’s that everyone has their own idea of how a story should sound, and, no matter how right my acting choices might feel, or how much the author likes them, there will *always* be those listeners who won’t agree with me. And they’ve every right to do so. Art is meant to be enjoyed by an individual in their individual way, and while I was sad I couldn’t connect with this particular listener through my performance, it would be ridiculous for me to begrudge them their opinion on it, and equally ridiculous for me to cast aside my whole performative paradigm just to please this one person. Nobody is really at fault here. We simply enjoy and imagine our art differently. And that’s as fine as it is inevitable. That is to say, completely.     

Book 2 of The Corthan Legacy is in production and will be released this summer!

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