I recieved this title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.
The events in the book happen at such a pace that you are never just sitting around listening to pages of character descriptions, political events, or other things that really long books seem to always require. Because of this, the whole fantasy world seems underdeveloped but Hodges still does a great job in his descriptions of the environment to help bring you in.
The magic system is rather weak in some regards but also refreshingly simple. You can expect great feats of magic one minute and then days where the characters are fresh out of magic the next.
The main character does have a lot of personal progression in mental fortitude and magic through the books, I would say almost too much for not being trained in the majority of the things that he does and for how little time actually takes place in these books. At some points you feel (based on how the characters are talking) that years have gone by only to discover that from beginning to end of the series maybe 3 months maximum pass by. In relation to that, relationships seem to come out of no where.
You can also expect that things will go pretty much as you predict they will go, not many surprises around each corner.
So overall I would say it was worth a listen but definitely not the most fantastic thing I have listened to. Also, give the narrator a chance. When I started out listening to the book I was disappointed in the narrator but he definitely grown on me over time and seems to fit the book quite nicely.
Last of all, EVERY character freely spills tears whenever anything happens. Definitely could have been less of that.