Who’d a thunk that with the terrible blurb found on the book World of Chains Compendium that the Wayward Bard bk1 would actually be really good. It was great it exceeded my expectations and it became one of my favorite books I’ve read this year! This is the story about David a numbers specialist aka Arcangelo (gamer name) who after getting caught with his hand the cookie jar by discovering a mobsters money laundering scheme went into the game World of Chains to hide. Only to discover that he was stuck in a dead end town with no way to access his money and dead broke. It’s up to David to make the best of his situation. How? Well, he starts by powering up his bardic skills… and magic… David/Arcangelo takes on every quest that comes along including Chronicler quest to create goodwill in Grant’s Crossing and actually solves an age old mystery!
Wayward Bard was soooooooo good there was no way that I could stop reading and I immediately jumped right back into the Compendium after telling to my daughter to get the set. And The Fallen Bard does what so many authors fail to do which is to keep the reader entertained! Other writers only write a book that is more filler than story a bridge, just to get to the other side and the next book.
But Lars Machműller is too good a writer for that! He wrote a book that was engaging and again wonderful… and yes it’s chock-full of new challenges, new quests, new characters were introduced, of course existing relationships changed making even stronger bonds with the friends he’s earned, and he even gets a pet companion a chameleon named Atlas! And throughout the book our Bard improves his skills and his magic as his bardic skills are woven around his magic!
Although I generally hate boxed sets (too many words, and what if I don’t like the first book), I grabbed World of Chains Compendium because of 3 reviews I found written back to back by a friend I trusted on FB and yes I seriously couldn’t wait to binge the Emissary Bard.
With the mobsters trying to close in on David’s location he’s feeling a little claustrophobic in Grant’s Crossing a place he now considers home, plus there’s still plenty of quests to finish before he’s ready to take his leave. However there’s one quest that he can finish that’ll get him outta the town for a while helping out Grant’s Crossing. David is to be the Emissary to broker a mutual and beneficial agreement with High Hold a Harpy town and the closest Chronicler repository. David grabs his team of adventurers including Atlas his pet companion and set off… with a shaky introduction to High Hold all of them set off to learn all they can. But hopefully he can seal the deal soon.
Yeah and I can’t say enough about Soundbooth Theater is awesome. Justin Thomas James is great narrating David story. Jeff Hays has an incredible range as he narrates all other male characters in the book. Jeff is just crazy good! I really don’t quite have a handle on Laurie Catherine Winkle as she mostly did the AI but she did the other female voices too and I have a good impression about her. But here’s where Soundbooth Theater really shone weaving a story of a Bard with music. It’s a perfect combination of words and music, making their own magic, it was AwesomeSauce! My hat’s 👒 off to the violinist! Or the foley guy!