Unsure how this story won an award, but it might be indicative of how hard it is to find quality material in this genre.
The story was contrived, derivative and though most of what the author dreamed up as “lore” was obvious, that didn’t stop them from using lots of words to make it obvious to you. Really felt like someone repeatedly explaining the punchline of a joke that you already got. In fact, most of the book was needlessly verbose. Perhaps there was a word count target for the award they were after.
The narrator had a pleasant voice, but was simply “reading” instead of “acting”. There were odd pauses in sentences as if they didn’t realize there was more to what they were saying. The author’s wordiness could be to blame here though.
Overall, I really wouldn’t recommend this. Perhaps if it were half (or less) as long it would be easier to swallow, but 10 hours for this? Pass.