Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Prince of Death
SERIES: Lords of the Underworld #1
AUTHOR: Sam Burns & W.M. Fawkes
NARRATOR: Zachary Zaba
PUBLISHER: FlickerFox Books
RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2019
LENGTH: 7 hours, 41 minutes
BLURB:
Gifted power over life and death, Lysandros has spent millennia in the underworld, listless and alone. The youngest child of Hades and Persephone, he’s been sheltered from the threats in the world above.
Theo Ward hasn’t been so lucky. After watching his mother wither away, he’d do almost anything to have her back. When a messenger appears at the Banneker College of Magic and offers the young professor a chance to save her, Theo can’t pass it up, even if it means going straight into the underworld and dragging her home. But Theo gets more than he bargained for when he crosses paths with the prince of Hades.
Set against the king of Olympus, they must shed their past burdens and learn to trust each other, so they can face down a storm that threatens to wipe the nation’s capital off the map.
REVIEW:
There is this saying; ”If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. I’m really struggling to find anything half-way decent to say about this book, but sadly I’m failing miserably. I am going to try my best at not be too negative, because while this book did not work for me, it can most certainly be a book you’ll love. Reviews are a mixed bag, so never take my word for gospel, but make up your own mind.
Before even the first word was spoken I knew this book wasn’t going to leave me in awe. Because the first thing you heard of this recording was a whooshing background sound, and it was present throughout the book. It was most noticeable in pauses and when the volume was turned on high, but it was distracting and lessen the experience of any listen. On the plus side, this sound was constant, it never changed or varied, so after a while it could be ignored.
This review will focus mainly on the narration, because I honestly can’t say that much about the plot. Other than after finishing it, I’m kind of still wondering what it was all about, what the point of it all was. Sure, events took place and people did stuff, parties were held and a few gods quarrelled. Still, it lacked depth and meaning, it lacked feeling.
If you’ve hung around for a while you might know that I love finding new narrators and Zachary Zaba is definitely new to me. Sadly his narration wasn’t for me. Or the genre wasn’t for him. I mean he has a good voice for audio, but when I pick up an audiobook (fiction) I want to be entertained. I want to be swept away to a land far away. Zaba don’t do that for me with his monotone reading of the words. It lacked all kind of feeling and connection to the plot and characters. Everything was read with the same voice and in the same tone and at times it was also very choppy where the flow of the words didn’t feel quite natural. I did look Zaba up, and found he’s narrated a bunch of books in a variety of genres, many of them non-fiction. I do think that non-fiction is a genre he’d excel in, because like I said in the beginning, he has the voice for it.
This book was sadly a bust on several levels for me, and sadly I’m jumping off this train at the first station. But, if you are a fan of mythology you might want to give this book a try, it could be a hit for you.
RATING: 
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