They call him Kradak, but his friends call him Steve.
Thank you to Brianna at Wunderkind PR and the Podium Audio team for reaching out to see if I would be interested in reviewing anything from the new Podium line. I was granted complimentary access to this title via Audible gift code. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
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About the Book
Kradak the Champion
Arkana Sword and Sorcery Adventure Book One
by Shawn Inmon
Print/eBook
Published 10 May 2021
Pertime Publishing
Page Count: 360
Audiobook
Published 10 October 2021
Podium Audio
Narrator: Wayne Mitchell
Length: 10 hours and 33 minutes
Genre: Humorous Fantasy
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
They call him Kradak, but his friends call him Steve.
He’s big and strong – an actor who plays a hero named Kradak in a series of B-movies.
When Rista and Grint come through the portal from Arkana, they don’t understand what a movie is. They think Steve truly is Kradak the Champion.
They kidnap him and take him back to Arkana to help them save their world. Once they discover the truth, it is too late. The portal is closed. Steve needs to become a hero. The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance.
Rista of the Blade is a strong woman whose beauty is only surpassed by her skill in battle.
Grint is a shapeshifting goblin with a tendency toward being sarcastic.
Do they make the perfect team? Or will the bickering be their undoing?
Mythology comes alive in Arkana, where Cyclops, Rock Titans, Trolls, and magic swords really exist.
Kradak the Champion is the first book in the Arkana Sword and Sorcery Adventure trilogy. The remaining two books will both be published in 2021.
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My Review
My Rating: 5 Stars
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Kradak the Champion is Galaxy Quest if the series in question had been Conan the Barbarian and the alien planet was something out of a Tolkein novel, and it’s exactly as wild a ride as its sounds. Earth’s mythology is their history and reality, spread across a fleeting portal between worlds by lost and wandering bards. Their world is threatened by evil and a champion is needed to claim the Arkana Sword and save them all. Unfortunately for one-trick pony actor Steve, the latest band of hopefuls who crossed that unpredictable portal and wound up at his latest media appearance (asking strange questions like why he’s dressed so weirdly,) they think the film series in which he played the leading role were documentaries and he seems like the perfect hero to hedge all their bets on.
Poor Steve.
This book is witty upon witty! There are jokes and references and one-liners layered on top of one another in such perfect proportions that you won’t be done laughing at the last joke when the next one lands every page of the way. As you laugh along (mostly at Steve’s expense) you’ll start to see that, against all odds, the best possible team to save Arkana is actually forming right before your eyes despite how inept and imperfect each member of the team is alone. This is the first book in a trilogy and naturally it ends with so many questions left unanswered, but you won’t mind. (Especially not if you can start reading/listening to book 2 right away!)
I truly enjoyed every minute of this book and I can’t wait to continue the adventure. This author is now firmly on my radar and I’m shocked to see such a plentiful backlist that I wasn’t aware of. I would be honoured to be invited to review the rest of this trilogy and/or other titles from this author, but if that invite never comes I’ll absolutely still be putting them on my TBR and acquiring them at some point. I must know what happens next!
As for the narrative performance, this audiobook was a joy to listen to. The pacing is great, each character sounds distinct, and the overall performance is just as entertaining as the plot. I have no complaints and I will definitely keep an eye out for titles narrated by Wayne Mitchell in the future as well.
Thanks again to Wunderkind PR and Podium Audio for this opportunity!
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