UNINTENDED CULTIVATOR: Volume 5

Unintended Cultivator: Volume 5 by Eric Dontigney
Book 5 in the Unintended Cultivator series
Narrated by Adam Verner
Genre: fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Unintended Cultivator: Volume 5:

Survival rests in the hands of a madwoman…

Leaving behind the capital and all the changes he wrought there, Sen ventures back into the deep wilds in search of the mad, nascent soul cultivator, Fu Ruolan. It is a final, desperate bid to find the manual he needs to complete his body cultivation.

Of course, in the world of cultivation, things are rarely as straightforward as they seem. Madness takes many shapes, and Fu Ruolan is no exception to this truth. With everything on the line, though, Sen finds himself reluctantly agreeing to a deal that he may well live to regret.

Source: Info in the "About Unintended Cultivator: Volume 5" was taken from amazon on 18/02/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

Another middle chunk of a bigger book. That means the beginning was in book 1 and the ending is a cliffhanger. In which case, I do not recommend this book to be read on it's own. You need to read the books 1 to 4 of the series first, before reading this one.

Like I said before, the world building becomes even more beautiful with every installment in this series!

So, who is Yan Zixin's master?? And what is Falling Leaf's future?

Once again, Adam Verner did a wonderful job of bringing this book to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (12 hrs and 58 mins listening time)
Plot = 2.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Unintended Cultivator Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Eric Dontigney:

Raised in Western New York, Eric Dontigney has lived in New Mexico, Florida, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. He currently resides near Dayton, OH. He is a fan of photo-realism and impressionist paintings, coffee, and well-made food.

Not wishing to tarnish the good names of writers who have come before him, he refuses to name influences. He will admit to reading Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ayn Rand, Stephen J. Cannell, Jim Butcher, Kate Chopin, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Camus, James Baldwin, Tim O'Brien, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Stephen King.

ericdontigney.com | x | facebook | instagram | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Adam Verner:

Adam Verner is a full-time narrator and voice talent with over one hundred titles recorded. He is the recipient of AudioFile Earphones Awards for Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck and The Big It by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Adam earned his MFA in acting from the Chicago College of the Fine Arts at Roosevelt University.

www.adamverner.com | x | facebook | instagram | threads | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The print book/ebook and/or audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

TELEKINETIC

Telekinetic by Laurence Dahners
Book 1 in the Hyllis Family series
Narrated by Christopher Lane
Genre: post-apocalyptic dystopian fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Telekinetic:

The collapse of civilization has reduced their people back to iron and horsepower. The Hyllises tend to inherit “tele-talents” such as telekinesis and teleportation. Tarc Hyllis’ mother (and his grandfather before her) could “feel” things with their talent. They became healers because they could feel inside their patients, which frequently let them diagnose the underlying causes of an illness. Having made a diagnosis, unfortunately, there was often little they could do to treat a problem. Tarc’s father can “push” objects with his mind, but, because he can’t feel inside anything, he doesn’t know where to exert force in order to help to treat his wife’s patients. Tarc’s just gaining the ability to do both of these things. The combination of these two powers will let him both diagnose a physical problem such as internal bleeding, and then stop that bleeding by applying pressure inside the patient. His mother finds this development extraordinarily exciting. She has too often had to watch her patients die for lack of an effective treatment. Then some strangers show up to scout the town where the Hyllises live. They plan and initiate a violent takeover. Could Tarc’s powers, weak as they are, play a role in resisting this invasion? It turns out he can guide a knife after it’s thrown…

Source: Info in the "About Telekinetic" was taken from amazon on 03/05/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

This is the first book in the Hyllis Family series, that means that this book is an introduction to the world of Tarc.

I didn't like the back and forth of the timeline. But I guess it is necessary to make a point that this is not an alternative medieval fantasy but a post-apocalyptic one.

Although the book ended the dilemma in the current book it also pointed towards the beginning of the the next book. It means it has a cliffhanger ending. I do not like cliffhangers and that is the main reason that this book will never get a 5 out of 5 rating from me.

The kindle cover art is appropriate to the story but it is not a "buy me!" cover. I'm a visual reader. Cover art is a big part in my reading choices.

I've listented to Christopher Lane before but this is the first audiobook where I actually finished the book. He did a pretty good job of bringing the world of Tarc to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = (7 hrs and 33 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Hyllis Family Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Laurence Dahners:

Amazon best-selling Science Fiction writer, Laurence E. Dahners, is a former orthopedic surgeon who has written over fifty books, including eighteen in the popular Ell Donsaii series. He writes optimistic stories in which science solves problems rather than bringing on dystopias. His favorite writing strategy is to imagine, “what if,” some advance (such as teleportation, reactionless drives, stopping time, etcetera) were possible, what changes might be wrought in our world?

How might our hero utilize such an advance?

Who might stand to lose from the introduction of such changes and how might they strive to resist its introduction?

He loves to write such stories and hopes you’ll enjoy reading them.

laury.dahners.com | twitter | facebook | audible | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Christopher Lane:

Christopher Lane has received four Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine as well as four Audie Award nominations. His narration of Charlie Wilson's War earned him an Audie Award for unabridged nonfiction for in 2004. He performed and directed for the stage for twenty years in Washington, D.C., and he has been a teacher of acting for Boston University's School of Theatre Arts. He now makes his home in Rhode Island.

goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The book/ebook and/or audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

CURSED VAMPIRE

Cursed Vampire by Brogan Thomas
Book 3 in the Creatures of the Otherworld series
Narrated by Poppy Royana
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Cursed Vampire:

Half unicorn, half bloodsucker, all trouble. When her secret gets out, can this feisty teenager survive?

Tru Dennison’s life feels like a sick joke. Barely coping with the loss of her adoptive grandad, the seventeen-year-old can’t believe it when her no-good uncle kicks her to the curb. And now stuck working two hectic jobs to save up for a place, a shifter customer biting her is the last thing the magical hybrid needs…

Already battling a mysterious illness she can’t seem to shake, Tru is terrified the incident will reveal her hidden bloodline to the supernatural community. And when the shock and the wound cause her sickness to intensify, frightened teen fears saving her life could only make it all so much worse.

Will Tru’s rebel soul be enough to protect her when she becomes the prize in a paranormal tug-of-war?

Source: Info in the "About Cursed Vampire" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57680186-cursed-vampire on 27/06/2021.

Audiobook Sample :

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

Most of what I am going to say about this book, I have already said in my review of the first two books, Cursed Wolf and Cursed Demon. All three books have great story telling quality, wonderful world building, and characters to love!

Unfortunately when I bought this book when it first came out, there was no audiobook version yet. So I had to read this book the old fashioned way :(... it still finished way too quickly!

Empirical Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 5
Plot = 4
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Creatures of the Otherworld Series:

 

Books In The Rebel of the Otherworld Series:

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Books In The Bitten Chronicles Series:

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Meet The Author

About Brogan Thomas:

Brogan lives in Ireland with her husband and their eleven furry children: five furry minions of darkness (aka the cats), four hellhounds (the dogs), and two traditional unicorns (fat, hairy Irish cobs).

In 2019 she decided to embrace her craziness by writing about the imaginary people that live in her head. Her first love is her number-one favourite furry child Bob the cob, then reading. When not reading or writing, she can be found knee-deep in horse poo and fur while blissfully ignoring all adult responsibilities.

broganthomas.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | bookbub | pinterest | youtube | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Poppy Royana:

Born and raised in the South East but finding her home in the North, Poppy is a bi British Narrator based in not too sunny Manchester. With experience in musical theatre, Poppy is both a singer and a book lover and teaches singing when she’s not found narrating in her booth.

Poppy’s voice could possibly be mistaken at times for Olivia Colman’s so we’d like to think that, in our opinion, Poppy has an award-winning voice. She sounds warm and uplifting whilst being articulate and crisp; and not only that but she can nail sarcasm to a T. There’s really not much Poppy can’t do!

www.poppyroyanaaudio.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | linkedin | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook copies of the book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.