This story is about the chosen one dying, and now everyone is going to die. Except his good friend who trained with him picks up his friend's mantle, and goes on a journey to try and save everyone's lives. The prophecy, which sees the chosen one as the only person who would succeed doesn't include his friend. Although there is at least one prophet who has seen him take up his friend's quest, but we don't meet this prophet until the end of this book.
I found the story interesting. I haven't read many shifter type stories, but here we are. Orson is a shifter and doesn't know it. His girlfriend's mom explains, she believes he carried the gene but it was dormant until him and his girlfriend kissed and exchanged bodily fluids. (Clears throat.) Once he was exposed to the gene, carried by his girlfriend who has been a shifter since she was little, his shifter abilities awoke.
I did find the history of the gunslinger interesting. How this particular gunslinger came to be anyway. I can't speak for some of the others. So, apparently, there is only one teacher for boys to become gunslingers. If they fail to become a gunslinger, they are dead, and the family line of gunslingers ends. Obviously, this will eventually lead to one last gunslinger, and this book is taking place during that time.
This series is addicting. I love these characters. I just want to live in this world and not leave. I want to somehow join the Riyria team, and go with them on these journeys. Alas, I will have to satisfy myself with reading the books about their adventures.
These two are total opposites, and in this first book, they are paired up. They must complete a job together for a mutual friend of sorts. Their very different backgrounds though means there is some tension between the two, and makes it hard for them to work as one to successfully complete the job.
Holter Graham narrates a lot of Sherrilyn Kenyon's books. Most recently before picking this up, I had re-listened to one of the books from her The League series so had some time where we were still learning the characters, and I was struggling to not associate his voice with characters in the other books. Once I overcame that though, I very quickly was carried away and through the story.
The battles in the tournament are something else. In them, we learn something about Kate, and she is forced to do something and risk giving away her past which she is trying to keep secret. She is worried about how others will react to this piece of her past. I'm not going to say what it is, because, spoiler. You'll just have to read the book to find out.
For the battles you win, you gain points but those points come from your opponent who just lost. If you lose all your points, you can never again enter Brain Burst. Obviously the players want to avoid loosing all their points.
I love the way Lorelei changes her voice so well. I believe she is Mercy. Mercy comes alive like she is someone I can get in my car and drive to. (It would be a bit of a drive for me since I'm in Michigan, and I believe she is in California. I don't remember exactly, I do remember it would be a drive through several states.) Not only does she nail Mercy, in my opinion, but she gets the other characters too.
Lirael was honestly quite hard to get through. I started reading the ebook from my library, then later, because it was taking me so long to read and I'd already renewed it twice, I switched over to the audiobook which I got from Scribd. This made it a little easier, as I then listened on my car rides to and from work.