A Black Soul

I’ll be honest: *A Black Soul* frustrated me at first. The opening throws you into the deep end with minimal hand-holding—no infodumps about how Wonder’s magic systems work, no cozy tavern scenes to ease you in. You’re dropped into a city mid-collapse, with Ben Hales already waist-deep in blood and bad decisions. But that’s the point. This isn’t a story about *starting* an adventure; it’s about the psychological toll of living in a world where the rules keep changing, and the only constant is violence. J. Scott Bennett’s performance is a masterclass in restraint. He doesn’t over-embroider the fantasy elements (no cartoonish monster voices here), which keeps the tone grounded even when the plot veers into cosmic horror-lite. His Ben Hales is a man teetering on the edge—sometimes numb, sometimes furious, always *tired*—and that exhaustion seeps into the listener. The pacing is deliberate, almost oppressive in the early chapters, but the payoff comes when the Undercroft Citadel’s mysteries start unspooling. My two critiques: First, the magic system’s intricacies occasionally get lost in audio (a quick reference guide in the companion PDF would’ve helped). Second, the female characters, while compelling, often feel like they exist to reflect Ben’s guilt or growth rather than drive the plot independently. That said, the final act’s twists—delivered with Bennett’s signature understated menace—left me genuinely stunned. If you’re burned out on sunny, progression-fantasy fluff, this is the antidote: a story that asks what happens when the grind *wins*." "tags": [ "dark progression fantasy