DNF Audiobook Review – The Newt and Demon (Newt and Demon, Book 1) by Edwin M. Griffiths, Narrated by Christian J. Gilliland (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/LitRPG
Length: 16 hours and 11 minutes
Publisher:‎ Aethon Audio
Release Date: November 19, 2024
ASIN: B0DF845GST
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Newt and Demon series
Source: Borrowed audiobook from Audible
Rating: 3/5 stars

“When the apocalypse comes, a mysterious entity grants Theo Spencer the gift of reincarnation.
The gift of a quiet life as an alchemist.
He awakens in a small town in the southern reaches of a small kingdom in a non-human body. Broken Tusk doesn’t seem like much, but his legendary alchemy skills will soon turn their fortune.”

Series Info/Source: This is the The Newt and Demon series. I borrowed this on audiobook from Audible.

Thoughts: I am setting this aside at 30% in. There is nothing really wrong with this; it is just boring. This is a town building fantasy where we watch a displaced human (he’s been transported to a new world when Earth is destroyed) try to learn to be an alchemist and improve the town he’s ended up in. You learn about him making cleaning agents and learning to purify water….things like that.

We read this from Theo’s perspective. He is a soldier in post-apoclyptic Earth and when the planet is destroyed an unknown entity gives him a chance to start anew as an alchemist on a different planet.

This is an incredibly character driven story, and I didn’t really like any of the characters much. They were all pretty bland. In the end, I just kept finding my mind drifting while listening to this. I was hoping the alchemy elements would draw me in, but you just listen the main character discuss strange fictional ingredients.

I listened to this on audiobook, and the narration isn’t great, which added to my dislike. The narrator struggles to pin down characters’ voices, and certain characters seem to sound slightly different every time he reads them. He also swapped character voices a few times, which you could tell was a mistake because he would switch voices mid-sentence. I would recommend skipping this on audiobook.

I agree with another review I read: if you like the first 25% of this book, you will love this story. If you enjoy LitRPG like Battle Mage Farmer, I would check this out. However, I liked Battle Mage Farmer a lot better than this book. I actually got through the first three Battle Mage Farmer books before I decided that series was just moving too slow for me.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was too slow for me and I ended up not finishing it. This is very much a LitRPG fantasy town-building story. If that sounds awesome to you, this is well written. I would recommend skipping the audiobook though because the narration on that wasn’t great. If you have read and enjoyed LitRPG series like Battle Mage Farmer (which I did read the first three books in), I think you might enjoy this one. Although keep in mind Battle Mage Farmer does have some dungeon delving and action (which I enjoyed) and this book did not have any of that at the point I stopped reading it.