Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

OMG!!! This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. It was such a great story. I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

I highly enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook. Kept me listening.

The narration was well made. I liked the way the univers was forge with darkness. For once, it didn't look like there were an happy ending and in a way, it was refreshing!

I thought this book was really interesting! I loved the idea of time magic, which is the ability to reverse time back an hour or so.

There were a lot of interesting concepts in this story! I loved the battles against demons. I also enjoyed some of the moral discussions throughout the book.

At times the book was a little dense and difficult to follow. I also wish the characters, especially the side characters, were a little more developed. I think the world building could have also used a little more depth and explanation.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! I thought the audiobook was great and the narrator did a great job!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book had a strong opening, but then it stalled for the first quarter. The book really began to pick up the pace after demons were introduced into the story. After the story became fast paced and I cannot wait to see what comes next.

I can’t say I cared for this book. The premise is interesting, but the main character is meh. I don’t care for him or his struggle. It’s not that he’s unlikeable; he just has no depth. I assumed this would be a revenge plot, but it went somewhere out to left field.

The time manipulation aspect is interesting, but everything gets really weird really fast. More books are obviously being set up, yet I can’t say I care to ever read them.

There are also some chapters that make very little sense. Like, it switches from first person to third. I’m not sure of the narrating intent there, but I didn’t care for it.

The end/big reveal also did nothing for my interest in subsequent books.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. I lost interest about halfway through. I didn't like the philosophical parts. I just lost interest. That was about the time the demons arrived and I didn't enjoy those parts either. Not a big fan of the narrator.
I am being generous with a 3 star rating, but I really did enjoy the beginning.

The story of the book, even if predictable in the genre, was well presented and told. The speaker had a nice voice, capable in portraying the inner world of our young protagonist whose world turned upside down. It is well-suited for a young public that searches for a certain thrill, fantasy and a main protagonist a little different than others, searching for himself as well as the answers to this new world he learns to know- but with every answer a new question arises and you can feel the frustration of young Leones.
All in all a good pass-time for rainy days!

I voluntarily listened to an advanced copy of A Blade Through Time by Louis Kalman. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and Podium Audio for providing an ARC to review.

Leones Ansteri was an interesting character who I often loved and hated at the same time. Often I simply wanted him to focus and do something, but then the action would kick in, and I was satisfied with where the plot was going. The biggest complaint was the final twist. I am still not sure if I liked where the book ended. It was unexpected. I give A Blade Through Time a solid 4/5 for the creative world-building aspect of the book.

4.5 stars

ARC review - but it’s already published!

I loved this story so much and I can’t wait for a sequel (although you get a complete arc in the story!)

If you’ve had that fantasy / time-travel itch ever since The Licanius Trilogy, this is the book for you. I know time travel is hard to do effectively, but his limitations help keep the story in line and working well.

Louis Kalman’s debut novel introduces us to Leones Ansteri as a teenager when the governing body comes to his home to kill his whole family, and they do but this triggers a latent time-travel ability in him to travel back in time for a period of one hour. He tries to warn his father who sends him away telling him to hone his power to become stronger and provide more warning.

There are demi-gods, monsters, and demons in this world so we see Leones seek the philosophers to help teach him what he needs to know without revealing his talent. It’s a interesting story throughout the whole book and the narration at time can be unreliable because Leones remembers the events whenever he travels back but no one else does. This leads to him seriously questioning his own morality of these actions and weighing that against the challenges he faces as he learns more about the threats this world is full of.

It lost a half a star from me because there could’ve been some more world building to help the reader really understand things, but this can happen in the sequels hopefully.

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer who provides an exceptional performance throughout the story.


Big thanks to Netgalley and Podium Audio for providing me with a chance to get in on this book early. I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you to Podium Audio and Netgalley for sending me an early copy of this audiobook! All opinions are my own!

This book is one that captures you from the very first chapter and doesn't let you go! Its style is one that is extremely engaging and keeps you needing more. I loved the world but did think that it was a tad confusing to tell if this was a world that just slightly diverged from our own or one that is completely different. I really enjoyed the world of demons vs angels and the way that it's somehow very unique even with such a familiar background.

The beginning was a bit slow but I feel as though it continuously picked up and the end definitely had me hanging on every last word. I was so surprised by the plot twists at the end and absolutely need to know more right this second! It's one of those books where I think I know what happened but I'm sure that will be proven false with the next book.

If you like high fantasy and want something that will completely ensnare you and leave you on the edge of your seat, this is the book for you!

No one can predict the future, but Leones has learned to repeat the past. After witnessing his family’s demise at the hands of Archons, Leones inadvertently travels back in time just before the slaughter. Realizing his son has a unique gift, Leones’ father instructed him to flee and to develop the skills needed to save the family. Finding refuge in the city of Odena with the philosophers, Leones learns the arts of swordsmanship and mental manipulation while honing his abilities in time travel.

A Blade Through Time is the debut novel from Louis Kalman and the first in his Desolada series. This time manipulating fantasy was a fun surprise. I’m usually not a fan of time travel books, but I tried this story because of other aspects. Even though Leones relies upon his ability to escape danger, his skills are limited. Time travel is not the main focus of this tale. The world that Kalman built was what interested me in this novel. The grimdark setting of this epic and the disreputable cast of characters stand out above any magical abilities.

I experienced A Blade Through Time as an audiobook. Eric Michael Summerer gives this chronicle the dramatic kick it deserves.

I was lucky enough to get a ewview copy of the audiobook from Podium!

I quite enjoyed this story, mostly because it was so different to almost all the other grimdark stuff I've read so far. I liked the idea of "time reversal magic". At first I thoiught this would take away from the suspense, knowing the main character can just redo whatever goes wrong, but there were enough limitations and obstacles built into how it worked to not be a problem.

The world stays a bit mysterious all the way through, and there's still plenty of question left at the end of book one - but at least for me not in an unsatisfying way, but rather the intriguing kind that keep me hooked.

The same went for some of the side characters - they at first felt a bit bland, but over time they just felt more like a mask that hides away hidden depths and chasms. I really like the story better with every minute I listened to it.

There's quite some moral and philosophical questions, but mixed with plenty of action, fights, and training sequences this made for a good balance.

Some bits of the background world seemed glossed over a bit, and I didn't always get a great feel for some of the scenes, which is my one star missing - otherwise this was a really enjoyable read, and I'll definitely keep an eye on the author!

Enjoyed the time travel aspect of the book but the world building could of been better. I enjoyed the characters enough to read book 2 when it comes out and hopefully we get more answers about the world in book 2.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an audiobook arc of this title.

I received an audio copy of this from the publisher through NetGalley.

DNF @ 34%

An intriguing beginning that soon got mired in a slog without seeming end. Not bad, just not interested enough to continue.

3 stars for a Blade Through Time - I'm usually one who loves a good fantasy novel, especially one that tries to explain the logic of magic, but for some reason, none of the characters really resonated with me in a way that I was rooting for them or even loved to hate. The plot was intriguing, but felt slow in some parts and erratic in others. I never felt like I had a good hold of the motivation for anything that happened, other than it just being the next thing that happens. The overall mood of the book left me feeling rather tepid, but again that might be my disconnection to any of the characters and investment in their survival. Perhaps I'll be able to explore the world in any additional subsequent books in the series.

PS - the one plus I would say, is that the narrator for the audiobook version was a good voice actor. While the words and voice didn't sway me to tears, it provided the story in a steady and at times engaging manner.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC audio version to review.

Did I like it? Yes. Did I wish there were ANY great female characters at all? Absolutely! Why do so many fantasy authors believe that women are just window dressing? Not cool. Every woman in this book is a weak, useless, side character with the exception of one, and her story is tertiary at best and her ending terribly anticlimactic.

If you can look past the casual sexism in the author’s treatment of women, then this is a really fascinating story with amazing world building. Leones’s story is intriguing, and while I called the reveal at the end, it was still absolutely perfect! There were quite a few side characters that I really enjoyed as well, and I definitely want to explore more of the world. Do I want to know what happens next? Absolutely. Will I read the rest of the story? Maybe - if there is a possibility of some well written female characters.

I was sold on this being both grimdark and progressive fantasy and I have to say the mixup worked really, really well. The magic was both fresh and something to lean back on, the story was great and nuanced... an excellent listen.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of A Blade Through Time.

A Blade Through Time is a wonderful dark fantasy novel that explores the idea of what one might do if they found out that had time magic, and had a grim determination to undo a tragedy with it.

I don't think Grimdark just means that there are demons and death. The feeling of this book... was somehow YA, even though I could tell that wasn't the author's intention. There are intimations of characters having sex and there is death, but the main character's stilted delivery and the whole training arc feel of the middle part of this book make it feel like it's for a younger audience.

The world-building in this also feels very YA. A young adult book tends to build world-building in lore and mechanics and the politics of it all usually feel either incredibly bloated or underdeveloped. That's how this felt to me.

There is nothing inherently bad with this book, it just didn't bring any kind of spark to my life and it just failed to deliver on its promise of a Grimdark Fantasy.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an arc of the audiobook.

All in all, I did enjoy this audiobook. I thought the plot didn’t stall and kept moving, that the pace was great.
I really loved the use of time travel magic in this universe. I thought it was very well done. Im a person that struggles with the concept of time travel. I often times don’t like how it’s executed or explained. I loved the way the author incorporated it into the story and didn’t make it an immediate problem solver, rather making it a flawed but powerful magic skill to own and use.

I did have some issues with this. I had a hard time remembering who was who. Maybe it was because I listened to it on audiobook and didn’t always catch the names.
I also thought the world could of used better world building. Some questions I had weren’t answered.
• How do the powers just appear in someone?
• What is an echo and how does being one affect the world and how you interact with it?
• What are demons and why are there some with animalistic traits like foxes and spiders?

I also had some questions about Leonis.
• What happened to his mom?
• Where is she now?s
• What happened to the people that stayed at the house?

But the main question I have is:
• When will book 2 be released?