Magic, gunfire and time-bending visions, told to the finish.
The Gearheart is a fantasy novel told in numbered podcast installments, written and read by Alex White, with Renee White voicing its female characters. An enchantress, an ancient swordsman and a grizzled gunman share a world of coal power and warships, and the story runs all the way to a declared final episode.
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The Gearheart is a fantasy novel presented as a podcast serial, written and read by Alex White across numbered installments. Renee White voices the female characters, so the story is carried by two readers rather than one. Several episodes restart the thread with a 'Last time on The Gearheart' recap, which helps in a story with this many moving parts. And there are many. At the center is Jonathan, a young man bound up with the Seekers, whose visions carry him into the stream of time itself, where he can divert its flow and sift through memory. Around him gather Cog, a sword-carrying warrior; Augustus, a young mechanic; Maeve Manners, an enchantress; and Crust, a grizzled assassin with a companion called Brass Annie. Their adversary is Nicholas, the hangman and Cog's brother, who speaks of having been alive for centuries. Magic is not the only force in play. A burned-out coal plant has left a town lit only by fire, warships threaten the group at sea, and shells fall while a fight tears through a ballroom. The survivors of the Fumaston chapter make landfall, and a ship's captain orders them off his boat rather than risk being run down. The story also reaches deep into its own past. Auden Slade, an ancient swordsman and Jonathan's ancestor, walks a city called Keldonorn that he remembers under winter ice and finds instead choked with moss, vines and trees as thick as small houses. Nicholas, for his part, describes a diviner's portal that showed him an old race from before this universe existed, and a world with no magic at all. Those threads give the later installments a mythology larger than any single fight. The prose favors momentum: rain-soaked marches through vineyards, a gunman keeping watch from a ledge, sword strokes and sudden flight. It slows down for interior moments too, such as Jonathan replaying glimpses of Isabel whose meaning he missed while she was with him. There is dry humor in places, as when Crust stops puzzling over the plot because his head has started to ache. The serial is complete: one installment announces itself as the final episode and closes with the author thanking the listener. Some episodes carry messages from Scribble presenting the serial as a free audiobook, the work is released under a Creative Commons non-commercial, no-derivatives license, and the show's site offers podcaster interviews, articles and a Gearheart soundtrack. Because each installment continues directly from the one before, the numbered order is the way to take it.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants a finished fantasy novel to follow in order, read by its writer, where time-bending visions, sword fights and gunmen share the same story.
What sets it apart: The Gearheart is a single novel carried to a declared final episode, read by its own writer with a second performer for the female roles. Its enchantment shares ground with coal power, warships and shelling.
Jonathan Andrews, Initiate in the Seekers of the Arcane Unknown, joined the society two years ago with the hopes of protecting the secrets of magic from the greedy world beyond. However, a ravening shadow appears with a hunger for Seekers and Jonathan finds himself out of his depth. When Jonathan's friend is attacked and the young initiate is assailed with apocalyptic visions of the future, he must find a way to uncover the past and stop the beast before it tears his group, and the world, asunder. It's a ripping tale of magic, adventure and gunfights!
A cold city sprouts a jungle, and your quiet cup of tea suddenly needs a sword.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Rain, ruin, and a suspicious light give The Gearheart 33 a tense, machinery-edged fantasy charge.
The Gearheart 33 leaves Cog, Augustus, and Maeve pinned in Kaldanorn, where hard rain beats down and an unnatural forest tightens around the city. The fire burning inside a nearby bank looks like shelter, but Augustus keeps the possibility of a trap in play.
A shelling-shattered finale turns family debt into a mechanical reckoning.
The Gearheart ends in the churn of battle, where even a moment's hesitation feels expensive. The Servitor pauses over Maeve, Auden Slade steps in through the shelling, and a greatsword that cannot pierce the carapace still does enough damage for a cleaner strike at the neck.
A stopped heart opens onto Nicholas's chilling theory of perfection.
The Gearheart begins with Maeve's heart stopped and Crust running, then turns toward Nicholas and his account of what he thinks humanity has spoiled.
A dark fleet waits, a watch turns brutal, and magic sharpens the closing danger.
The Gearheart 36 builds its tension from a fleet waiting in the dark and a set of loyalties starting to fray. Off Keldinorn, the Francesca sits with twelve other Republic-class warships as Cosimo reaches the bridge and Admiral Filipepi turns toward him with battle near.
Magic has consequences. So does love.
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Maeve collapses in the bank hallway after a spell leaves a burned handprint on her shoulder, and Cog identifies the attack as alchemy before calling for Darren and his fox's cage expertise.
Darren’s provisions let Augustus, Maeve, and Cog regroup inside a flooded bank.
The Gearheart 32 follows Jonathan Andrews as Auden Slade erodes his memories from inside his own body.
The Gearheart 37 closes on Augustus Ellsworth, Maeve, Darren, Auden Slade, Cog, Astrid, and Nicholas Antonello fighting through Antonello Manor, the subway tunnels, and a shell-battered street.
The Gearheart 36 centers on Nicholas pushing the Gearheart toward the convergence generator while Cog, Astrid, Augustus, Maeve, and the Keldinorn navy close in.
["Episode 33 of The Gearheart pairs Astrid's defense of Antonello Manor with Cog's search for shelter in storm-soaked Kaldanorn.", "Alex White is the reader, writer, and host, and Renee White voices the female characters that carry Astrid, Maeve, and Cog.", "Nicholas' weapon has left a ring of dead ground around the city, a flooded boulevard, and a broken coal power plant in its wake.", "The sharpest turn comes when Cog opens a lit room in the Caldavi National Bank and finds Augustus' unfinished weapons, elemental spheres, and a note signed 'Wyvern the Younger.'"]
Episode 30 of The Gearheart opens with a spider-delivered telegram from EG Wallaby warning Nicholas that his "days are at an end" because Wallaby's group now protects the Andrews boy.
Episode 31 of Alex White's serial The Gearheart follows Cog, Augustus and Maeve from a gull freighter to the port of Redfield, five days after the incident at Circeval.
In this episode, Jonathan faces a ravening shadow hunting Seekers and must uncover the past to stop it.
A young initiate in a secret magical society must stop a ravening shadow beast that threatens his group and the world.
Jonathan Andrews, a young initiate in a secret magical society, faces a ravening shadow that attacks his friend and gives him apocalyptic visions.
In this episode, Jonathan and his companions recover from a heist gone wrong, dealing with a bullet wound and the aftermath of their escape.