The Summoner: Echoes of the Fallen

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Set in a world after the end. A world where the good have already lost, the heroes are long gone, and the survivors are just trying to piece things back together. The Summoner: Echoes of the Fallen opens in that aftermath. The war is long over. Evil has won. Races have been turned against their very nature. Undead elves prowl the forest they once protected. Dwarves hunt anything that moves from beneath the soil.

It’s been more than 120 years since “the Fall”, when demons possessed the dead and wiped out the command that once led humanity’s armies and killed their gods. The world that’s left is all ruins, superstition, and wandering undead. In the middle of this, a young boy named Davis crosses paths with Ezekiel, a relic from before the war, one of the few who still remembers the world as it was before the god-king’s rule scrubbed history clean.

The story is mix of dark fantasy adventure, rescue, and found family, as Ezekiel and his unlikely companions begin their trek toward the citadel to save the boy.

It’s a world thick with lore, and you can tell right away that Ben Krauter’s a Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master. The story has that campaign-like rhythm: Rich world-building, shifting party members, and a series of encounters that each feel like their own self-contained adventures contributing to a larger arc. There’s a real sense of journey. Travelling through abandoned towns, crossing paths with inquisitors and corrupted former high races. Every location feels like it has its own history, even if we only get a glimpse of it.

There’s a bit of everything in the travelling party too, again feeding those D&D vibes. Korlak the orc, Drez the water goblin, Liara the alchemist (or possibly poisoner, depending on your tolerance for moral grey areas), and Onyx, a metal-furred cat from the ash elemental plane. Onyx is a fantastic character and total cat with her eye-rolling attitude. It’s a lively mix, and even though the story edges into darker territory, with occasional mild horror and gore, there’s still a sense of camaraderie running through it all.

Magic, of course, is outlawed. The Inquisition hunts anyone who uses it, branding them heretics, unless they’re useful enough to be absorbed into the machine. Davis’s abduction by the Inquisition adds some urgency to the story, as there are only two outcomes for those taken, and neither is good.

Tone-wise, it leans a little toward the young adult end of dark fantasy. Plenty of violence and danger, but still written with a sense of wonder about the world’s ruins and mysteries. There are flashbacks to the war that add context and melancholy rather than just exposition dumps, and it fits the “journey through the aftermath” mood the book is going for.

As for the narration, for a self-narrated title, it’s surprisingly solid. These can often be hit and miss, but Krauter handles his own material well. His delivery matches the tone of the story, and while it’s not a flashy performance, it’s consistent, clear, and well-recorded. No background noise, no distracting edits – just clean narration that lets the story do the heavy lifting.

All up, The Summoner: Echoes of the Fallen delivers a world worth exploring. It’s packed with lore, atmosphere and adventure. It does what good dark fantasy should: makes you believe there’s something left worth fighting for, even after everything’s fallen apart.

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