Dylan finds the hilt of a broken sword while digging through his parents' attic, looking for nothing more than a school science fair idea. This audiobook, the first installment in The Shattered Timeline Saga, turns that discovery into something tied to the fate of history itself: once Dylan and his best friends Mahi and Lloyd uncover the hilt, they get pulled into a version of reality where time has changed, the past is almost forgotten, and magic is as real as the danger now closing in on them. Sarah Metcalf's review adds a detail the official synopsis leaves vague: the friends are racing against Morgana Le Fay specifically, hunting through an altered historical timeline before she can erase it for good.
This is Book 1 of The Shattered Timeline Saga, and the story leans hard into Welsh mythology and folklore, drawing King Arthur and Merlin's Round Table into a contemporary kids' adventure framework, plus, per the book's own promotional material, at least one dinosaur along the way.
The attic-and-science-fair framing device roots the fantasy in recognizable, contemporary reality before the timeline fractures, a structure that works particularly well for younger listeners since it gives them a normal, relatable entry point, a bored kid looking for a project idea, before asking them to accept magic, dragons, and a fractured history all at once.
Author Chesney Jennings appears to be building this as a new, ongoing series rather than working from an established backlist, and the strength of the listener response here, a perfect 5.0 average and multiple reviewers explicitly requesting a sequel, suggests real word-of-mouth momentum for what reads as a newer voice in middle-grade fantasy.
Highlights
Mrs C's five-star review calls the time-twist element interesting without ever becoming confusing, a real achievement for a plot built around a fractured, half-forgotten timeline aimed at a young audience, and specifically praises characters who feel real enough to root for. B BHARKHADA's review goes further, describing it as gripping and genuinely hard to put down, explicitly enjoyable for adults and kids alike rather than a story adults merely tolerate alongside their children.
At a perfect 5.0 average across 12 ratings, this is about as decisively well received as a title can be on the numbers alone, and Mrs C's note about buying copies for young nephews after finishing it herself is the kind of secondhand endorsement that speaks to genuine crossover appeal rather than a single enthusiastic reviewer.
One of the book's promotional blurbs compares it directly to The Goonies crossed with Jumanji, but built specifically around Welsh mythology rather than the more commonly adapted English Arthurian tradition, and that specificity is a genuine differentiator in a crowded field of portal and quest fantasy for young listeners. A reviewer identifying as a proud Welshman praises the book for representing that culture in a way he rarely encounters in mainstream children's fantasy, a detail worth taking seriously as more than marketing copy.
Luke Davies' review specifically recommends it as a bedtime story that, in his words, people young and old will fly through, and the under-6-hour runtime supports that use case well: short enough to work across a handful of bedtime sessions or a single long car ride without demanding the multi-week commitment a longer fantasy series would.
Things to Know Before Starting The Sword and the Shattered Timeline
The childrens-audiobooks classification undersells this a little. With a thirteen-year-old protagonist, time-fracture stakes, and named mythological antagonists, this reads closer to middle-grade or tween adventure than material for the youngest listeners, and the marketing material itself, quoting reviewers with five- and six-figure Instagram followings, is aimed at parents and older kids who already know Arthurian references well enough to appreciate them.
Aubrey Parsons has to carry three distinct young narrator voices, Dylan, Mahi, and Lloyd, across a fast-moving fantasy adventure plot without letting any one of them blur into the others, a real technical demand for a cast this young. With a runtime just under 6 hours, this moves quickly, which suits its target readers but means the Welsh mythology and worldbuilding get sketched efficiently rather than explored at length.
Beyond differentiating Dylan, Mahi, and Lloyd from each other, Aubrey Parsons also has to voice mythological figures like Morgana Le Fay convincingly enough to register as genuine threats to a young audience without becoming cartoonish, a balance that matters given how much of the tension depends on her feeling like a real danger rather than a pantomime villain.
The book's promotional quotes come from Instagram content creators rather than traditional print reviewers, a marketing approach increasingly common for newer, independently published children's fantasy that has to build an audience through direct social reach rather than legacy media coverage. For parents evaluating a less established title, that context is worth weighing alongside the more conventional star ratings and written reviews also available.
Is This One for You?
This suits middle-grade and tween listeners who want fast-paced fantasy adventure, families looking for a shared listen with real crossover appeal for adults, and anyone drawn to Arthurian and Welsh mythology retold for a younger audience.
Skip it if you want deep, slow-built worldbuilding rather than a brisk, plot-forward adventure, or if a runtime under 6 hours feels too short for the fantasy scope the premise promises.
Parents specifically looking for diverse mythological representation beyond the well-worn Greek and Norse traditions common in children's fantasy will find this a genuinely useful entry point, given how directly the book and its reviewers foreground Welsh folklore and landscape rather than treating it as generic medieval fantasy window dressing.
The book's five-star consensus across a dozen ratings, combined with reviewers explicitly buying additional copies for other children after finishing it themselves, suggests genuine organic word-of-mouth growth rather than a title relying purely on its Instagram-quoted promotional blurbs to find its audience. That kind of secondhand endorsement, adults purchasing a second copy unprompted, is difficult to manufacture through marketing alone. For families building a shared library of Welsh and British folklore-inspired listening, this pairs naturally alongside more established Arthurian retellings as a fresher, kid-focused entry point into the same mythological world.
Before You Listen
Is this audiobook appropriate for adult listeners, not just children?
Yes. Multiple reviewers describe enjoying it as adults, with one buying copies for nephews only after finishing and loving it herself first.
Who is the villain in this audiobook?
One listener review identifies Morgana Le Fay as the antagonist the friends race against, a detail the official synopsis leaves out but that fits the book's Arthurian, Welsh mythology-inspired setting.
Is this audiobook part of a series?
Yes, it is book one of The Shattered Timeline Saga, and reviewers are already asking for a second installment.
