In the Tower of the Wizard King

Love, Hate, Revenge, Magic

I just finished reading and listening to the brilliantly narrated first volume of a new epic fantasy building on the concepts of separate realms for fae and humans whose time continua are not necessarily even relatively congruent. My first kudo would go to the author for providing a pronunciation guide to the Celtic names gracing many of the characters. I subvocalize and hate when I'm fighting an unfamiliar name. Second plaudits to the narrator who brought to life the various characters, even producing a credible Texas drawl for several, while keeping the pacing exciting yet easy to follow. And of course we have a great story with interesting and well-drawn characters playing out love, hate and revenge.

WARNING: Approaching the last chapter the loose ends seem to be tidying up nicely and the volume is complete. And then that last chapter throws a left hook and you have a cliffhanger. Hmmm, this can present an issue, especially as volume 2 of the saga hasn't yet been published. However, the way this was handled was so adept that I don't mind being left with a teaser since, as mentioned, the main drama of volume 1 has concluded.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

A fantastic time travel into Faery

Would you listen to In the Tower of the Wizard King again? Why?

Definitely yes. It's an engaging story read brilliantly by the narrator.

What did you like best about this story?

The book has a very strong and intriguing plotline as well as unforgettable characters. I liked the parallel narration of the present and the past as it made the story both more complicated and more involving; some scenes and situations, which at first could be baffling for the reader/listener got cleared up when the two timelines "met". I also liked the fact that the author doesn't flinch when it comes to describing the darker sides of a human nature - like plotting murder, being violent... The story is more realistic here than a lot of fantasy books I've read.

The characters of the Wizard King and Fiona were the ones I probably liked best, as they were quite dark, confusing most of the time and... misleading:), their motivation seemingly obvious but.... No, I'm not going to put any spoilers in here:)
I like the main character of Aoife, too - and she rang true to life, not knowing what was going on most of the time, havig to come to terms with her true heritage in a span of a moment... a difficult thing to do for anyone...

Have you listened to any of Katherine Jane Willis’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first audiobook read by Ms Willis and I loved her performance. She is great at giving the characters their own individual voices; I especially liked the "voice" of Deaglan - an elderly wizard whom I could picture perfectly from the voice he was given as someone warm, tender, and possessing the wisdom of years of studying both magic and the human nature...

Ms Willis generally acted out rather than just read the book for me - and she did it splendidly:) I'll definitely look for some other books in her interpretation.

The only thing I could complain about is a strictly technical aspect of the recording: there were constant changes in the volume and the sound clarity from chapter to chapter, which at first was a bit upsetting but I got used to it soon so I haven't deducted any "stars" for that...

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, it definitely was a book I would have listened to in one sitting if time allowed - I almost did:) I only stopped listening to the first part an hour before it ended because it was already 1.30 at night (I was only able to start listening to it in the evening, unfortunately), and then the next day the same thing happened with part two:) Each time you stop you just want to immediately go back to it to find out what happens next...

Any additional comments?

Well, I liked the audiobook so much that I went on Amazon and bought the e-book immediately, too:)

DISCLAIMER: I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Could not get into this one was a little confusing

For me the books started off interesting but soon after the author kept changing back from the past to the here and now it got a little confusing, and she lost me. There were a few things that throw me that I wondered why someone didn’t ask about them, there are a few things I how did that happen don't get me wrong some of it I really enjoyed and liked.

I thought the narrator did a wonderful job from her characters to the emotions she gave them. She paused when she needed to and laughed when you expect, showed sorrow through the voices as well as the excitement. I didn’t hear any volume changes if any breaks were taken I could not tell. There are no background noises just a very clean and clear audio. Her male voices are just as good as her females, you always know who is talking and what they are feeling. I thought she did a really great job and it wasn’t her fault that I could not get into this audio. I thought her character voices were nice males sounded manly and females were great.

Please do not take my word for this, we can’t all enjoy the same things, there are a lot of great reviews on this book. Take a chance give it a listen and you decide for yourself whether you like it or not. For me the author lost me early on and just could not get my attention back.

Warning, its another bustier ripper

Soft core erotica again ... sigh... i was hoping for more of a girl finds portal to a magical land where she uses her knowledge of the modern world to enhance the magic and the civilization of the world. Will look elsewhere

2 of 4 people found this review helpful