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For a hundred generations the Fae have been locked away from the world, in the cold, the Outside. They have faded out of sight and mind into myth and folklore, but now the barriers are weakening and they push against the tattered remnants of the wyrde as they seek a way to return. As a new religion spreads across the world, sweeping the old ways and beliefs away before it, a warlike people look across the frozen ocean towards the shores of Anlan, hungry for new lands.
The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow's Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long dead sorcerer's legacy. But there is a conspiracy within the citadel: traitors, flesh-eaters and the ghosts of the wastelands seek to destroy them, but if they cannot solve the ancient wizard's paradox, the Deep Kings will walk the earth again, and all will be lost.
Markal, an apprentice wizard, is thrust unexpectedly to the head of his order when his master is decapitated by a gray-skinned assassin. The order's walled gardens have the power to restore their dead master to life, but only if the apprentices can protect his body long enough for their sanctuary to work its magic. When a barbarian warrior named Bronwyn invades the gardens wielding a soul-binding sword and accuses the order of harboring a powerful sorcerer, Markal thinks she is another assassin come to finish the job.
Arlyn's quest is simple: Find her father and let him know her mother is dead. After all, Arlyn had promised her mother she'd go. The problem? Her father's people are myths and legends, and he doesn't even live on Earth. But despite a long journey through the mysterious mists of the Veil, finding him turns out to be the easy part. Arlyn thought she would return to Earth after meeting her father. Now she must fight to save the family she never knew she wanted.
Eight hundred years ago, the Jadans angered the Crier. In punishment, the Crier took their Cold away, condemning them to a life of enslavement in a world bathed in heat. Or so the tale goes. During the day, as the Sun blazes over his head, Micah leads the life of any Jadan slave, running errands through the city of Paphos at the mercy of the petty Nobles and ruthless taskmasters.
At the height of its power, the elven court of Queen Emerelle relishes in the joyful, wintry Festival of Light. Yet, as tribes gather to reaffirm their loyalty to the queen, treachery festers within the nobility. An assassination attempt leaves Emerelle severely injured and plunges the realm back into the throes of an ancient war. While an army of trolls ravages the kingdom, the elves seek aid from Alfadas, the human hero who was raised among them. Back in the land of men, Alfadas has settled into a quiet life as his village's protector.
For a hundred generations the Fae have been locked away from the world, in the cold, the Outside. They have faded out of sight and mind into myth and folklore, but now the barriers are weakening and they push against the tattered remnants of the wyrde as they seek a way to return. As a new religion spreads across the world, sweeping the old ways and beliefs away before it, a warlike people look across the frozen ocean towards the shores of Anlan, hungry for new lands.
The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow's Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long dead sorcerer's legacy. But there is a conspiracy within the citadel: traitors, flesh-eaters and the ghosts of the wastelands seek to destroy them, but if they cannot solve the ancient wizard's paradox, the Deep Kings will walk the earth again, and all will be lost.
Markal, an apprentice wizard, is thrust unexpectedly to the head of his order when his master is decapitated by a gray-skinned assassin. The order's walled gardens have the power to restore their dead master to life, but only if the apprentices can protect his body long enough for their sanctuary to work its magic. When a barbarian warrior named Bronwyn invades the gardens wielding a soul-binding sword and accuses the order of harboring a powerful sorcerer, Markal thinks she is another assassin come to finish the job.
Arlyn's quest is simple: Find her father and let him know her mother is dead. After all, Arlyn had promised her mother she'd go. The problem? Her father's people are myths and legends, and he doesn't even live on Earth. But despite a long journey through the mysterious mists of the Veil, finding him turns out to be the easy part. Arlyn thought she would return to Earth after meeting her father. Now she must fight to save the family she never knew she wanted.
Eight hundred years ago, the Jadans angered the Crier. In punishment, the Crier took their Cold away, condemning them to a life of enslavement in a world bathed in heat. Or so the tale goes. During the day, as the Sun blazes over his head, Micah leads the life of any Jadan slave, running errands through the city of Paphos at the mercy of the petty Nobles and ruthless taskmasters.
At the height of its power, the elven court of Queen Emerelle relishes in the joyful, wintry Festival of Light. Yet, as tribes gather to reaffirm their loyalty to the queen, treachery festers within the nobility. An assassination attempt leaves Emerelle severely injured and plunges the realm back into the throes of an ancient war. While an army of trolls ravages the kingdom, the elves seek aid from Alfadas, the human hero who was raised among them. Back in the land of men, Alfadas has settled into a quiet life as his village's protector.
Finn doesn't remember much about her previous life, and in a world that has been changed by the wars of the Tuatha De, where trust is hard to come by, answers are even more difficult to find. Little does she know, an unknown evil tugs on the strings of fate, and the answers she so desperately seeks may be more important than she could have ever imagined.
Denizen Hardwick doesn't believe in magic - until he's ambushed by a monster created from shadows and sees it destroyed by sunlight. Now Denizen is about to discover that there's a world beyond the one he knows. A world of living darkness where an unseen enemy awaits. Fortunately for humanity, between us and the shadows stand the Knights of the Borrowed Dark. Unfortunately for Denizen, he's one of them....
I'm Ivy Lane, and if I never see another faerie again, it'll be too soon. Twenty years after the faeries came and destroyed the world as we knew it, I use my specialist skills to keep rogue faeries in line and ensure humans and their magically gifted neighbors can coexist (relatively) peacefully. Nobody knows those skills came from the darkest corner of Faerie itself. When a human child disappears, replaced with a faerie changeling, I have to choose between taking the safe road or exposing my own history with the faeries to the seductively dangerous head of the Mage Lords.
A wild land too mountainous to be tamed by plows…A Duke of the Holy Roman Empire, his cunning overshadowed only by his ambition…A young Priestess of the Old Religion, together with a charismatic outlaw, sparking a rebellion from deep within the forests…And an ex-Hospitaller caught between them all. At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.
The Thieves Guild is renowned for their ability to steal anything. Its elite members have robbed nobles of wealth, reputation, and even their honor. The Guildmaster rules them with brutality and fear, yet his name and past are a mystery. From the depths of the Evermist swamp, he seeks a master thief, one who can help him reclaim his lost power. Young and brash, Jack Myst has drawn the Guildmaster's attention. His feats mark his potential, but his audacity and cunning make him dangerous.
Sophia, 17, and her younger sister Kate, 15, are desperate to leave their horrific orphanage. Orphans, unwanted and unloved, they nonetheless dream of coming of age elsewhere, of finding a better life, even if that means living on the streets of the brutal city of Ashton. Sophia and Kate, also best friends, have each other’s backs - and yet they want different things from life. They are both united, though, by their secret, paranormal power to read others' minds, their only saving grace in a world that seems bent to destroy them.
For 500 years, the Gods have united the Three Nations in harmony. Now, that balance has been shattered, and chaos threatens. A town burns, and flames light the night sky. Hunted and alone, 17-year-old Eric flees through the wreckage. The mob grows closer, baying for the blood of their tormentor. Guilt weighs on his soul, but he cannot stop, cannot turn back. If he stops, they die. For two years, he has carried this curse, bringing death and destruction wherever he goes. But now, there is another searching for him.
Lucian: I am a Dragon Prince of the House of Smoke...and I am dying. Five hundred years is truly enough for a man like me. A monster. Yet a 10,000-year treaty will die with me, if I don't spawn a dragonling to take my place. My two brothers are no use in this task. It falls to me, the eldest by a hair's breadth, and yet, I cannot face the horror of another sealing. Another death. Another woman's blood on my hands.
Aaron Jace had a normal life until they came for him. Now he's being hunted. Assassins will stop at nothing to find him. Aaron is from Earth; his family is not. He is the last scion of an ancient and powerful family. Thrust into another world, Aaron must find his way to the one man who can help him survive. The Safanarion Order includes the first three stories in the captivating epic fantasy series listeners describe as compelling and full of suspense.
Lorness Carol, coming of age in the kingdom of her warlord father, Lord Rafel, aspires to wield magic. But she's also unknowingly become the obsession of Kragan, an avenging wielder as old as evil itself. He's waited centuries to find and kill the female prophesied as the only human empowered to destroy him. However, dispatching the king's assassin, Blade, to Rafel's Keep, ends in treason. For Blade arrives not with a weapon but rather a warning for the woman he's known and loved since he was a child.
India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who'll accept her - an enigmatic and mysterious man from America, a man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he's ill.
This is the omnibus of the first three books in the urban fantasy series Twenty-Sided Sorceress, collected together for the first time in one convenient volume.
The Riven Wyrde saga continues...
The Wyrde is dead and gone, its protection passed into the ether. The fae have been loosed upon the world as they begin their wild hunt, a nightmare from fables and legend made flesh. At Hesk, in the heart of the Barren Isles, Ylsriss must confront a reality she never could have imagined when her son is stolen from her by the fae. Her desperate attempts to reclaim him lead her far from this world and deep into the Realm of Twilight where a still darker truth awaits her. As the Bjornmen invaders drive their way deeper into Anlan, King Pieter refuses to act. Selena is forced to confront him directly as Devin and Obair flee Widdengate and begin a search for answers, seeking help from a woman who may be little more than a memory.
I don't know if its just me, but I'm finding fewer and fewer audio books that I enjoy listening to. Either the book is a poor one, and even with a superb narrator just can't be listened to, or the narrator ruins what could have been a true treasure. This book is one of the rare finds that I was entranced by, (as well as the first book) being both a wonderful story and having a narrator who made it come alive. I was so looking forward to listening to the third book. Of course, as with so many series on Audible, the third and final book in the series is NOT AVAILABLE, for reasons unknown, and unexplained (at least to my satisfaction). I am fast losing patience with Audible for this very reason. Am I the only one who finds this totally infuriating? A rare treasure ruined by being left unfinished.
More action. Quicker pace. More action. Fae and satires galore. Lots of intrigue. Plenty of revelations. And more questions that make me want the third book so I can find out the answers!
Spot on narration. So much feels! This audiobook - and the story itself - receive a solid 5* rating from me. I enjoyed the first book and it's narration, but I bloody loved this one.
The settings are mixed and nicely varied. They're visual and fantastical. The characters are real and so too is the politiking. Fantastic, fast paced action throughout. You won't be disappointed!
I wondered how the 2nd book in this series could keep up the mystery and awe of the Fae, but it didn't disappoint. The first book left us with a few characters being taken by the Fae, and Realm of Twilight showed us where they went and how they dealt with it. Their strange world is called the Realm of Twilight, where they live, plot, and bring humans back to be hunted down for pleasure, and even breeding. There are surprises when Ylsriss and Joran realize they need to escape, with some larger plot lines and history being revealed. The author does a really good job at giving different points of view on both sides of the warring humans, many of which are oblivious to the fact the Fae have returned and are the true threat to mankind.
The narrator, Jonny McPherson, is very talented voicing all the different characters; he's easily in my top list of favorites. After listening to him, Tim Gerard Reynolds, and Peter Kenny, it places my expectation bar very high for narrators and there are plenty that are used by Audible that aren't that good at all.
The book was really good, kept me riveted, and the only negative I have is Audible doesn't have book 3 available yet. It appears the entire series was finished being narrated last year, but Audible support replied back to my question that they're working on having it available.
I’ll start off with narration here, because narration is the absolute #1 reason that I clamored to have this book as an audiobook rather than reading it from the trilogy collection that I have on my kindle (which is, btdubs, the only reason I know how to spell any of these names, lol).
Jonny McPherson is a fantastic narrator for this series and he tells this story so well. He doesn’t so much tell the story as he acts it out. He puts stress in the proper places, out-of-breathness where there should be, and puts realism in the action scenes. He really gives the story a depth that I don’t think I would 100% get from just reading the book (which is my own fault and not the fault of the author or his story). He does accents well, he does tones and voices very well, and he can pull off a menacing satyr like noone’s business.
There’s a part of me who thinks that the Bjornmen should sound Scandinavianer (there’s that word I made up in my review of the first book again), and there’s a part of me that thinks that the Fae should sound, at least on some level, Irish- but that accent he does give the Fae makes me not even care at the end of the day. He makes them sound so… sinister. So temptingly sinister. You want it. You know you should not want it because they will kill you double time and love every second of it, but you want it anyway. It’s bloody brilliant. I wish that all narrators doing a character or characters who are supposed to be seductive and yet terrifying (all vampires ever, I’m looking at you directly) could do it this well, because wooooow.
So, 13/10 for narration.
This one continues the story of a country that is already suffering raids by the Viking-esque Bjornmen, also being invaded by the Fae, who are not at all the good, happy, tinkerbell Fae, but instead, as you’ve probably guessed, the dark, scary, steals-your-babies Fae. All our favorite characters from book one are back, Ylsriss, the plucky Bjorn…woman? Kloss, the young-but-talented Bjornman, Selena, the no-nonsense duchess, and Devin, the hunter with a mysterious history.
The story dives right back into the action, and in this volume things are really starting to come together. Some characters from different POVs are coming together, meeting each other. I liked that. I especially liked Ylsriss’ POV once she’s in the Realm of Twilight. It was interesting to see the Fae from that angle and get a whole new part of this story. It was interesting to get a glimpse into their world. The introduction of a new character, a Fae girl named Aervern, gives all kinds of insight into the Fae that the humans would never have otherwise. That was wonderful.
I also still love-love-love Selena. She’s exactly the sort of leader this place needs and she’s going to do whatever it takes to maintain her leadership. We don’t get to see her again until almost halfway through this one but her part starts off with her being just awesome, dropping a bomb on poor Rhenkin and telling him exactly how it was going to be without leaving him opportunity to get a word in edgewise. She then goes on to the capitol city and proceeds to tell everyone there how it’s going to be, too. She’s amazing.
And the ending left me wanting more, but I’m going to wait out the audio of book 3 (which I am told is happening!) – but I hope it’s soon, because I’m super excited for it. Can’t wait to see how this romp ends!