Saturday 12 March 2022

MARKING TERRITORY


Marking Territory by Daniel Potter
Book 2 in the Freelance Familiars series
Narrated by Jonathan Waters
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobookAudiobook


About Marking Territory:
Power corrupts. Can Thomas resist the lure?

Thomas may be the first magical cougar to go freelance, but he still has a lot to learn about selecting clients. Guilty over the injuries suffered by his friend and client O’Meara, Thomas resolves to collect enough magical essence to get her healed. Teaming up with an under-appreciated cabal of technomagi, Thomas finds himself battling encroaching mages, vicious spirits, and the forces of the multiverse itself to gather the energy mysteriously popping up all over Grantsville.

Will the promise of absolute power corrupt the people and town he cares for, or will Thomas overcome his own obsession in time to save the people most in danger?

Marking Territory continues Thomas’ adventures in the second installment of Freelance Familiars. If you like the Dresden Files, you’ll love this darkly humorous urban fantasy with an animal twist.

Buy this exciting four-pawed adventure today!
Source: Info in the "About Marking Territory" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31212566-marking-territory on 23/06/2020.

Buy Link(s):
  Audible Books

Noise as a cow-wolf
My Thoughts:
In this installment, the lines between the good guys and the bad guys gets blurred as our hero tries to save the world. Well, his town really, to be more precise... And my question of what happened to the tree that enabled the dragon to escape got answered. Sort of... Still... Kudos to this book!

Another thing I like about this series is that it has images of scenes and characters in the ebook version. It just makes the story come to 3D life more vividly while my imagination does the rest.

Pace-wise though, it is still not that brilliant. I still find myself needing breaks every now and then. However, it gets better the further I go into the book.

This series is growing on me...


Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (10 hrs & 6 mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Freelance Familiars Series:


Meet The Author

About Daniel Potter:
Daniel Potter has always been inspired by the mysteries of the world. His early interest lead him to become avid researcher as well as gamer and writer. After obtaining his PhD in vascular biology, he began exploring fictional magic and spiritualism using his own particular scientific lense. Daniel published the webcomic Walking the Lethe from 2010-2012 and is an active member of the East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meet-up group. His debut novel, Off Leash, is just the first in his Freelance Familiar series.

When he's not chasing his imagination, Daniel works as a vascular biologist in the Bay Area. He shares an apartment with his wife, two cats, and a large collection of video games.


The Narrator

About Jonathan Waters:
Voice Over Artist · Voice Actor · Voice Talent · Actor · Professional Actor.

A classically trained actor with a degree in Theatre Arts from Boise State University and at present nearly 80 titles on Audible.com.

Voice talent for audiobooks, commercials, characters, animations, video games and beyond. Check out the links for both the list of audiobooks and YouTube page for demos.




FTC Disclosure:
The different formats of this book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Saturday 5 March 2022

DREAM CASTERS: LIGHT

Dream Casters: Light by Adrienne Woods
Book 1 of the Dream Casters series
Narrated by Vanessa Moyen
Genre: YA urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobookAudiobook


About Dream Casters: Light:
Mr. Sandman, send me a dream, ta da da da…..

Seventeen year old Chastity Blake knows the Sandman is just a silly children’s story parents tell their children to get them to sleep. At least she thought it was, until the day a mysterious, light golden sand appeared in her hands during a high school prank that went horribly wrong. A sand that has the power to send anyone it touches into a deep, sound sleep.

Fearing she had lost her mind, Chastity soon discovers the shocking truth of her heritage — she is a Dream Caster. Chastity was never supposed to be raised on the Domain, or what humans call Earth and she is forced to return to her true birth place, Revera — the world of Dreams.

However, in Revera there is no balance between good, the Light Casters, and darkness, the Shadow Casters, and Chastity is caught square in the middle. She soon learns that there is no place for anyone containing both the light and the darkness within them, and the shocking truth that if anyone in Revera ever discovered her shadow self, Chastity would be thrown into the Oblivion — the world of Nightmares.

Dreams are always more than they seem, and this time Chastity is going to discover just how different they can be.
Source: Info in the About Dream Casters: Light was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25267494-light on 23/03/2019.

My Thoughts:
This world has magical beings called Dream Casters. They have their own fairyland called Revera and Oblivion, which is apart from the mundane world which they call Domain. If so, don't they also have other magic users? Angels and demons? Vampires and witches, in it? Just wondering...

For some reason, I feel that Chastity, that's our heroine, has this emotional disconnect from events in the story. Like she is acting like she is suppose to respond in the situation but she isn't feeling it... hmmmm, I wonder why that is...

What this story is... Chastity kind of fell into a hole (like the "rabbit hole" in Alice In Wonderland) and ended up in Rivendell. Except they don't call it Rivendell, they call it Dombeya. And then onto Hogwarts. And then "Peter Pan in a The Lost Boys bonfire" got thrown in there too... Huh!? Somebody's been reading too many fantasy/fairytale books... Anyway... it is a typical battle between good versus evil and the good guys won, but... there is book 2, so the bad guys are not down yet. Knocked out but not down, and round two is published already.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 3.5
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = (9 hrs & 37 mins listening time)
Plot = 2.5
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Dream Casters Series:


Meet The Author

About Adrienne Woods:
Adrienne Woods is a USA Today Bestselling author. She published her first novel, Firebolt, in 2013, followed by Thunderlight, Frostbite, Moonbreeze and Starlight.

Her second series Dream Casters followed and Millue, the third and final part is scheduled to be released early 2019.

She is currently working very hard in getting the Dragonian Series translated into many languages and hope to reach new goals on the long run.




FTC Disclosure:
The different formats of this book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.