BOOK REVIEW: Cold Magic UNABRIDGED

Spiritwalker Trilogy

Author: Kate Elliott Narrator: Charlotte Parry

"Mystery Magic with a Heavy Accent"

Overall

Performance

Story

The story is whimsical and easy to like but I don't think I would have finished it if I had read the print version. The author gives every character except the main one (Kathren) long old roman names that would be hard to identify with (especially since they are never nick named or shorted).

This is definitely not a teen or children's book, although the book doesn't cuss or have explicit content, it uses a lot of old or big words that are hard to catch as an adult because the narrator has such a thick and lisp-drawn accent. I love accents generally but I found my self getting lost listening to this tale. It is action packed, mysterious and a bit drawn. Don't mistake this criticism for disliking the book all together.. I've debated returning the book or trying to relisten to it someday. As you can see from my rating Overall the story is a good time waster and not completely deplorable. My guess is the narrator is still an intermediate-professional. She doesn't make you hate the story but doesn't draw you into it either. A bit more vocal variation might help.

Purchase

There are a few narrators on audible that I love, Gabra Zacman is one who has never steered me wrong. She pulls you into even the worst-written tales.

Stories that I might compare this one to? It has the story-type of Maria V. Snyder's Touch of Power, The Hobbit. The writing style is not at all like those authors though. The writing style would be closer compared to Mercedes Lackey series. Big words, old names, hard to listen to (mostly her choice of narrators - Except Tales of 5 kingdoms... that series is addictive!), and jumpy.

So my recommendation for you is to try this book and if you don't like it return it. It's three sections for iPhone users, so will give you a nice long listen. This isn't a book that I hate or fell in love with. I'm not sure that I would continue on if this was a series, but its worth one listen.