For Love of Magic

By: Simon R. Green

Narrated by: Steve West

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

History isn’t what you think it is. It’s been rewritten to remove all the magic. Together, two people decide to put things right. A new novel of magic, history, and true love from Simon R. Green.

When they fall in love, it’s magic!

History can change and has changed. Magic was and is real.

Once upon a time, there was a forgotten era of magic and monster. But the remnants—and all memory—of the old world have been replaced by the sane, the scientific, and the rational. But sometimes the magical past isn’t content to stay past. That’s where Jack Damian comes in. It’s his joy to protect our present from the supernatural remnants of an earlier time, a different history. It’s his job to make the past safe.

Jack is called to the Tate Museum, where dozens of people have disappeared beneath the surface of a painting. While investigating, he finds himself smitten with a mysterious art expert Amanda Fielding. But Amanda has plans of her own, and soon the two are traveling through time—back to the Roman Empire and then forward through history, from King Arthur’s court to Sherwood Forest. As they explore histories past as written and overwritten, the balance of magic and science shifts, and the choices the two make could change the world forever.

©2023 Simon R. Green (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

magnificent

This book was very well read! What a great story! Perhaps it would make a good movie.

Fails in comparison to other books by Green

I was thrilled to find a new title by Simon R Green but was disappointed by the performance. The story might have been excellent; surprised to find Steve West delivering an overacted, frankly weird, narration which overshadowed and spoiled the story. I know Steve West's reading and I've enjoyed his voice. I have the print book and will read that.

Great story with stellar performance

Amazing performance by Steve West. I admit I'm partial to his work, but how can you not appreciate a baritone who can create multiple voices in his storytelling? Whole-heartedly recommended!

Great Narration

It's a fantasy. Jack Damon, the main character, is bold and heroic. His character voice, coupled with that of Steve West, the exceptional narrator, are what make this bloody, repetitive book worth listening to.

Clever and sweet

What a creative and thoughtful premise! What a brilliant take on myths and legends that we take for granted! What a typically talented and engaging performance by the one and only Steve West!! So grateful for these few hours of fantasy and possibility in the midst of the chaos and disorder that is our world. Sometimes it takes this kind of fantastical hope in fiction to hold us up in real life. Bravo.

Entertaining

As usual, great work by Simon Agreen, one of my favorites there I say, favorite author, always something different that’s fun to listen to suspenseful and entertaining at the same time worth your time 100%

A very good book

Another fine book from Simon Green. I do hope this becomes a series. I find the slight humor involved in his writing enjoyable in a genre that shouldn’t be so serious.

Less of a guilty pleasure and enjoyable for what it is.

I liked a review that called this sweet - it is, who'd have thought, and I love that it is. I enjoy The Nightside, but a series that can't quite decide just how much of London's Old Soho district it can include or sometimes quite how isn't something I felt comfortable recommending to my wife or the younger set (I'd have to supply some back reading for things like Lovecraft as well). I love how gleefully over-the-top Deathstalker is, but again, it's a bit much for some - and quite a commitment, and it's also better with a lot of genre reading under your belt. This has SRG's imagination softened by a perfectly reasonable sentimentality. I hope you continue with the series, Sir. It feels a bit like Bradbury sometimes - not the language but the love of a lifetime of reading. The characters are SRG but generally softer and a bit closer to the heart than usual. I never thought I'd put "sentimental" and "sweet" in an SRG review - more like "outrageous" or "over-the-top" - but there they are, and I mean them in a very good way. Maybe such things aren't what some SRG fans are looking for, but I for one appreciated the change of tone, at least here. I haven't finished a few of SRG's series, yet (he does keep writing), but I've read or listened to most of what he's written, usually more than once. He's a vigorous, interesting, irreverent (but appreciative) author who writes with a wink. This offering is softer and more episodic. I enjoyed it, and I'll likely read it again - and recommend it. SRG isn't particularly deep or literary - except in his love of a good story at all costs and his connection to the many books he's read and loved. I hope those who don't get what they were expecting from him here are gentle or quiet about this. It's a worthy addition to his ouvre. And it was just what I was in the mood for.

Fun world building, but a bit formulaic.

Great narrator, good world building, interesting characters, but it was a bit predictable. I still enjoyed it, but it is not at the same level as the Nightside series.

entertaining

I just wished the "shouting" was not so loud. It was a little jarring