Knights of Ghosts and Shadows

By: Ellen Guon, Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Eric Banyon, musician, is out playing the blues on his flute one day, but he couldn't have known that the desperate sadness of his music would free a young elven noble from the magical prison he has been languishing in for centuries - nor does he believe it!

©1990 Ellen Guon and Mercedes Lackey (P)2021 Recorded Books Inc.

Really great story!!!

Just choose something random a few days ago to listen to and I couldn’t put this story down! Great voice, great story, great characters! I highly recommend

Story incomplete

I am a big fan of Mercedes Lackey, but this story is really hard to get into. The narrator did an excellent job of narrating, and that helped me listen to the whole story.

Pros: The female characters of the story seem to have it all put together, except for the evil female character. That would be a good thing, because if you can see a weakness, you can cash in on it. I can see why there is a second book in the series, and I want to listen to it if for no other reason than to see how the story will go.

Con: Eric spends too much time not thinking, even drunk or stoned. And when being drunk or stoned isn't an excuse, he doesn't use his brain very much at all until he absolutely has to. Also, this plot line has a lot of holes. What exactly happened at Julliard? How did he get to L.A., because $20 bus fare wouldn't have cut it? Why would one burn down an apartment without first checking to see if anyone was in it first? There are lots of other questions I have, but I don't want to spoil it for the people that are still going to read this book.

Great series

I hope they put the rest of them up-this series is fantastic. The narrator is not the greatest, but eh, at least in this book Eric was stoned most of it. Maybe, like Eric, he'll get his shit together in the next one...

Outstanding

I was taken back in time. Remembering when I first read this book, hearing it come to life was beyond what I could of hoped for. I have been waiting for this series to come to Audible so that once again I could be taken away to the world of faeries.

I first read this about 30 years ago

this is probably the first urban fantasy book I actually read. I had read the Valdamor series from Mercedes Lackey and enjoyed it. I picked this up on a lark originally and enjoyed it.

unfortunately the narrator destroyed this for me. with a book that is so tied to music having a narrator who has a wispy voice made it very difficult for me to buy into the book. it really needed somebody who had a strong resonance and able to sing

excellent.

I love it. I just wish the rest of the series was on Audible so I could continue listening.

Just as good 32 years later.

This book was such a formative book for me -- I was 14 when I first found a copy at our local used book store, and traded in two other paperbacks for it. 14, Queer, and a band major in high school, dealing with All The Feels in that brutal and unfiltered way we first really get to experience them. Dealing with narcissistic parents and untreated depression and undiagnosed ADHD and so on.

So basically, this book was REALLY relevant to me then, and still is now. The way things ended when I came out at 18 meant this book kind of prepared me for getting kicked out (with all my stuff trashed save what I was wearing and in my school bag), or at least the first paralyzing few days.

I still have the paperback, though. Maybe it was a sign. It's very battered and extremely well-read and I actually had Misty sign it for me last time I was at Gen Con. I don't know how many LGBTQ+ kids she's saved over the years through her writing, but I'm pretty sure the answer is "a lot". Books like this have stuff like representation, and struggling with feelings in a much more homophobic time, but also music and magic and Elves. As a stand-alone story it's still a favourite of mine, so I was excited to see the SERRAted Edge world books all being done up in audio.

Kevin R Free does a great job performing this book, although I always spend several chapters chortling to myself about the Smiling God and Desert Bluffs -- yeah WTNV -- before I can hear the characters through him, and not his character elsewhere. Beth threw me for a bit of a loop before I realized that a punk rock band lead singer, yeah, their voices tend to have some gravel in them. Kory's voice, likewise, was deeper than I had imagined in my own head, but honestly if someone is 6'5 they likely get more odd looks if they're NOT at least a baritone. Either way, I quite enjoyed his takes on the characters, and it looks like he's done all the Bedlam's Bard books to date, so there will be continuity there. He's not one of my dynamite performers, but he's definitely competent.

I did have some trouble differentiating words that were thought, sent telepathically, and spoken, but he does differentiate. There's a fair bit of head-hopping in some chapters which can add to the confusion, but honestly, I'd have trouble performing the differences between them myself without using some kind of low-tech sfx.

The writing's honestly as good now as the first time I read it. One of my favourite parts about this book is how magic is described, to the point that I can all but see it being woven together during the big magic climax. The magic use is so descriptive, I love it, and in later books it's given a much more cursory explanation so this book really does hold some great worldbuilding, a comprehensive magic system, and some things you get to see the author still using (like the effects of caffeine on the Fae Folk) to this day.

I highly recommend this book! It's aged fairly well, although there are definite moments that are very 90's. The worst curse is shit, all sex is off-page and not described, and there's no homophobia or sexism. The word "G*psy" is used several times, unfortunately, but aside from it being a very whitewashed L.A. there's no other racism.

I hope this review helps, whatever you decide. It's a lot of words, but then, this book has a lot going for it in the "delivered into the reader/listener's hands at an extremely opportune moment and shook their world's foundations". It's definitely good for a teen, especially makers of music.

Decent.

I enjoyed the action sequences. overall the narration could have been a touch better. the male and females were too close in how they sounded imo.

Worst Lackey Ever

Mercedes Lackey should be embarrassed to have attached her name to this. Bad story. Bad narration. Idiot characters.

Poor excuse for entertainment

The narrator sounded like he was reading to first graders. All the characters lacked any semblance of relatability. All of them were so self absorbed and whiny. None of the elves behaved very elf-like in that that all portrayed far more human characteristics than elven. Even when the story was at the peak of intensity it just seemed to drag on and on without going anywhere. Overall not very enjoyable.