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Sea Glass  By  cover art

Sea Glass

By: Maria V. Snyder
Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
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Publisher's summary

New York Times best selling author Maria V. Snyder brings readers into a world of molten magic, where storms can be captured within a glass orb, and a magician's powers can remain hidden...until challenged by enemy forces.

"I can drain a magician of his powers. All I nee d is a glass orb in my hands...."

Student glass magician Opal Cowan's newfound ability to steal a magician's powers makes her too powerful. Ordered to house arrest by the Council, Opal dares defy them, traveling to the Moon Clan's lands in search of Ulrick, the man she thinks she loves. Thinks because another man - now her prisoner - claims Ulrick's desire for blood magic has eclipsed his passion for her.

In hostile territory, without proof or allies, Opal isn't sure whom to trust . She can't forget Kade, the handsome Stormdancer who doesn't want to let her get close. And now everyone is after Opal's special powers for their own deadly gain.

©2009 Maria V. Snyder (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Sea Glass

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    280
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    29
  • 1 Stars
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    195
  • 4 Stars
    123
  • 3 Stars
    54
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    207
  • 4 Stars
    118
  • 3 Stars
    55
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    2

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Strong story, weak narration.

Sea Glass is basically a coming of age adventure. Although Opal has literally been to hell and back from the age of 14 to her present age of 20, she has still not quite shed her mental baby fat or fully realized her own self worth as the story begins. Rest assured, she will be lean and mean in every way that counts by adventure's end. There are magical twists and turns that you will not see coming, so pay close attention. It's a wild ride.

I read the book before I listened to this audio production and I would recommend that any serious fan of the series do the same. The book carries a much higher impact and will hold your interest from cover to cover. Due to Opal's magical condition at stories end, which I will not spoil for you, I have no desire to read anymore stories in this series; you may feel differently when you get there.

Narration is the weak point in this audio production. In spite of Maria V. Snyder's best efforts to write powerful and inspiring dialog for the new and improved Opal, Jennifer Van Dyck insists on whispering Opal's words in choppy disjointed sentences. The girl ends up sounding like she might have some firm convictions but, then again, only if the listener agrees with her. Even when Opal nearly shouts, Van Dyck whispers. I have no idea why she down played the part that way, but she certainly spoiled the story for me.

I give the story 4 Stars, but can only give the Audio Production 2 Stars.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Better than the First Book

Although, I liked this book better than the first in the series, there are still things that continue to bother me as a listener.

The story finally managed to engage me, and for the latter half of the book, I wanted more. The narration is just bottom rung though. Words are still mispronounced, all the men sound the same, like dim-witted, slow-talking morons. Also, I still have issues with characters from the Study series not having the same voice, or for that matter accent. (Irish, British, English, etc.)

The story gets a 4, but I recommend reading the book itself rather than listening to the audio version.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Average book

Any additional comments?

The attraction to this book is the strong female character.

Fantasy genre books for young girls is very important. Ones which shows the "heroine" having independent thought and self direction.

No explicit sex scenes, but main character is fine with casual sex with various men.
So, I classify this book for adults 18+, but the gook is targeted at 11 and 12 yr old girl readers..

Regardless, the plot progresses pretty slowly and the reader does not help.

In light of so many other better books choices, this one is a waste of time.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Critics!

I listened to this story because of the narrator but was about to buy the previous because I liked the story. Then I listened to the critics and real wonder. I love Jennifer Van Dyck reading style because the emphasis is on the story not theatrics. She puts feeling into the story but the authors story is what she is relating.
I love this story Maria V. Snyder has a good story and I think Jennifer Van Dyck does a great job of delivering it.
Now I am going back and buying the other books in the series.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Love Love Love

When I first readed the summary of the book it interested me. When I started it I could not stop listening. You love the story the narrator and the characters. Its full of adventure.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Bad story. Atrocious narration.

This story reads like an outline for a television series. "In this episode, our heroine visits her sister and is rude to a guard. In next week's episode, the heroine's boyfriend appears and, *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*, she gets a little stress relief." The whole thing feels like exposition, but when I reached part two of the story, I realized that the author thinks she's telling a story. I've read stuff like this from my teenage students who deliver narration in the "and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened..." listing narrative style. It's weak. It's immature. It is dull and certainly not engaging.

By the second part of the book I felt I was still in the exposition. If there's a central conflict here, it's not clear. She's fighting "the council," some nebulous organization of magicians or governors or maybe company managers for a city or a state or a nation or maybe a world... Something like that. She's out to stop blood magic, or Devlin, or someone else she drained of magic, or the people who kidnapped her in some previous book, or help the weather magicians, or fight the woman who is fibbing about her brother, although that woman gives her some sound advice, so is she friend or foe? Well, the listener is best advised to take a page out of the heroine's book and not think to deeply about any of this. This is certainly the most vapid and insipid little heroine I've ever encountered. She doesn't plan. She doesn't think. She just has shallow reactions to the inexplicable actions of the flat characters that surround her. I don't hate her; I just don't care.

I can forgive the narrator for not being engaged in the story, but the narration here doesn't help. The story sounds like it's being delivered like a joke. The reader says nearly every sentence with the same cadence, a slow start and a clipped ending.

I should have learned by now to look up whether or not Harlequin is involved in publishing an audiobook before I purchase.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

A Promise that Disappoints

I have to agree with Amy: it is very distracting to listen to a narrator who mispronounces common words and has the tendency towards making some characters sound so much like others that it's difficult to distinguish who is who.
As far as the story itself, this series is a poor relation to the first (the Study series). It's almost as if the author reworked the Glass series from the Study series.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pretty good

I don’t have all those fancy words that all the other people that write reviews in all I know is that I didn’t like the sound of the men’s voices but the other ones were pretty cool there’s a lesson to learn also kept you interested kind of makes you realize you could screw up really bad and sometimes it turns out OK I don’t like that she lost her magic spoiler more than a 3 1/2 it was almost 4

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent continuation of the story

Strong female protagonist. Great adventures.

I love this series set in the same world as Poison Study this follows the adventures of Opal Cowan. Lots of plot twists and character development kept me listening at every opportunity.

Two negatives- there has to be a limit on how many times one person is kidnapped. Regarding the narration- Jennifer Van Duck pronounced a few of the names were markedly different from Gabra Zackman in the original series. Curare is not pronounced cure rare.

The negatives are minor annoyances as I enjoy the series. Definitely recommend and at this point Maria Snyder is on my must read list.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

good story

A good story but the narrator reads af tho she's a Vulcan. Stilted & unnatural

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