Blood Engines

A Marla Mason Novel

By: T. A. Pratt

Narrated by: Jessica Almasy, T. A. Pratt (Introduction)

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet Marla Mason - smart, saucy, slightly wicked witch of the East Coast....

Sorcerer Marla Mason, small-time guardian of the city of Felport, has a big problem. A rival is preparing a powerful spell that could end Marla's life - and, even worse, wreck her city. Marla's only chance of survival is to boost her powers with the Cornerstone, a magical artifact hidden somewhere in San Francisco. But when she arrives there, Marla finds that the quest isn't going to be quite as cut-and-dried as she expected...and that some of the people she needs to talk to are dead.

It seems that San Francisco's top sorcerers are having troubles of their own - a mysterious assailant has the city's magical community in a panic, and the local talent is being (gruesomely) picked off one by one.With her partner-in-crime, Rondeau, Marla is soon racing against time through San Francisco's alien streets, dodging poisonous frogs, murderous hummingbirds, cannibals, and a nasty vibe from the local witchery, who suspect that Marla herself may be behind the recent murders. And if Marla doesn't figure out who is killing the city's finest in time, she'll be in danger of becoming a magical statistic herself.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author T.A. Pratt.

©2007 T.A. Pratt (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

an awesome story

There are two types of reviewers that drive me insane. The firsttype are the ones who constantly complain about the character development, and the second type are those reviewers who complain about the narator. You will run into these complaints further down the list of this book's reviews. To answer the first complaint, the characters in this book have decent development. You don't know about their thoughts on the meening of life or their opinions about the social issues of the day, but they are developed enough to keep the story going. Not only was the character development good, the system of magic was extremely creative and well thought out. Now to answer the second complaint. I thought the narator did a good job with this book. I don't understand why people are so picky about every little flaw the narator might have. It seems to me that people should be happy with the fact that someone took time out of their day to read an audiobook for the blind. If no one narated these audiobooks, you would have to listen to a synthisized voice. If you thought this narator was bad, you should listen to a book narated by a synthisized voice. Overall, this book is a good read and I would reccomend this book to anyone.

Fantastic Book - gritty urban sorcery with humour

This is the first of TA Pratt's Marla Mason Series. I started this after hearing a Marla Mason Story on Podcastle, and I'm so glad I bought this book. I guess the genre is urban sorcery, set in a fictional modern city in North America. The characters are flawed and interesting, particularly Marla. If you like the Harry Dresden books, I think you'd like this series. The reading is well done.

Average

I would rate the book as average. It is certainly better than some others, but still not on par to the better ones belonging to the genre. I would wish for more fun in the next parts. The story was OK, not completely boring but not thoroughly captivating as well, I would describe it as "dry", or thrill lacking. It doesn't have many original ideas (or tricks of the game if you will) as well. I can point out humming birds idea as one among a few of them. I would be also hoping for more. More original ideas would balance out the dryness of the story line. Unfortunately that was not the case. Although I understand Marla's personality is affected by the evil cloak I couldn't relate to her at all. She was too evil to my tastes. I felt more related to the Brando character, he was more funny and honorable. I'm not sure if I would continue with the series, there are others more captivating. Jessica Almasy's performance was joy to listen to. No complaints in that area.

4 stars

Blood Engines is pretty good. It took me a while to get into it. I might get the next book.

Total Disappointment

This is the first review of mine that is negative and one that I am writing before I even finished listening to this book. I apologize if this is unfair, but I just had to stop.

The biggest difficulty for me was the characters---especially the lead character, Marla Mason. She's described in the introduction as "smart and saucy". Try sarcastic and cardboard.

Caring for and being interested in a character means at the very least knowing what they look like. The only descriptions were that she has short hair and dandruff. More importantly, I had absolutely no understanding of her---the only aspects of her character had to do with magic and magic spells.

I enjoy magic and magic spells, but not at the expense of a modicum of personality. Magic by itself is boring---we need to know who's involved, what it means to them, how it relates to real life, how normal people experience it, etc.

Okay, maybe all these complaints would be taken care of in subsequent chapters, but I couldn't listen to Jessica Almasy's voice any longer. She literally sounded like a fifteen year old complete with Valley Girl affectation. As a result, the humor of the sarcasm was lost on me---it only sounded obnoxious.

Where is Sookie Stackhouse and Johanna Parker when you need her?

Ho Hum

Yet another entry in the "I have power that your mortal minds cannot conceive, but I'll do essentially nothing throughout the book" collection.

I simply can't identify with a protagonist who has no flaws, has awesome power (but does nothing with it). She's so good at everything that she can carve her initials into a man's buttocks with a bullwhip. She's immortal. She's got awesome and dangerous artifacts. How do I connect with that character? She's saving the world from certain doom. How do I connect with that character? Why do I care what happens to her?

A warning for the literate

Any additional comments?

There are many writers who are discovery writers: they sit down at a keyboard and make up a story as they go along. After the novel is written, they go back and clean up the plot holes, clear away the extraneous detail, and add the details and foreshadowing that make the story flow in a logical sequence. Unfortunately this novel reads like the first draft of a discovery writer who failed to review his work. New elements of the story appear abruptly as the writer thinks of each cool new idea and consistently fails to tie the ideas and scenes together or prune away ideas that don't advance the story. For example, the long drawn out sex club scene includes descriptions of equipment, people, and events that were not relevant to the story. The writer should either make such information relevant or leave it out.

Finally, the narrator Jessica Almasy has an abrupt, halting way of reading that is similar to a computer generated voice in a text-to-speech system. Meaning is drained from the words as they are translated into sound. Her stumbling, awkward speech constantly knocks the listener out of the story.

Weird Story, rude charcters, and odd magic

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story was different then any other I have ever read. I choose this book because I had a credit on my account and the book was cheap. It wasn't horrible but really really weird.

What could T. A. Pratt have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The story was so strange and the magic described somewhat sadistic and sexually explicit in some cases.

What does Jessica Almasy and T. A. Pratt (Introduction) bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Jessica was one of the rudest women characters I have ever read about I know that was the authors intention but it was difficult to read and understand why in every encounter she was sarcastic self centered and rude.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I would say the narrator did the best they could and the voice quality and performance may have been the only thing that kept me going.

Any additional comments?

You have to enjoy superficial and self centered characters to really enjoy this book, I believe their is a target audience for the story line it does not include me however.

Not my cup of tea

I tried. I really wanted to like this book, I gave it several goes, but I just couldn't finish it. Problem is, I don't like Marla. Yeah, she is advertised as bitchy and bad-ass, but to me, it just seemed … forced. Over the top. Plus, the overly obvious McGuffin irked me, because (as far as I've listened) there is no explanation as to why it will help her defeat her enemy, even though they talk about the thing repeatedly. So she needs the Cornerstone and that's why she's in SanFran – that's her problem, not mine and as long as no one tells me what the Cornerstone is (other than "a powerful magical artifact") and how she expects to use it against whom, I'm not making it my problem and thus, I'm not invested. Same goes for her old, dead friend; if I don't get at least some of their back story (emphasis on *their*, not just his, not just hers, but theirs. I wanna know why he is important to her), then he doesn't feel like a character, he feels like a plot device. I need more than names and superficial facts to get into a story.