Magic's Pawn

Valdemar: The Last Herald Mage, Book 1

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Gregory St. John

Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

In Magic's Pawn, an ancient age in the history of Valdemar comes to life - an age when the kingdom was ravaged by the ungoverned fury of bandit warlords, ferocious ice dragons, and the wild magic of wizards. A new addition to Lackey's Valdemar kingdom - and her most powerful series to date!

©1991 Mercedes R. Lackey (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Overly dramatic reader

I have loved this book for almost 30 years and wanted another way to enjoy it now that sitting down to read is difficult. This narrator was a headache. There was no tonal change between characters for the most part and when he did try to do voices he was inconsistent with keeping accents to the correct characters. Every other word had a dramatic lilt, there was emphasis in places that made no sense, and the pronunciation was annoying.

emotions r so real, relatable

I have seldom found any Mercedes Lackey books anything except incredible and relatable, but my favorites are the Valdemar and Fairy Godmother series.

Finally Getting To the Classics!

I must admit - I probably have worn out 2 or three paperback versions of this series, as well as the Arrows of the Queen series (of which only book one is currently available for audio.) I remember my introduction to Misty Lackey, at the last convention she attended (Dragoncon 2000 - and therein hangs SEVERAL tales, but) - this is the first series I read where there was a protagonist who makes you cry and makes you laugh, and makes you feel the plight of the outcast so comprehensively that you CAN"T read only the one book - start one and before the week is out - you will be hunting down book 2 and 3 to finish the story off.

Fair warning - Vanyel is gay. Now, having MET Misty and Mark Shepherd (who sometimes co-writes with her) - I've sometimes wondered just how much of Mark is IN Vanyel - but she doesn't make it into a big deal. (She never really does much in the way of romance in her early works, and while the series DOES skew PG - I don't think Misty's ever written an "R" rated sex scene - and if you want X - look elsewhere.)

Another childhood favorite ruined by narrator

I love the Valdemar books, in particular, this series. It was my introduction to the Mercedes Lackey. I have the paperback (that has been replaced numerous times due to rereading damage) the Kindle version and thought why not get the Audible version too since I have started getting those as well for other books in the series such as Take a Thief and Arrow's Flight. I have only listened to about 30 mins of it and I am so disappointed. The narrator is rushing through the book except for when the characters are speaking. His pacing and unneeded emphasis on words is horrible. He has turned the book into something that sounds like a bad horror novel. Why oh why didn't they get a narrator that has done some of the other books in the Valdemar series like Paul Woodson, Kevin T. Collins or Nick Podehl? Any of those guys would have done this book justice, by preference I would have picked Paul Woodson though. I can not recommend this audiobook at all. I would rather like to the audio cassette recording from 1989 that I still have of this book. The audio quality may be bad but at least the narration is worth listening to.

Great book decent audio

Absolutely amazing book. Just wish the reader took time to pause or read slower to make the dramatic scenes better. Especially in the first chapter. I'm just glad they made an audiobook of my favorite book I read as a young teen! This book has lots of emotion, struggle, pain, a touch of romance, and magic.

Better than I expected!

after reading reviews I was hesitant about getting this. so glad I did! still as awesome a story as I remembered the book. and a great presentation too.
I read that the narrator did not pronounce words right. who's "right" are they talking about? contempt without basis...
Great book!

one of my favorite books....ruined

I LOVE MERCEDES LACKEY.............but this narrator SUCKS. I would give it a minus review, if that option existed.

Reader can’t pronounce simple words!

This is one of my favorite books and this reader almost destroyed it. It’s one thing to mispronounce an author created name such as Yfandes or ashke. These are up for interpretation. However this reader can’t seem to pronounce even simple words. Also he would change his pronunciation of names multiple times. It was like this was his very first time reading the book, and he didn’t actually pay attention to the words he was reading. Also he reads so fast I had to slow it down to 0.8x speed just so I could mentally visualize the story. I’m used to speeding up the reader. Lastly he gave characters voices that didn’t at all fit the description the author gives. Such as Starwind he made very authoritarian when he is described as more ‘go with the flow’ and slow speaking and calm. Van is described with a deep voice yet he gives him a soft childlike tone. Overall this reader just didn’t seem to actually pay any mins to WHAT he was reading. It was just words, and very often the tone he used created a completely different scene than what is written!

Now on the book, I absolutely LOVE this trilogy! I reread it at least every other year. I own it in physical copy, kindle and audio! So I can use whichever suits me at the time! This book does such a wonderful job of tying together events that play such a crucial role in the Valdemar series’ and the relationships and romances play a secondary role to the story! It is so well written and blends so well!

Looks like I’ll have to read the series

I found the songs written about this series on YouTube a couple years ago, and the overall vibe of them made me think I would be lukewarm on this story. I am pleasantly surprised. The depth of the story, the complexity of the characters, I’m glad I finally picked these books up.

It held my attention enough.

The Narrator was the best I've yet to listen to which was a pleasant surprise. The story was interesting enough to listen to the whole thing, however by the end of the book I was not captivated enough to continue the series.