Stalking Darkness

Nightrunner, Book 2

By: Lynn Flewelling

Narrated by: Raymond Todd

Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

A master of subterfuge, a rogue thief with a noble air, Seregil of Rhiminee has taught his young protege, Alec of Kerry, his greatest secrets of the trade. Together they've made their way with thieving jobs large and small, winning friends and enemies, their lives in constant danger and yet charmed by an aura of magic, friendship, and trust.

But now, as their adopted country prepares for war, Seregil is called away by the ancient wizard Nysander to face the ultimate challenge of loyalties and entrusted with a deadly knowledge that, if breached, could cost both Seregil and the unwitting Alec their lives. And as Alec learns the shocking truth of his own shadowed heritage, he, Seregil, and a handful of loyal companions are catapulted into a tumultuous conflict with the ultimate evil, in which magic alone may no longer shield them from harm.

Don't miss the other volumes in Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series.

©1997 Lynn Flewelling (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks

Loved it

This is a wonderful fantasy tale. Exciting, keeps you guessing, and engaging. I highly recommend all of Lynn Flewelling's works.

A great series continues to develop excitingly

Lynn Flewelling continues to take us on a highly enjoyable ride with this second installment of the Nightrunner Series. Many things that were set up in ways large and small in the first book come to exciting conclusions and many more are set up for future action and intrigue.

Again, Raymond Todd is an acceptable reader for the series, but in no way a great one. His efforts are classically appreciable, but don't quite feel right for the series and setting.

Repeating from my review of the first book: Up front many reviewers have spent time on the fact that this series features a romantic relationship between two men. This is true, but it is far from the focus of the series. These books are accessible to anyone. Despite what other reviewers have alluded to, there is absolutely no explicit sex in this entire series. A range of human experience is presented, include love and desire, but always in a tasteful and very easy to relate to fashion.

Pretty good tale, slow beginning

This book has an amateurish feel like the first in this series. The first half is rather dull, with little happening, except for the syrupy love story growing between the two male leads (yes male, and considering the pages and pages spent carefully setting it up, the author must be making a statement here). There are brief bursts of action but the protagonists quickly resolve them. The book at this point feels more like a showcase for the characters and setting.

Once the main threat comes in and the real adventure gets going (about the halfway point) the book clips along well. I found the second half of the book hard to put down. The ending is somewhat predictable but satisfying nonetheless, however the denouement goes on far too long with the resolution of the syrupy love story.

The prose is good overall, but the author uses many fantasy cliches. Not much original in the dialogue either. The characters on the "good" side are excellent and well drawn, but the characters on the "bad" side are simply evil with no redeeming qualities. This is not an issue in fantasy but some authors (e.g. George RR Martin) have been making their villains more three dimensional, which makes the conflicts more interesting. The setting itself is terrific, with a rich background and history, and there are less infodumping problems than in the previous book. I kept thinking this book was rushed through editing. Spice up the beginning and shorten up the ending, cut some of the cliches out of the prose and dialogue, and this book would have been much better.

The narration is adequate. The narrator's voice is clear but he only has two real voices for the characters. This is not a problem, I'm just rating him against some of the excellent narrators I've heard recently who have a unique and convincing voice for every character.

Very good follow up

This is probably the high point of the Night Runner series. The story and plot had every element of high fantasy that you could ever want

Wonderful series!

There were many points during this book where I was practically biting my nails wondering what on earth was going to happen next! Amazing series, amazing book! So wonderful to listen to! I love this series!

I like this story and the one before it

I really enjoyed this story. I think there is really good character development in these books. I enjoyed the book before this one also. good story. the narration is OK, but sometimes when a narrator tries to make too many voices it starts to sound harsh, and I like listening to it much less. I actually like it better when the narrator doesn't do all the funky voices

Started off so well..

That is, the story was intriguing & the author could create a very special & imaginative world. However, once the homosexuality was introduced I kept telling myself that if that's all it was about, 2 men talking of men having "sensual feelings" towards a "father figure/close friend" then I could deal with it. Sadly the author kept the sexual interplay building thruout the story...
It became very uninteresting to me & it honestly took away from the greatness of the story line altogether.
♡♡I truly wish Audible would assign ALL BOOKS that are LGBT books as such! Now I must request a return/exchange. ♡♡ Thanks

Interesting characters, good story

I thoroughly enjoyed this second book in the series. The story clearly is going to continue, but as another reviewer said, you get to the end and go, "oh, well, that's all right then." It's interesting to see how all the pieces fit, even though there aren't really many startling twists or big surprises, it's nonetheless a thoroughly enjoyable tale. The characters feel like friends after 2 books now, and I like that feeling.

I also liked the reader's voice - this is a series that I think I would have enjoyed far less were I reading it to myself.

For those who are more "traditionally minded" it is worth noting that this is a universe where sexuality in all it's various forms of expression is considered perfectly acceptable - it's not graphic, but it is 'normal', so if that bothers you, you'd best avoid.

Uninteresting narration, and a slow story

As book two dragged on and on (and on) I had to make myself continue listening to this story to completion. For Audible ratings two stars = it's ok, three stars = pretty good, so I can only give it two stars. The narration is not good, it sounds like Raymond Todd is reading the book for the first time. There's no interest in his voice throughout the entire read, even on those rare occasions there's any action happening. It's just so blandly read, it's an exercise to remain interested. There's not a huge amount of story in here considering it's twenty hours long.

Unfortunately I bought the first three books at the same time and now I have to find the will to listen to book three, and these are fairly long books so it's a big commitment to be uninterested for.

PS The word 'quay' is pronounced 'kee' (like key) and not kway.