The Fairy Godmother

Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 1

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of the Heralds of Valdemar series comes an enchanting new novel.

In the land of Five Hundred Kingdoms, if you can't carry out your legendary role, life is no fairy tale....

Elena Klovis was supposed to be her kingdom's Cinderella - until an accident of fate left her with a completely inappropriate prince! Determined not to remain with her stepfamily, Elena set out to get a new job - and ended up becoming the Fairy Godmother for the land.

But "Breaking with Tradition" was no easy matter. True, she didn't have to sleep in the chimney, but she had to deal with arrogant, stuffed-shirt princes who kept trying to rise above their place in the tale. In fact, one of them was so ornery that Elena could do nothing but change him into a donkey.

Still, her practical nature couldn't let him roam the country, so she brought the donkey - er, the prince! - home to her cottage to teach him some lessons. All the while keeping in mind that breaking with tradition can land everyone into a kettle of fish - sometimes literally!

And so begins a whole new tale....

©2004 Mercedes Lackey (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

A unique twist on a wonderful story!

I love this entire series. It's a collection your read or in this case listen to again and again.

Good fun

The narrator is the best. She makes this fun take on Cinderella shine. I highly recommend this as well as the other 500 Kingdoms stories.

An Easy Listen

Of all the books I've listened to of this series, this is perhaps my favorite one. Not only as a book, but also as narrated by Ms. Zackman. Not all books can be listened to without a little annoyance, but this one she does well enough that I've listened to it multiple times without issue.

So good

Such a go girl story. Love love it. Am now listening to it for the 3rd time and than will not be the last. I am sure.

love it

excellent story, amazing performance if you like fantasy with some romance thrown in, I figure you'll love this one

quirky

well written and performed. Nowhere near as inane as those usually found in the genre.
Though not riveting or meaningful - it is a pleasent, imaginative and inoffensive offering from an author I usually find more serious.

Fantastic start to a fantastic series

I love this book, I listen to it over and over again. I really enjoy the twist on classic fairy tales in this entire series.

Wonderful

The 500 Kingdoms. The Tradition. This is a great start to different fairy tales and how they are played out.

Isn't it Misty amazing?

What a wonderful start to the 500 kingdoms. I can really relate to Ella Cinders, I just don't have the happy ending. I would love to have Brownies, just for a company, especially since I'm in a wheelchair. The second half of the book was a puppet show I had seen at my school when I was in the first grade and then it was shown on PBS soon after. I would so love to be able to find that again because it had such a magical effect on me. In fact it was probably the first magic story I ever saw. I've read all of the 500 kingdoms so far. I've also read all of the Valdemar books and the Elemental Masters and it just gets better and better. Nan, Neville, SarahJane, Grey, and Puck are my favorites.

For fairytale lovers who want something "new!"

What made the experience of listening to The Fairy Godmother the most enjoyable?

Being able to listen to a new fairytale, not the classics we normally are used to. It's refreshing to read a fairytale book that gave deeper meaning to it's explanations, and to have a tale with a heavy story structure to support it. The "tradition" is definitely an entity that many other tales can be built upon.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Elena of course! She was the main character, but her experience was so unique that it made the journey of the story even more enjoyable.

Have you listened to any of Gabra Zackman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I believe Gabra narrated Memoirs of a Geisha. If so, she did an excellent job on that book and she does on this one as well.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I'm a hopeless romantic and found myself swooning at the moment when the lovers finally reveal their feeling for eachother. It was so passionate and also didn't involve a highly detailed and vulgar sexual description. :)