Talons

By: Christopher Bair

Narrated by: Michael C. Gwynne

Length: 2 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an immortal beast re-emerges from time forgotten to confront the chief of police with a simple request: Help him back into society in exchange for his expertise with criminal investigations. However, before the creature has the opportunity to make his existence known to the world, he stumbles upon a murder, and must protect the only two witnesses, a single mother and her young son, from the murderer until the trial. Will his beast prevent him from showing the world that he's still human inside?

©2018 Christopher Bair (P)2019 Christopher Bair

A Lizardman’s Journey

I liked this story. Overall it’s a solid listen, about a human-turned-lizardman protecting a young family and reacquainting himself with the modern world. Nothing really fancy, just a personal retelling of a crime drama. I looked forward to what Bair does next.

There are only one critique I can think to give for this audiobook. The first is that the narrator tends to speed from narration to someone speaking really quick, with only the change in voice giving you an indication that anything’s changed. It was jarring at first, though got a little better overtime. It keeps it from getting a full 5-star rating.

Excellent, but a bit short

As soon as I saw it, I had to have it. A big regenerating immortal lizard man solving crimes. I was not disappointed.

First, a very lizardy scalie. The action stays with him, so it's lizard-centric all they way through. And he's NOT a shifter.
Next, the narrator is fantastic.
Third, the story is fairly good and tight.
Fourth, fairly good villain.
Fifth, if you have a character with regeneration, it's great to have him regenerate.

So, loved it all the way through. But it's short. Recommended.

Well thought out and engaging.

So first the Pro's.

The story had a draw to it that kept me reading and wanting to know what this strange creature was, his story, and how he would get along in society and what conflicts would he face. The world-building was interesting in its noir-like style of narrative. And the characters definitely well developed. It's something I would definitely want to read/hear the next installment to.

For Cons, only a few small things.

First being show vs tell. The later chapters this wasn't much of an issue. But in the beginning with the descriptions on his appearance, it seems like it was being thrown at the reader in one go to digest rather than casually bringing out the features through dialogue as he was being seen in a mirror or something (like in later chapters). We were simply just told what he looked like and how the other person felt. There were a few other times it was more tell than show. But this got better.

Next would be vocabulary. While I know what 'olfactory' means, 'assuage' I had to look up and while some readers love big words. Most the world doesn't want to keep a dictionary nearby when reading a story. So maybe lessen up on the big words or somehow let us know what they mean.

Questions left unanswered:
Try as I might, I still have no idea what time period or location he came from. I know it says before the U.S. was formed. But he also talks of being a detective. So... Victorian England???