Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!: Magic Kingdom of Landover, Book 1

This is not it! This is light hearted, easy to follow, and will still suck you in.... if you let it. I wanted something that wasn't mired in so much detail it would put me to sleep (Tolkein) while I drove! I got exactly what I wanted with this book.

I listen in a car and occasionally get distracted, this did not impact the enjoyment I had listening to this book. I will continue to listen to the rest of the series.

At first listen, I wasn't sure I was going to like the narrator, but now... surprisingly, I am a fan as others have also written.

I read the first two books of this series back in Junior High and picked the rest up over the next few years. Then I discovered the Brilliance Audio versions, though at the time they only had abridged versions available. Fortunately they had and still have an excellent narrator. Dick Hill narrates both the abridged and unabridged versions and does an excellent job on both. His deep, rich baritone lends itself well to narration, although I agree with those who say his characterization of Abernathy sounds disturbingly like the Geico Gecko. One thing I do wish he'd kept up with from the abridged versions was how when a character was talking on the telephone, the enginneers would add an appropriate effect to one side of the conversation so that it sounded as though it were in fact coming through a phone receiver.
The story opens as Ben Holiday, a trial lawyer from Chicago, receives a Christmas catalog from a New York department store where his wife Annie, dead two years, loved to shop. While thumbing through the catalog, Ben discovers that a fantasy kingdom called Landover is being offered for sale, and that the byer will rule the realm as king. Having become disillusioned with his life since the death of Annie, Ben takes a leap of faith and makes the purchase. Upon arrival in Landover however,Ben discovers the kingdom in shambles. Taxes have not been collected in years, the monarchy has fallen apart and the people refuse to recognize him as king, and a dragon, Strabo, has been ravaging the countryside unchecked for twenty years. There is also the threat of the evil sorceress Nightshade to contend with. Also, the lack of a permanent king has caused the magic to fade from the land, taking with it its life. On top of all this, Ben learns he must soon do battle with the Iron Mark, a demon lord from the netherworld of Abaddon, who himself has claimed the kingship. Only time will tell whether or not Ben will be able to pull through and save the land from ruin.

This kind of fantasy story is not really my cup of tea-or so I thought~ Sometimes I select books to listen to on the basis of the narrator. Same thing here.

When I saw that Dick Hill was narrating I decided to give it a shot. After all, if he can make mysteries and thrillers come to life, why not dragons, fairies, and other creatures of the like? The book met all my expectations. It was great fun. A wonderful grown up fairy tale with some good messages for all human kind creatures. There were so many interesting characters and Dick Hill made them all come alive. When he talks about a dragon "hissing", you really feel like a dragon is hissing. Neat!

It was good for me to take a little escape from reality. I just didn't realize how much fun I would have. I really hated to see it end. I want to see what happens to these characters in the future. Who would have thought? You just never know!

This is just a fantastic series.

While I had read the series as a trilogy (there is now a forth book I was not even aware existed until searching today), the narration given by Dick Hill just is amazing. At this point he is one of my favorite narrators. I had first heard him on Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper, and his voice moving to the science fiction genre was a little hard for me to get used too. That being said, I did and his narrative of Terry Brooks work is amazing.

The series itself is a tale that will allow you to step into the shoes of Ben Holiday, the main character. I felt at times that the character was speaking about life in general in our times. Fast paced, full of life stresses, etc. Leaving to the land of Landover leaves us all with something to dream of.

Hope you like it as much as I.

Dave...

fairly vanilla as fantasy goes, though there are some nice twists and the characters are intresting. i just wish the narrator would use shorter___________________dramatic_____________________pauses. the first coupe of times he did it i thought my mp3 player had died on me. but the story is good enough to save the narrator, so 4 stars.

This book is not a heavy intellectual thinker. It is a fun romp through an escape from reality into a different life. I wouldn't recommend listening with young children as the language is a little course but it is a nice break from reality and the characters are not children taking on impossible feats against more experienced adults.

I will listen to it again because I have loved this story for a long time.

Obviously, Ben Holiday is a great character because of his love of challenge and law. Quester Thews is also a good character as a flawed hero. In fact, there isn't a character in this story I don't like.

I wasn't extremely fond of Mr. Hill's reading of the story. He seemed to read slowly and haltingly, and actually cutting off the ends of words. I will listen to the other books in the series, but more for the story than Mr. Hill's performance.

I think the title is a great tag line. It might be enhanced with something like, "can a person buy a throne?"

Wonderful fairy tale story! I've loved the whole series for a lot of years.

One of the best.

Terry Brook's Shannara Series. Same great author

His different tones and voices for each character makes it more of a real experience.

I laughed out loud many times.

Fun story with great narration

I listen to audiobooks during my morning drive/commute. I can't read a book while driving so yes, for me it is better. When narrated as well as Dick Hill does, it's better anyhow. His voices for characters really adds to the story.

Probably the wizard. He had the difficult task of balancing what truths and secrets he must keep from the king and still maintain dignity and honor.

I'm not sure who I liked better, the wizard or the pair of g'home gnomes. The wizard was the more prominent character and had a great voice but the g'home gnomes always had me laughing.

It's good to be the king, unless the kingdom happens to be Landover.

Only negative was that the volume wasn't consistent and to hear everything I had to turn the radio louder than I would have liked, making the louder passages downright unnerving. Of course, it was also battling road noise from my car, so possibly in a quieter setting I would have heard it better. Still, a very fun book and wonderful reader.

Dick Hall is a fantastic reader who is just right for this tongue in cheek fantasy. Landover is so much fun and is a delight to visit (unless the dragon might be shooting fire at you!) I was always sorry when I had to turn off the book for a while.

Ben Holiday is a great hero--smart, stubborn, and yet flawed like all good characters. I think his kingdom turned out to be less than the holiday experience (little pun intended) he was expecting, but he did keep up with it all the time.

Dick Hill was really good defining the characters with accents and sound effects. You almost felt you were there and not just listening.

All the emotional events were well done, and I enjoyed it all.

Continue on with the Black Unicorn, too. It's just as fun.