Witch Hunt

The Gryphonpike Chronicles, Book 1

By: Annie Bellet

Narrated by: Christine Padovan

A mute elven archer known only as Killer. Azyrin, a half Winter-orc shaman and his human swordswoman bride, Makha. Drake, the charming, swashbuckling rogue. The fireball-slinging pixie-goblin, Rahiel, and her mini-unicorn, Bill. These are the Gryphonpike Companions.

Arriving in Strongwater Barrow, the Companions find the town riddled with plague and death. Ending the curse and saving the survivors means going into the swamps where monsters lurk and witches wait. Sounds like exactly their kind of day.

Witch Hunt is an adventure fantasy novella.

©2011-2012 AnneMarie Buhl (P)2012 AnneMarie Buhl

A cute fantasy tale for tweets & young adults

This is a cute fantasy story that's geared toward young children. It is narrated by an elf who has been magically rendered mute as punishment for improperly using her magical singing ability to cause grievous injury. Her penalty is set to last until she performs 1,000 good deeds; however, she is unable to discern what constitutes a good deed and I unable to keep a tally of deeds performed.

The elf has an eclectic group of friends who travel together. Among them are a huge mist Lynx, a miniature unicorn, a pixie goblin, and two humans. Each character possesses different abilities, so they'd compliment each other.

Overall, the story is light hearted and should keep the attention of young children who enjoy fantasy tales, without the seemingly obligatory cast of vampires and werewolves that most such books contain.

Good Vouce

The narrator has a good voice but they need to work on their performance. The delivery is off. She seems to be focusing on trying to have very clear and precise diction, but if detracts from the feel of a story being told. The delivery is… rigid?

Wow! What a ride!

What did you love best about Witch Hunt?

This author writes so beautifully - there is a wonderful flow from start to finish in the storyline. Having elves, pixie-goblins, humans, a unicorn and other assorted characters interacting in the same story and the great sense of humor throughout! Love the action sequences - I learned all these new words for the different weapons used in the story!

What other book might you compare Witch Hunt to and why?

A bit of a 'Lord of the Rings' type of journey/adventure, but is still completely different. This story has great humor interlaced with the drama, and ends on an upbeat note.

What does Christine Padovan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

If I read the book, my voice would be in my head for all the characters. The narrator's voice has a lovely melody to it that really makes me believe she is an elf-singer with a stolen set of pipes.

I enjoyed the amusing voices she uses for all the characters. I especially like Makha sounding like a Valkyrie!

Any additional comments?

I googled the author's name and found she has other books in the Gryphonpike Companions' series. I hope the author keeps putting her books into audio form! They're great entertaining stuff!

aweful narration

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

the narration totally ruined the story for me....If it wasn't such a short story I would have just quit listening..I can't believe that anyone producing this audio book could listen to the narrator and think that this was acceptable.

Would you ever listen to anything by Annie Bellet again?

no

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Christine Padovan?

tavia gilbert

Disappointed

Enjoy the author's stories normally but it was a real struggle to finish listening to this book. The narrator was pretty bad, very stilted, emphasizing words in strange places. The meter was off. I don't know how else to explain. I increased the reading speed to 1.25 to get through it.