Starlight Audiobook By William Stacey cover art

Starlight

The Dark Elf War, Book 1

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Starlight

By: William Stacey
Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
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Buy for $21.49

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A secret power. The revival of magic. An ancient evil stirs.

Twenty-year-old university dropout Cassie Rogan has returned to her small British Columbia home. Tortured by an accident that killed her parents, she drifts, failing life at every turn. When an impossibly localized lightning storm hits the surrounding forest, Cassie discovers her supernatural side.

After centuries of atrophy, the forces of magic are flowing back into our world, and Cassie can wield arcane powers. Her life seems destined to turn around, until the downside of magic brings everything to a screeching halt. Horrifying mythical beasts now prowl the Northern wilderness - including the basilisk - an enormous eight-legged lizard that can turn its prey to stone.

Recruited by a secretive agency, Cassie must quickly master her powers to protect mankind. As she develops her skills, a dark power secretly watches from the shadows. The Fae Seelie (aka the Dark Elves) - humanity's ancient enemy - have returned to settle the score.

Contains mature themes.

©2015 William Stacey (P)2018 Tantor Fantasy Fiction Military Science Fiction Dark Fantasy War
Engaging Worldbuilding • Excellent Character Development • Compelling Fantasy Elements • Strong Military Aspects

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This was a lot of fun and an excellent world jumping/portal fantasy. The fact that most of the world building takes on Earth was a good twist. What we thought was myth was/is reality. We just needed magic back in the world. The character building was also good. It took the extremes and made them more human by the end. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

Good fun and worth the credit

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Initially felt like what I would expect from a YA story. Lead character was not likeable to me in the first half of the book but the more she interacted with older adult characters (primarily Paco) the more she seemed personable.

Not for me initially, but grew on me.

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First off, I AM enjoying the book. However, the men all seem like dullards, or sufferers of "toxic" masculinity while the women are doctors and THE heroes and THE bad guys etc, ad nauseam. The men all seem to come across as A-holes in one way or another. Either they're pot heads, or drunkards or military A type personalities whose character dimensions do not go any farther than that. It diminishes what would otherwise be a compelling story.

Girl Powers ACTIVATE!!!

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Avid reader of Military Science fiction. to the point most stories are predictable. But this was different. Good Story and good character development. Even learned a few things about the Canadian military. Would Recommend.

Something different Finally

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The story started off slowly but got better as it went along.

The narration was good.

Good read

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Think the story is sound. Some of the characters development was lacking. Cis gender military male bad, sexist, racist self serving, environmental denier, ect. It could have been done better. Having said that I have the greatest respect for authors

A little woke.

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The writing is decent, and the performance isn't bad, except for the french Canadian characters, which are painful, but a minor part. I'm not selling it well here, but it is worth a listen.
I will most likely listen to the next one.

If you are a resident of Rural BC or North AB, and like 'Urban' Fantasy, you'll probably enjoy this.

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I'm a long standing fan of Cris Dukehart's voice work on all of Annette Marie's urban fantasy stuff and I'll admit when I started this book I was expecting something similar, but it fact this book is more hard hitting and I was pleasantly surprised (my misconception had nothing to do with an expectation of the author, I just had a certain association with Dukehart's voice). A well written story from top to bottom and I really appreciated how the book wrapped up and lead into book 2 (which I'm now just starting). So many books & movies these days have banal/weak/bland ending that just come across as uninspired because the writer is trying to fake some sense of completeness but William Stacey would appear to have more respect for his reader and simply positions the story to move into the next book and I'm really appreciating how book 2 is starting off.

My only minor criticism would be that he gets a little heavy handed with some of the character development. Yes, we understand that one of the guys in charge is a real a-hole and that another character has guilt and self confidence issues but some of their repetitious behavior gets a bit grating and overstated. But that's just me. It may be that the author's editor felt these character traits needed to be beaten like a dead horse but thankfully nothing else in the writing leans towards the pedantic. Situations, actions and motivations are for the most part well depicted and easily understood without excess exposition. It's rare that I give 5 star reviews but this book fully deserves it.

Really good on all counts

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Found it to drag at times but it seems to set the narrative for the overall story in the next book. I'll definitely try book 2 with hopes the action tightens up. Overall great story concept.

Interesting story plot

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Truly a Incredible mixture of fantasy and military might. This story brings together the fantasy of the Dark Drow Elven race and the military might of our common man. What a tale of two worlds written in such clarity you feel as if you are there. This tale was an adventure that felt as if it came true. What a ride.

Incredible mixture of fantasy and military might.

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