City of Stone and Silence

The Wells of Sorcery Trilogy, Book 2

De: Django Wexler

Narrado por: Catherine Ho, Nancy Wu

Django Wexler's City of Stone and Silence is the second book in the cinematic fantasy Wells of Sorcery Trilogy featuring a fierce young woman skilled in the art of combat magic on an epic mission to steal a ghost ship.

After surviving the Vile Rot, Isoka, Meroe, and the rest of Soliton’s crew finally arrive at Soliton's mysterious destination, the Harbor - a city of great stone ziggurats, enshrouded in a ghostly veil of Eddica magic. And they're not alone.

Royalty, monks, and madmen live in a precarious balance, and by night take shelter from monstrous living corpses. None know how to leave the Harbor, but if Isoka can't find a way to capture Soliton and return it to the Emperor's spymaster before a year is up, her sister Tori's life will be forfeit.

But there's more to Tori's life back in Kahnzoka than the comfortable luxury Isoka intended for her. By night, she visits the lower wards, risking danger to help run a sanctuary for mage-bloods fleeing the Emperor's iron fist. When she discovers that Isoka is missing, her search takes her deep in the mires of intrigue and revolution. And she has her own secret - the power of Kindre, the Well of Mind, which can bend others to its will. Though she's spent her life denying this brutal magic, Tori will use whatever means she has to with Isoka's fate on the line...

©2020 Django Wexler (P)2020 Recorded Books

Starts slow but worth it. Wu’s readings are not great.

Great storytelling and world building. When I first started it, Nancy Wu’s is reading really got to me. It’s like Tricia Takanawa from the Family Guy – – almost comes across as a spoof. Gets better later, but still frequently peppered with ridiculous sounding characterizations. The story is good, though, builds nicely, ends nicely, really interesting world building.

A tale of two sisters is half great, half meh

Book 2 is split right down the middle, with every other chapter following either Isoka’s story or her sister Tori’s story, and never do they meet. I liked half of this book enough to continue to book 3,

Isoka and the Lost City:
I’d give this half of the book a solid four stars. Isoka’s story picks up right where Book 1 ended and dives into yet another mystery-horror show as the ghost ship survivors arrive at a lost city, run into zombie nightmares (in a great scene reminding me of the Pitch Black nighttime flight sequence), and find themselves between a rock and a three-way hard-place. It was at times hard to follow the plot as the three-way conflict had a rather large cast. There’s the royal faction with Princess Kitari, the Minder faction of monks led by Gregett, and the Prime faction led by a necromancer. It also felt like the same plots from book 1 (the mysterious setting with monsters, competing factions with hidden motives, and the mystery of the ghost ship and its harbor city). But, even with the shades of book 1 repeating, this side of book 2 had more humor, action, heart as Isoka, Meroe, Zerun, Crazy Jack, and Thora bond and battle.

Tori and the Not Very Credible Rebellion:
I’d give this story two stars for several reasons. First, the new narrator for Tori’s POV sounds like she’s holding her nose the whole time. Second, it defied belief that barely 14 year old, sheltered Tori was engaging in high stakes espionage in the slums of the 11th ward. Tori has a Mary Sue type of power that no one around her knows about, and yet veteran warriors repeatedly look to her to lead them in rebellion, because why? Third, this story is humorless and bogged down in the Empire vs. the poor politics until the final hour, when the action and magic explode…but with characters I never really got to know or care for.

Random annoyances: Both stories dwelled too much on the inner flagellation of each sister over being a leader, a monster, or having to sacrifice people. The swear word “rot” is used for all swear words (“go F yourself,” “all H broke loose,” and “Sht, Sht, Sht” become “go Rot yourself,” “all Rot broke loose,” and “rot, rot, rot!”… which Isoka says so much you could build a drinking game out of it.) We all know what words are really intended, so why cop out? On Tori’s side, we get the repeated mantra of “monster, monster, monster,” that was as annoying as “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha” from the Brady Bunch. Yes, we get it, she’s afraid she’s a monster. Dead. Horse. Beaten. The triple “rot” and triple “monster” refrains continue in book 3, but the stories finally collide and I found book 3 an improvement.

Not as good as first book.

After the first book in the The Wells of Sorcery Trilogy, I was looking forward to City of Stone and Silence. Unfortunately, this book starts off right at the beginning with a new POV character in Isoka's sister Tori, and a new narrator for this character Nancy Wu. The book alternates chapters with Tori and Isoka and I found myself dreading Tori's parts. I really didn't care for Ms. Wu's narration, and didn't find myself all that interested in Tori's part of the story. Perhaps it will all come together in the next book, but I had a hard time getting through this one.

Isoka's story, and the narration of Catherine Ho, were as interesting as the first book. Overall, Disappointing.

Awesome!! Sometimes a little slow and confusing

Great story, but it was so different from the first that, at first, I didn't like it. Once I got used to the difference, I loved it. Great ending as well. Lots of details though, it was at times hard to keep track, and the pace was a little slow sometimes. overall great continuation of the previous book!

I want more!

I love this universe and the use of magic “wells”. This being the second book, I’m happy to see more of the characters I rooted for in the first book but I will say, I wanted more history and a deeper look at what the ship was actually made of and for. I thought the final boss fight was over a bit too quickly but I did like how the characters worked together. I want to know more about the ancients that created the cove and more about the bad guy and his minions, how they were created, how he lived so long, where he found the monsters, what’s across the ice, that sort of thing. I wasn’t disappointed with this part of the tale, I just wish it was longer.

Magic, Mysteries, & Monsters

Another great installment in Django Wexler's best series yet. Learn more about the mysterious origins of the ghost ship...

Overall a great and unique tale.

Worth a credit for sure! As others have said the first book was better and I think it’s due in part to the unique tale with all of its surprises. The alternating character stories is a writing strategy I do like for many reasons. This story needed it if my guess is correct about book 3.

Distractions from post production were sometimes very apparent but the author and voice actors should not get disparaged for that. Nor should the overall rating suffer for production glitches or quality. Perhaps audible should have a separate category for that?

The character of Tori had a very interesting part. Just overlook the repetitive whining. This is in the teen category after all. And she was a you g teen to boot.

Isola and her story win hands down. I see only three books in this series. I would love to see more on her and her crew. Very adult story told for all ages in my opinion. Love the magic lore and world building.

Loved Catherine Ho, now love Nancy Wu, too!

I’m hooked on Django Wexler’s storytelling. That said, I’m not certain that I’d heard of Catherine Ho before “ Ship of Smoke & Steel”, but really grew to love her. The addition of Nancy Wu to this second book in the series threw me at first...for about 30 seconds. But the perspective of Tori being spoken by an additional voice makes sense, and Ms Wu’s talent is every bit as extraordinary as that of Ms Ho. Two unique talents to share the tale of Mr Wexler just made this twice as enjoyable.

Never boring!!

Wanting more every time the story is very exciting it keeps you interested and keeps you interested

Inappropriate inner thoughts of a 14yr old child.

I was really enjoying this series and was looking forward to the second book. However, the introduction of Tori’s very adult perspective left me feeling uneasy and unable to further engage in the story. The plot would have been just fine without sexualizing the inner thoughts of a 14yr old character. That was quite odd and unnecessary. I will not be finishing the series.