Antiagon Fire

Imager Portfolio, Book 7

By: L. E. Modesitt Jr.

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 17 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

The hard-won battles fought in Imager's Battalion have earned Quaeryt a promotion to commander, as well as an assignment to convince the Pharsi High Council in the nation of Khel to submit to Lord Bhayar's rule, which is key to Bhayar's ambition to unite all of Solidar.

Joined by his pregnant wife, Vaelora, who is also Bhayar's sister, Quaeryt leads an army and a handful of imagers deeper into the hostile lands once held by the tyrannical Rex Kharst, facing stiff-necked High Holders, attacks by land and sea - including airborne fire launched by hostile imagers from the land of Antiago - and a mysterious order of powerful women who seem to recognize the great destiny that awaits Quareyt and Vaelora, as well as the cost of achieving it.

©2013 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (P)2013 Tantor

Quaeryt is promoted and more battles ensue.

Quaeryt is promoted to Commander and he is once again leading his Imager/Troopers into battle. You know the drill: High Holders, iron darts, defensive shields, Antiagon fire, and concealment shields. Sound familiar? If you are thinking about reading book 7 then you know it is. In the end this was a little bit disappointing because the book started out well.

At the outset Quaeryt and Vaelora were sent as envoys to the nation to Khel to convince the Pharsi High Council to accept Bhayar's rule. I found Khel and the Pharsi people to be interesting and the High Council presented a different and unique challenge. The Pharsi added another dimension to the tale and the whole "Lost One" story line was getting fleshed out a bit more. Unfortunately, it didn't last.

The Pharsi story line was eventually put on hold in an unsatisfying way and the latter half of the book was back to the same pattern of battles with only one difference - the enemy now has some imagers of their own. This did make things slightly more interesting but when those Imagers started imaging iron darts and using the same shields I found myself a bit bored. In prior books we experienced Quaeryt "discovering" and creating these battle techniques for his Imagers and I would have expected foreign Imagers with many more years of battle experience to have slightly different abilities in their portfolio. Alas, not so.

So in the end this book is more of the same, for better or worse. The series continues to string me along and once again I find myself hoping for something better in the next book. Since it looks like the Pharsi story line will be picked back up in the book 8, perhaps my patience will pay off.

More of the same

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People that enjoy faceless characters, and no plot.

What could L. E. Modesitt, Jr. have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

More character development, an interesting storyline.. just the basics.

What three words best describe William Dufris’s voice?

Rich and colorful,

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The series has take a huge fall the last two novels, and I don't see it

Any additional comments?

I think Mr. Modesitt wrote much of this book simply to fill pages with words. Simply put, the characters were extremely bland, the story unimaginative and predictable, and our protagonist, while a benevolent conquerer, is still a tyrant, and arrogant, self-righteous as well. He has become annoying and unlikable.

Imagers revenge

Antiago is in for a rude awakening. They trifled with the wrong imager. Now they must pay the price for thier foolishness.

still interesting; love Modesitt

Would you listen to Antiagon Fire again? Why?

The Imager series should be managed in order, but even out of order, can't help but empathize with the struggles of those with extraordinary abilities/burdens.

What did you like best about this story?

Modesitt remembers to keep the humanity in his scifi.

Which scene was your favorite?

The discover of the Imager elders within the walled city

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Enjoyed this a lot; but it is not a tear jerker.

He's on a another Winner

Although I am disappointed with the new style of very brusque endings with almost no Epilogue, his ability to tell a compelling story and continue the adventures of our Scholar, Imager, Sub Commander is brilliant.

Not so much an exiting story style as compelling and involved. I hope his next book is out soon!!

Great book, whispersync works, but no immersion

The book, story, and narration are very well done, and the Kindle ebook and Audible Audiobook work fine with Whispersync if you want to switch from one to the other after syncing with the Amazon web site. But I wanted to use Immersion reading in the Kindle app like I did with volume 6 of this series, but Amazon doesn't make that available for volume 7 and I am disappointed about that. As a workaround, I run the Audible app in background to play the narration while using the Kindle app in foreground so I can manually flip the pages. Amazon needs to fix this book's immersion reading. (and also make the Kindle app available on Fire TV and Firestick).

Another fast-paced installment of the series

Would you listen to Antiagon Fire again? Why?

Yes. I found it very immersive and it was tightly-written enough to hold my interest. (could have been tighter with a bit less battle minutiae but it still passes muster)

What other book might you compare Antiagon Fire to and why?

It's similar to the previous book in the series (Imager's Battalion) but with a bit more world building to break up the battle campaigns.

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

Dufris has a very clear and easy-to-hear voice and his meter is excellent. As with any audio book a good narrator paces the story, forces the reader to "read" everything. I have some vision problems and cannot read very quickly or for a long time and so I tend to "skim" more than I should, so I enjoy the more relaxed pace of audio books. He gets a bit dramatic at times but this is a book that shouldn't be taken too seriously, anyway.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Pretty much, it moves very quickly and is difficult to put down.

Any additional comments?

I think of Modesitt's long book series as something akin to a serial TV show but with a lot more story. You can break the story up into distinct episodes. It's for this reason that I tend to wait until the author has finished a series before I read all the books because those cliffhanger endings(...!)

entertaining

great story as usual. the narrator is fantastic. bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.

Good but not one of his best

If you could sum up Antiagon Fire in three words, what would they be?

To many battles not enought character development

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

More interaction between the characters and less millitary jargon

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

no

Love Modesitt

Love Modesitt and couldn't wait for this book to come along, and he didn't let me down. I thought this would be the end of the series, but looks to me as if another is on the way. His characters are, as always, real as is the strange word he inhabits. Can't wait until the imager images a bunch of those 'conies' sp? to frighten off an army.