Cloak Games: Omnibus One

By: Jonathan Moeller

Narrated by: Meghan Kelly

Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Combined for the first time in one volume, here are the first three books in the internationally best-selling Cloak Games series - Cloak Games: Thief Trap, Cloak Games: Frost Fever, and Cloak Games: Rebel Fist, and the bonus short story "Wraith Wolf".

The High Queen of the Elves has conquered Earth, but I don't care about that. I don't care about the High Queen, or the rebels seeking to overthrow her. All I care about is getting my baby brother the treatments he needs to recover from his potentially fatal disease...and those treatments have a steep price.

Fortunately, I have magic of my own, and I'm a very, very good thief.

Unfortunately, the powerful Elven lord Morvilind has a hold over me. If I don't follow his commands, my brother is going to die.

Of course, given how dangerous Morvilind’s missions are, I might not live long enough to see my brother’s death....

©2016 Jonathan Moeller (P)2019 Jonathan Moeller

Fun but too short

Stories are fun but way too short to pay for the books at full price.

good story

great characters and action. Good world building. some great things happen and characters develop well.
language: moderate
violence: moderate

Can be used as a teaching opportunity.

This book is a primary example on why an author needs to have more of a vocabulary than a primary school kid.
The number of times that the word "said" has been said, in this book is astonishing. After every dialogue, The word "said" is repeated and the name of the speaker. It is charming, the first couple of times, and seemed like a style choice, but after a while it makes you want to tear your hair out.

It is supremely annoying. To give you an example.

"Oh, you have a smart mouth" said Corvis.

"I know" I said

"Do you want to go there?" said Corvis.

"Yes we have to fight" I said.

"do you know how to use this?" said Corvis.

Even when it is a question, Said is used. At least give 'Asked' a try. By the third book, instead of improving, it got worse. It became 'Said Corvis' followed by an action like, 'putting the gun down'. It is all made worse by the fact the author seems to not know pronouns can be substituted for a name, better yet, actions can be subtituted for "said". I got really frustrated listening to this, which is a shame because the book is not bad. It's not the greatest thing out there, but it is also not horrible. It is original in its own way, and the characters themselves are developed, if I had to complain it would be about the protagonist, who I think is honestly a bit of a cotton candied head. The rest are tolerable. The reason I don't like the main character is because she would say she needs to keep a secret and that she is the best at keeping it and lying without a care, but then; as soon as someone asks her a question, she would answer in full, not even thinking about hiding the truth at all. It just negates the whole point of her being secretive. Because as soon as somebody asked her about whatever she is doing with a modicum of suspicion, she will tell them exactly what she is doing. she doesn't even try to hide it. She is set up as a fierce character, but shows none of it. She usually gets saved in most cases, it is kind of pathetic.

There are a couple of repetitions of the same dialogue within the same chapter. There will be a comment on a situation, a couple minutes later, the same comment is made again on the same situation. As if the author doesn't know how to move on from a point, or, as if he has forgotten he wrote that down already.

The narration is not bad, the male voices do sound like they have southern and Texas accent for some reason, which does not make sense with their origin. It is just a bit weird. The narrator does get a bit monotone when speaking dialogues, I suspect it's because even she is tired of how many times she has to repeat 'said'. just a thought.

Aside from all that, the story is ok.I would not recommend it, but if you can get past, 'said Corvis', then maybe you can give it a shot. It is a struggle to just go through it. I'm on book 3 right now and my head is hurting. I have reached my limit. Proceed at your own risk.

Narrator Ruined It

I had to stop listening, I could not take this narrator any longer. Seems like a good story with great world building, and interesting chsracters. But every voice is sweet & soft even when the character is speakunf about the fear of torture it sounds mire like Mary Poppins reading to the kiddies.

most annoying narrator.

this narrator sounds like she reading to a kindergarten class. when she does men's voices she's slightly less annoying... she also has sloppy annunciation.

The poor performance of the narrator

Did not like the narrator. Listening to her read this story was like nails on a chalkboard