Dead Stare

Ghosts & Magic, Volume 3

By: M. R. Forbes

Narrated by: Jeff Hays

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Conor Night, the world's only necromancer, is starting to think that his life is finally coming together. His last job not only left him funded, but also helped him fall off the radar of the world's two most powerful wizards. Of course, being a necromancer always has its downsides, and when he's forced into a job that will leave the Houses on the brink of all-out war, he begins to realize just how down those sides can be. He thinks he understands the rules in the world of ghosts and magic. Unfortunately for him, the rules are about to change.

©2016 Michael Forbes (P)2016 Michael Forbes

Just how much trouble can a pair of dice get you?

Note: This is Book 3 in the series and it is best to have read the previous books to understand the rules of magic for this series and the characters’s various motivations. Plus, they’re damn entertaining!

Conor Night, a cancer-riddled necromancer assassin, thinks he’s sitting in a good place. His previous job left him well funded, no one is currently hunting him, and the stolen cancer meds are working better than ever. That is until Mr. Black and Death team up to leave him without a virtual reality operator and force him on the run again.

It’s another wild ride in the world of Conor Night, AKA The Baron. While refilling his cancer med stash, he comes across Frank Dobson, who is half troll, half ogre and completely ticked off at being experimented on. Against Conor’s better judgement, he sort of rescued Frank and Frank then steals his money to buy pants. Obviously, once two people have been through that kind of fuss, they have to be comrades. However, as quickly as Conor came across this new ally, someone has kidnapped Prythi, his VR tech guru, away from him. He’ll have to make do with Prythi’s girlfriend Myra, who doesn’t really like him and is a bit distraught over the whole ordeal. I had 2 tiny quibbles with this book and they both dealt with Myra: 1) Sometimes she sounds just like Dani from Book 1 and I think the author must have regretted removing her from the series so soon; 2) At one point Myra reveals something pretty personal about herself to Conor at an awkward moment and it didn’t really make sense that she would confide in him.

OK. Now that I have my two tiny criticisms out of the way, I can tell you how much fun I had with this book. The action is sprinkled with moments of dark humor and Conor doing a bit of introspection, so I never got battle fatigue. Also, I am really starting to like Conor even though he can be quite the jerk at times. He knows he’s done some very questionable things and in this book he really starts to question if he has the right to do those things even in the name of caring for his estranged family. Plus, he’s a smart-ass. I always love the smart-ass.

Frank was an unexpected breath of fresh air to the series. He’s got an almost child-like attitude about all this magic and assassins and stealing stuff and high-powered magical creatures. He’s yet one more victim in Mr. Black’s schemes to find the source of the magic and either control it or wipe it out. Conor won his fierce loyalty when he freed him from years of captive experimentation. As a troll-ogre cross (trogre), he can take quite the beating and heal quickly from nearly anything that leaves a mark.

Tarakona, who we met in Book 2 Dead Red, is back and has a task for Conor as well. Mr. Black is keeping a murky character known as Sandman captive in his secret lair. Tarakona wants Conor to retrieve Sandman and hand her over to him for safe keeping. However, Sandman has been contacting Conor through the VR on her own arguing for her independence from either party. If Conor wants to see Prythi again, then he will have to liberate Sandman from Mr. Black. He can figure out the rest from there.

The magic of the world is creepy. Well, Conor is a necromancer so there is the use of dead cats and little kids to act as spies. His powers grow as he gets closer to death and some of his new powers freak out his allies a little bit. Forbes surprised and delighted me once again with a surprise at the ending. Conor will need therapy after this. The last two hours of the book I simply did not want to put it down. I had to know what Amos’s angle was. I needed to see how much Tarakona knew. I wanted to find out more about Sandman and why she was so vague about herself. I hoped Frank would get a date. That last remains to be seen. Another excellent addition to this urban fantasy series!

I received a copy of this audiobook at no cost from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

Narration: Jeff Hays continues to set a high standard for narrations. Once again, I loved his uber-creepy voice for the demon in the bone mask. His voice for Tarakona is perfect – exactly what I would expect an ancient and impatient dragon to sound like. Each character is distinct and Hays does a fantastic job getting even the subtle emotions across to the listener. I especially like that he goes the extra mile and makes phone conversations sound like they are happening on a phone or on an ear piece.

More!!!!!!!!

If you could sum up Dead Stare in three words, what would they be?

Waiting for next book!!!! Impatiently. . . .

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dead Stare?

Everything. . .

Which scene was your favorite?

NEXT BOOK. . . .

Jeff Hays nails it again, with great music and tasteful effects

Jeff, the narrator, has really nailed the production throughout this entire urban fantasy.
The story is a fun magical-landscape plus cyberpunk, escapist treat.

My favorite so far!

Man, Conor's adventures are getting intense!

I'm liking his new friends (and old friends and frenemies) a lot. I didn't expect to like Frank at the beginning, but ended up loving him (also, Birdie and Snuffles... Admittedly I was not expecting what I assume was a Sesame Street reference in the creepy necromancer book, lol).

Finding out the mystery of the dice and mask was awesome. The ending left me so, so ready for more!

As for narration, Jeff Hays is fantastic at telling this story, as usual. The effects (dice/mask/demon/whatevs) were better than ever on this one (and not so much coughing, yay!). Demon voice: awesome. Dragon voice: awesome. Random Japanese chick that I wasn't honestly sure would be awesome: awesome.

Honestly, I'm a Canadian who moved away from Canada and lost my accent so hard that I can't even imitate it anymore (unless I'm talking to my mother, according to my husband, lol). So, I'm always rather in awe of this narrator and his ability to become a thousand different people so seamlessly in one story. As per usual, I am impressed. :)

I'm admittedly not a huge military/space opera follower, but I will most definitely be listening to more of this author's work, especially if it's narrated by Jeff Hays. Their skills seem to really compliment each other.

So... where's the next one?

Let's just get the whole "I received this book in exchange for a review" thing out of the way now. Moving on.

I think, of the three books in this series I've listened to, this is my favorite. Conor is finally coming into his own and the added Japanese mythology was really freaking cool.

Once again Jeff Hays did an amazing job narrating and is fast becoming one of my favorite narrators.

The only problem with this book was that it ended and there are no more.

niceeeee

I will be eagerly awaiting the next book! wish it was already here!

Serious clifhanger this time around.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Undead

What did you love best about Dead Stare?

M.R. Forbes' downtrodden yet still formidable anti hero Conor Night taking on Mr. Black, an all powerful Wizard out to change the world of magic. The world is inhabited by ghosts, a self healing "TrOgre" named Frank. Who is a formidable physical presence to Conor's emaciated, cancer ridden body.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dead Stare?

The adventure of overcoming adverse situations, not necessarily black and white choices. Taken as a whole is what was memorable to me. There are many visual or in the audio book's case, "Aural" action scenes. There are the physical, violent confrontations. The thought processes that Conor needs to work through challenges

Have you listened to any of Jeff Hays’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, I have. And this is another great example of Jeff's talents. I just shake my head in amazement.

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

It was. But I split it up into several sessions to give my undivided attention and savor the content and performance.

Any additional comments?

This is a wonderful series in the fantasy genre. There is a consistent flow to the characters and action in each of the books of the "Ghosts and Magic" series. Conor is a memorable fictional character brought to reality by Jeff Hays' narrative skills.

Thanks for the opportunity once again to listen.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks, Jeff!

An Amazing Listen

I’ve been hoping to find alternatives to Shadowrun and other books like it, and this book certainly scratches that itch for me. It takes place in a future with ogres, trolls, elves, and other mythical creatures. You also have mages, hackers, and gunners with cybernetic enhancements. There is also quite a bit of necromancy and reincarnation. I listened to this as a standalone book, and I did feel like I missed out on some of the references, but overall I don’t think you would have had to start at the beginning of the series to understand the book. There are a lot of unanswered questions at the end of this book, and unfortunately book four isn’t out yet, so I think I’ll have to wait a while. The narrator did a fantastic job with the sound effects. He created the distortion you would hear when talking to someone over a radio, and added slight coughing when someone would cough. Overall, that added a lot to the book that created a sense of immersion that I haven’t felt with other audiobooks. This is the first book I’ve listened to that was narrated by Jeff Hays and I definitely plan on listening to more of his work.

This audiobook was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Excellent penultimate book

The tangled web comes into focus here as Connor again finds himself caught between the machinations of Mr. Black, Tarokana and Death. In this book, we finally get some answers … what’s with the dice? and the mask? and Death? Yessiree, lotta answered questions. But, also new questions, dangers, and characters to deliver a mystery surrounding The Sandman for this book and a cliff hanger/teaser to have you chomping at the bit for the final book.

I was a little bummed at the short screen time for Amos and Prithee. I was also a little lost at some of the explanations… had to re-listen once or twice to the twisted reasoning of who did what and why. Honestly, my favorite parts were the mini-capers where Connor and new characters interact. Hands down favorite part of this book was Frank, the Trogre (half troll, half ogre) and my favorite caper was Frank and Connor’s meet-cute. If you’ve enjoyed the previous books, this one is sure to please.
Although, you might want to wait until you have book 4 ready before cracking this one open.

FRANKly, adding a trogre was a stroke of genius

This episode was as entertaining as the past two books, what with the addition of Frank. For being a human-transformed monster hybrid, outraged at the one who did this to him, Frank was rather sanguine about his new form and became a formidable companion for Connor. Also, Birdie and Snuffles are nice to have in a pinch. Frank's laid-back attitude accompanied by hilarious opinions on just about everything was a joy experience.

We find ourselves in the land of the rising sun and with it came a killer kitsune keeper who mesmerized Frank which added to the fun of the quest to free Sandman.

In all, it was a welcomed addition to the series with Jeff Hays performing the diverse character parts outstandingly.