Dun Lady's Jess

Changespell, Book 1

By: Doranna Durgin

Narrated by: Vanessa Hart

Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

When hikers Dayna and Eric find a young woman naked, terrified, and speechless, they're sure she's the victim of foul play. But the truth is much more shocking: She isn't human at all. She's Dun Lady's Jess, a horse transformed into this new shape by the spell that brought her and her rider, to whom she is utterly devoted, into this world. Posessed now of human intelligence but still a horse deep inside, Jess desperately searches this world for her master and rider, using her fiery equine spirit to take on human idiosyncracies - and human threats.

Dun Lady's Jess is a blend of adventure, magic, and romance that spans our world and its richly imagined fantasy counterpart. Horse become human, Jess is spirited and intelligent, seeing our world through a unique perspective. Pursued by evil, she must find a way not only to save her rider and both worlds, but also to keep who she has become.

©1994 Doranna Durgin (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Quite Fantastical

The story evokes great imagery and has a lot of magical conjecturing. However, it is sometimes hard to understand and to follow. Not quite sure about the ending. Overall, quite enjoyable.

Read Don't Listen!

This book was good but the woman who narrated it for Audible wasn't completely literate. She would have people "mesmorize" instead of "memorize" a spell. Then she read "spellcheck" instead of "spellspeak." There are several times I caught this type of error and I was listening not reading along so there may have been many I didn't catch. You would think if the narrator didn't notice what she said didn't make sense that someone would have edited her mistakes. I am finding multiple problems with multiple Audible books and they won't fix them or respond to emails.

A seemed to drag a bit but I really enjoyed

This book took me a few sittings to go through as it does drag at points but I did really enjoy listening to this one and have already started the second book. Actually got this book because of another book (Wolverine's Daughter) by the author really captured my interest. It was just so different from what I've been currently reading. Doranna has a very particular writing style that makes her books unique. She tends to be down to earth with realistic characters who happen to be in magical places. The way she approaches things like interdenominational travel makes you feel as if you where the one thrown into a world totally different from your own. You are definitely going to be discombobulated and not know what on earth is going on. Durgin also tends to broach some interesting topics that rarely are considered in fantasy books. Things that in reality we would most certainly question, yet tend to blur over in fantasy. Can one really love a women who is in truth a horse in body? Is this character a women or a horse in her heart when it comes down to it? If a horse where a human could she really feel human feelings and have human contemplations? Does she still have horse like thoughts and reactions? This is what I feel makes this book shine and keeps you hooked for the answers.
The narrator did quite well once I got used to her voice. It tends to be a little scratchy sounding, but she made it work for her and the characters. Since she really got into the book it helps to pull you in too. You can always tell the difference between an actor who is interested in the plot and one who is not.
My only complaint is that the author's characters each have their own personalities and quarks but there where so many I got a little lost if I wasn't paying attention. Though this is common for me of any book with a rather large cast (ahum, cough, mistborn, ahuh). I feel like this author is one you either like her writing style or you don't. And that's that. I happen to be the former. Try it out and see which one you are.

horse sense

Would you consider the audio edition of Dun Lady's Jess to be better than the print version?

Dun Lady's Jess is well written and is a delight for anyone familiar with horses and their foibles. It is a classic sword and sorcery tale with a twist or two to keep even a jaded reader like me interested. It doesn"t hurt that part of the tale is in a town I used to run a restaurant in 40 years ago!

What did you like best about this story?

The ability of the author to "humanize" a horse.

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

Never had the pleasure before. Am going to listen to more of her work.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Lady or Jess? which one?

Well Written and Sweet Story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, especially if they were a preteen-teen young lady who liked horses and magic

Any additional comments?

Well written story about a horse (Lady/Jes) who becomes a human when her rider Carey invokes a spell-stone (in order to save them) as they go over a ridge and become displaced from their dimension into ours. Carey is the head rider of the Anfeald couriers and Lady is owned by Arlen of Anfeald, a senior wizard of Camolen whose discovered a spell for crossing dimensions, but needs help creating a check-spell to prevent other wizards from exploiting other peoples/places. Confusion & Villains pursue, kind humans help Lady & Carey, and the story is off. Really a gentle read/listen