Dust and Light

Sanctuary, Book 1

By: Carol Berg

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

National best-selling author Carol Berg returns to the world of her award-winning Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone with an all-new tale of magic, mystery, and corruption....

How much must one pay for an hour of youthful folly? The Pureblood Registry accused Lucian de Remeni-Masson of "unseemly involvement with ordinaries", which meant only that he spoke with a young woman not of his own kind, allowed her to see his face unmasked, worked a bit of magic for her....

After that one mistake, Lucian’s grandsire excised half his magic and savage Harrowers massacred his family. Now the Registry has contracted his art to a common coroner. His extraordinary gift for portraiture is restricted to dead ordinaries - beggars or starvelings hauled from the streets.

But sketching the truth of dead men’s souls brings unforeseen consequences. Sensations not his own. Truths he cannot possibly know and dares not believe. The coroner calls him a cheat and says he is trying to weasel out of a humiliating contract. The Registry will call him mad - and mad sorcerers are very dangerous....

©2014 Carol Berg (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Not up to Carol Berg's standards

The book reads more like the outline of the book Ms Berg set out to write. It is slow starting and then jumps along at full swing with occasional elaboration of detail. It is a complex and promising plot, but the rough edges are showing. It is not as good as her other books but the reader can hope that the next books in the series are better polished.

For instance, she kills off almost all his large, extended family in a terrible fire. I'm not counting that as a spoiler because it happens before the first chapter. Even though it happened just 3 months before the opening of the book, he is not as depressed as you would expect. This seems to be a detail that needed more work.

For my own tastes, I do wish she refrained from torturing the characters as much as she does. We want the villains to be despicable but If you take it to heart, you might find it too unpleasant.

Intrigue galore

loved it! The narrator is one of my favorite, he's actually the reason I found this book and I'm glad I did. Very good read! I'd say more, but I HAVE to go start the next one .....'nuf said!

Brilliant

A rich sense of place, several beguiling mysteries, complex characters, grief and loss and wonder: this is an enchanting book, very well performed.

One of my favorite books

A wonderful book full of rich characters and an intriguing adventure. Berg’s prose is almost poetic, but flows smoothly and easily enough that it doesn’t distract from the story. I’ve listened to this three times.

The world and settings she creates are full bodied but understated - she doesn’t get lost in the world-creation like many fantasy authors. It’s a pet peeve of mine when only the points significant to the plot are given close attention by the author, thereby making over obvious leads. So I was happy that all moments are richly described enough in their own right to bring life to the scene and keep me guessing where the plot was going, but not annoyingly bogged down with too much unnecessary detail.

The narration is some of the best I’ve heard yet. He takes on many voices to fit age, gender, temperament, and culture without overacting too much. He nailed the personalities in the book and is very consistent. He makes me consider listening to other books just because he’s the narrator.

My only criticism worth mentioning is that it seems to be only a two book series. There is a lot more to be said with this character and enough loose ends I hope the author revisits this in the near future!

Good but not for everybody.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Depends on the kind of reader they are. Yes, if they match the genre of this type of book. Not going to recommend this book to people who really only read Epic Fantasy. The book is in first person.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Lucien hard not to like. He is the main character when your reading a 1st person book.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Lucien gets his day and calls out the murder of the little girl... Plus a whole bunch more then that.

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

To be honest.. I fell asleep during this book a whole bunch of times. I would have to go back chapters because I fell asleep so much. Do not get me wrong the book is not boring, its just not really exciting. I almost gave it a 3 star to be honest. But I thought some of the Robin Hobb fans might like this book.

Any additional comments?

Over all this book is written well and the magic system is fun, along with the world building. This book has many things to offer. I kind of felt some of the battle scenes were a tad weak.
And the book ends in a cliff hanger ... If you like Lucien at all your going to want to find out what happens to him in book two.

Excellent story excellently narrated.

I love every Carol Berg I've ever read. The last audiobook of hers I got was so disappointing because of the awful narration. This made up for it. I can't wait for the next one.

Great narrator

MacLeod Andrews is my favorite performer. He could read a menu and make it intriguing. The story is good. Slow at times. The twists and turns are well executed. The world is interesting.

Beautiful use of the word

Plot devices where action supersedes thoughtfulness . Excellent and inventive story lines and superb storytelling . Highly recommend this lovely piece of writing

A 'JUST GET ON WITH IT' Book

This is the first novel I've read/heard from Carol Berg. She can REALLY give BEAUTIFUL Prose, and great scene and character descriptions... She can make you "Connect with a character", however, this is also how I started getting lost, quickly uninterested, and dozing off in bed. 12 hours of this 20 hour book (don't get me wrong, I LOVE long books and series) were spent in "Character Development" and "Misunderstandings", which got mired down in wordy details.

It almost takes 3 days to tell about 3 days of the story line... At one point, Listening in bed, I woke my wife up and scared the dogs by suddenly (and unexpectedly) bursting out loud, "PLEASE! I GET IT! SEEN IT A THOUSAND TIMES! 'HIGHEST HEIGHTS, DEEPEST DEPTHS'! JUST MOVE IT ALONG!" My Wife rolled over without really waking up fully, and mumbled, "Which book? Need to delete it before I get to it". Meanwhile the dogs were ringed around the bed with their fur standing up, facing outward, growling, like, "HOOO-LEEE CRAP! WHAT DID WE MISS?!?!? MOUNTAIN LION?!?"

I usually say "I HATE Fantasy Novels", and I realize that THIS is why. I get sucked back into the Fantasy Gene by Brandon Sanderson, Rob J. Hayes, Brian McClellan, Joe Abercrombie, etc.. and think "Maybe The Fantasy genre has FINALLY Changed for the better?" and then you promptly hit a series like this (which is probably fantastic if there is an abridged version).

The Main Character usually doesn't seem to know if he's awake or asleep, Insane or Sane, and there's always some simple point of confusion that leads down LONG twisty paths to nowhere, because the character is always unable to respond to misunderstandings, or someone keeps a simple secret for a silly reason that would have saved HOURS of going nowhere.
First day of 7th grade English, our teacher said, "If you want to fail this class, turn in stories with any form of '...and then he woke up and it was all a dream'". I heard that again from a College English Lit Professor. Even being an Engineer, with our legendary poor writing and grammar skills, I know THAT lesson.

"Wheel Of Time" broke me from 'buying the next book in a series' simply because I keep thinking: "It has Rave reviews! It HAS to get better!" (..And it never does).


This book just didn't make my Bunny Hop.

Lovely, engaging and well performed.

Another great work from Carol Berg, and a laudable performance by McLeod Andrews. The story was truly engaging and developed in directions I was often surprised by. No cookie cutter effort here, although I know I scarcely need to state that about Berg. The narration was superb. I can't say I found every accent beautiful, but that would be unfair to demand in a work of this type. I merely state it to note my honest reaction.