Every Wind of Change

Paths of Shadow, Book 3

By: Frank Tuttle

Narrated by: Nila Brereton Hagood

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Mage Meralda’s perilous airship journey across the vast Great Sea made her a hero.

Her discovery of the Arc may doom her world.

The Arc, a mysterious metal structure hanging 10,000 feet above the stormy sea, is singing. Tasked by the King to decipher the Arc’s strange song, Meralda discovers plans for an outlandish machine hidden in the song’s mathematical lyrics.

With sharp-tongued vegetable familiar Mug at her side, Meralda embarks on an unexpected journey across the void. Together they face ravenous beasts, ancient engines, and the most diabolical creature of all - Meralda's own long-lost mother.

With nothing but her wits, her Sight, and her determination to return home and find a decent cup of coffee, Meralda vows to lead her tiny band to safety. But her long journey home also means facing an old sorrow, and a singularly unpleasant truth.

As monsters close in, can Meralda prevail where thousands before her failed and perished?

Join Meralda, Mug, and Donchen for this third installment of the Paths of Shadow series.

©2018 Frank Tuttle (P)2018 Frank Tuttle

Hit the Spot

A weekend with the grandkids had me requesting this audio. It being number three in series did not take away from this, which could stand alone.
A whimsical adventure for a young adult or old. It hit the spot, and we all enjoyed it.
This audio was given to me free and I voluntarily gave this review.

Good narration, interesting story

3.5* - I had the opportunity to listen to this book without reading the prior books in the series. It can be a coin toss, to jump into a series non-sequentially, There's a risk of missing out on character development as well as plot points. The book summary was interesting enough for me to take this risk.

As a result, my impressions will likely be different from a reader/listener who started the series from the beginning. I liked the steampunk-magic atmosphere in the story. And, yes, as I had feared, there were parts of the story that were confusing to me because I didn't have the benefit of reading the earlier volumes in the series. For example, I'm not quite sure what to make of the romance between the heroine and her beau - I didn't sense much of a chemistry between them. I'm also not sure what to make of the flying houseplant - I wasn't able to infer a backstory between the heroine and her sidekick. I don't consider these to be flaws in the story, but I'd suggest that the reader start from the beginning of the series to avoid these confusions such as the ones I just described. For me, the main reason why I deducted stars in my review is because I didn't really like the heroine's personality. Everyone seemed to admire and respect her, but I didn't find her personality to be particularly endearing and she didn't 'wow' me with her magic skills. Perversely, the character in the story that I liked the most was the one who the heroine liked the least. I suspect that younger readers might admire her more than I did.

I enjoyed the narrator, she's a good story teller. I think she'd be particularly effective at narrating audiobooks geared to younger audiences. She has a fairy-godmother/your-favourite-grandmother kind of voice.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.