Forged

Alex Verus Series, Book 11

By: Benedict Jacka

Narrated by: Gildart Jackson

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Alex Verus faces his dark side in this return to the best-selling urban fantasy series about a London-based mage. 

To protect his friends, Mage Alex Verus has had to change - and embrace his dark side. But the life mage Anne has changed too, and made a bond with a dangerous power. She's going after everyone she's got a grudge against - and it's a long list. 

In the meantime, Alex has to deal with his arch-enemy, Levistus. The Council's death squads are hunting Alex as well as Anne, and the only way for Alex to stop them is to end his long war with Levistus and the Council, by whatever means necessary. It will take everything Alex has to stay a step ahead of the Council and stop Anne from letting the world burn.

©2020 Benedict Jacka (P)2020 Tantor

Was hooked at the beginning, but losing interest

The books are getting darker and less appealing. The plot moves forward at a crawl. Everything is starting to feel Ex Machina.

Verus does Vader better

First off, holy cliff hangers Batman! If you can’t handle waiting a bit longer for the final book 12 (dropping in December, I think), then don’t listen until the end of the year. I can wait, barely, and am totally stoked for the finale.

Second, if you’ve made it this far, you know the dark turn these books have taken. While part of me thought the path took too long through books 5-8, another part now recognizes that the slow build to Alex Verus’ tipping point makes his new-found ruthlessness more credible. He was always a planner, relying on defensive skill and strategy to inform his actions. Now that he’s taken the plunge and committed to the dark path, his skill and strategy are weaponized to fantastic offensive effect.

The action in this book explodes, both in quality and quantity. This book has pushed the series to my favorites pile for its winning combination of great writing and narration, and for a wonderfully unique magic system filled with even more unique, and fascinatingly flawed, characters. The energy of this story will easily keep me going until the final act.

disappointing

this is one of my favorite series however this book is hours of the main character in a rage yelling and killing. all the beauty of the relationships is missing.

Strong characters and great narration

I have followed this series for years now, and have watched the characters grow and change like old friends. Unlike some other series that have had the characters turn darker with almost no warning, Alex Verus makes the transition in logical steps that are painful to follow, because there doesn't seem to be any way out. The narration is excellent, with good character separation and emotion. Highly recommended.

Unsatisfactory Ending

Unlike all of the other previous books in the series, the ending was not satisfactory. Most of the other books would allow a person to just stop for a while. Now this time we left in the middle of some craziness, and we probably have to wait a whole Nother year for the next book in the series to come out. I’m a little disappointed.

Milk shake duck?

At first when I started the books, I’m thinking ok ok, Verus is flawed. He blames others for his actions but eventually he’ll learn some big life lesson and come around. Somewhat fedora hat-y but what urban fantasy book written by a guy isn’t? It balances out with Luna being pretty cool. By this book, Verus has just basically become an incel’s power fantasy / Matrix 3 Neo, and spider-Dumbledore has pretty much told him it was ok and not his fault? I guess all good things must come to an end.

Dark Verus brings new life to the series

When Fallen took the turns it did, setting Verus on a solidly “dark” course, my initial inclination was that the series was fizzling out and we wouldn’t see much more of him. Forged changed my mind. In fact, as Verus struggles with his transformation, I find myself captivated by the series in a way I haven’t been since the first few books. I look forward to the next.

Great addition to the story buuut....

first off, loved the book. I was really looking forward to the next installment and I was not disappointed. Alex Verus has become one of my favorite characters in modern fantasy. My only gripe is the performance. There's a certain charm to Jackson's narrating style, but it seemed like he forgot the voices in this installment. Especially Richard's. They all sounded very similar to Alex and I had to go back and relisten to parts of the book. aside from that, very good book!

Verus might give Dresden a run for his money now!

This book was one of the few good things that 2020 had to offer. Great Adult Fantasy with Intricate details, story scaffolding, complicated and mature characters, magic with rules, action, and thrills.

Finally Alex stops being a push-over. He has done a complete 180 from the guy who ran away from conflict in the first 6 books. Some might find him too catalyst, but I've been waiting on this side of Alex to emerge.

If you're this far into the series, I dont see any reason why you wouldnt find this one entertaining. For me, it was front-of-the-rollercoaster good. Excellent narration from Gildart Jackson.

Continuing the journey into cold killer

I have just finished the 11th book and I am sad at the turn of the story starting with the last book. I feel like the main character is more and more isolated and loosing his humanity. I am not certain I will read the next book although I want to know what happens. I hope there is more to the next book than killing.