The Emerald Atlas

Books of Beginning

By: John Stephens

Narrated by: Jim Dale

Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

"A strong . . . trilogy, invoking just a little Harry Potter and Series of Unfortunate Events along the way."—Realms of Fantasy

Siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage.

Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.

Until now.

Before long, Kate, Michael, and Emma are on a journey through time to dangerous and secret corners of the world . . . a journey of allies and enemies, of magic and mayhem. And—if an ancient prophesy is true—what they do can change history, and it's up to them to set things right.

"A new Narnia for the tween set."—The New York Times

"[A] fast-paced, fully imagined fantasy."—Publishers Weekly

"Echoes of other popular fantasy series, from "Harry Potter" to the "Narnia" books, are easily found, but debut author Stephens has created a new and appealing read . . ."—School Library Journal, Starred Review

©2011 John Stephens (P)2011 Listening Library

Excellent!

This book brought me into another world, and kept me excited throughout. I actually listened to this Book at work, while doing my price changing work while my store is closed. Every time i got off work, i hated having to stop at that chapter and wait till next week to listen to more. I didn't want to listen to it while i was off, because then i would have nothing left to listen to at work, and hanging tags all night long gets really boring if you don't have something good to listen to. It took me 3 work days to finish this book, but when i was done i was really wanting more.

I am very much looking forward to the next book in the trilogy. This book is very well written and exciting throughout. It is filled with emotion as well. It really takes you into their world and lets you feel what the 3 main characters feel. At times, i felt like i was there with them and traveling on their journey with them. When writing reviews i worry to much about giving away to much information about the book, so i generally don't give to much length about what happens in the book.

So, to sum it up, these 3 kids are on a journey of fate, which they are not informed of. They find themselves separated at times and are forced to continue on their journey without their siblings and continue their search for the emerald atlas, while trying to keep it out of the oppositions hands at the same time. The sibling squabbling between the younger 2 siblings brings much comic relief at times to lighten the mood.

I really enjoyed listening to this book, and Jim Dale did another fantastic job in narrating as he usually does.

Too derivative

A grudging 3 stars for me because it was so heavily and obviously influenced by The Hobbit, The Narnia series, Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter etc that it became distracting and annoying to me. My 13 year old son felt the same as me but my daughter (8) couldn't get enough of it. She would give it 5 stars so it worked well as a read aloud to an 8yr old who hasn't read any of the above mentioned books except for Narnia.
I know it is almost sacrilege to say anything negative about Jim Dale but I'm going for it anyway. As a Harry Potter narrator he is brilliant, but he reads this book in EXACTLY the same way as HP. The Emerald Atlas is set not in England, but America. Baltimore I believe, but I may be wrong. However every character in The Emerald Atlas bizarrely has a quirky English accent, and uses English colloquialisms like "a potty old lady" and such,
(okay that part isn't Jim Dale's fault but I'm blaming him anyway), and all of the annoying dwarfs have cartoony Scottish accents. Being Scottish myself I was further annoyed by this.

Wonderful book for the HP fan who is missing HP

A fantastic story for anyone who loves Harry Potter, Narnia, etc. This book doesn't feel like a cheap copy though, as the story is well crafted and imaginative.
As a lifelong fan of the HP audio books, which are also narrated by the talented Jim Dale, listening to this story felt like coming home.
I can't wait to listen to books 2 and 3!

Worth it simply to listen to Jim Dale

I decided to listen to this series simply because Jim Dale (who narrated the Harry Potter audio books) was the narrator. This seems to be a light and enjoyable listen. It has good pacing but I'm not sure if it has much depth yet. It was good enough to get the next book in the series.

Overall fun but you’ve read a similar story before

Overall, this book was fun. However, it’s highly derivative of Harry Potter although not as good as this author is no J K Rowling. There are orphans (or maybe they aren’t?), mistreated kids, a big and burly good guy, time travel, an old professor, etc. There is some originality. Jim Dale is one of the best narrators ever, but he was a poor choice here. Female voices (especially young girls) are not his strong point, and two of the main characters here are young girls. A female narrator would have been a better choice. Also, this is an American story not suitable for a British narrator. I enjoyed this and I’m not sorry I listened to it, but there are better books out there such as the Harry Potter series and the Peter and the Starcatchers series (both brilliantly narrated by Jim Dale).

Spellbinding

Definitely kept my attention. Had fair amount of twists and turns to keep it interesting. And always LOVE Jim Dale!!

Finally a book I could get lost in

At first I was thinking this was a Harry Potter book. Jim Dale's performance makes it seem like it is at first, but it is as different and any book of magic is from any other. Very enjoyable.

Disappointed

Storyline interesting but characters flat. World building mediocre. Only reason I finished was brilliant Jim Dale.

Welcome back, Jim Dale!

What made the experience of listening to The Emerald Atlas the most enjoyable?

I loved that I thought the book was ending a couple times and then Stephens "twisted" the plot and kept it going!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Very hard! LOVED so many characters. I guess Emma if I can just choose one! :-)

What about Jim Dale’s performance did you like?

I loved that he made the characters so unique and personable. Jim Dale always brings the characters to life! Some listeners didn't like that Mr. Dale's voices were British when the kids were born in Baltimore. But I thought it worked well with the fairy tale elements and the over-the-top personalites of the characters.

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

Why has no one ever heard of Cambridge Falls or the orphanage there?

Wonderful, exciting and heartwarming story

Fantastic creative story full of adventure and magic, bravery, danger and love. As good as any out there including the Harry Potter series.