Light & Dark: The Awakening of the Mageknight

By: D. M. Fife

Narrated by: Mikhail Roberts

Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Danny Firoth is an average 13-year-old who finds himself at the beginning of his eighth-grade year, struggling with some of the more common concerns that plague a boy of his age: Bullies, homework, and his mother. Sabrina Drake is the new girl. She is beautiful and spellbinding but carries a fantastic secret.

Accepted into the White Rock Academy of Illumination, a school for young Squires destined to become Knights of the Light and battle the forces of the Dark with magical weapons called Bondeds, Danny joins his five closest friends in the training of their lives.

Honed in the techniques of blade work by an Elvin swordmaster and educated by a colorful assortment of knightly instructors, Danny and his friends are placed on the path to becoming knighted members of the Light. However, the Dark may have other plans as they unveil a sinister plot in this fantastic tale of dragon-riding adventure, sword-wielding action, and coming of age drama.

©2012 Daniel M. Fife (P)2021 Daniel M. Fife

Well-read, Well-written. 😍

Full disclosure: I'm here because I'm sort of fan-girling on the narrator. My last review of Mikhail Roberts' work was a tad... shall we say, "excessive." So I will keep this as short as I can.

As always, I really love Roberts' character voices-- each and every one is distinct and easy to distinguish. If you've listened to the narrator's other work, you will hear a few recycled voices here and there, but all narrators do that, so there you have it. Clearly, the narrator is an actual actor, and not just a good narrator. He embodies the characters fully, and emotionally connects with all of them. And his range! My goodness. Anyway, enough about that.

Story!
Whoa... I didn't think D.M. Fife's tween-age, YA, Harry Potter meets My Hero Academia, meets Classic Knights and Dragons, meets ... A Kurosawa samurai movie? ... Would actually work, but I found it incredibly engaging. I honestly couldn't put it down.

This would be a great audiobook for kids--with some caveats, mentioned below--tweens, teens, and adults in your life. There are some more mature themes in there, (nothing sexual) but these ARE teenage characters that are recruited to fight a war against an invisible evil, and their time at White Rock Academy is very clearly a parallel to military service. Anyone who's served will recognize the DNA of a veteran embedded in D.M. Fife's writing, and in how real the Academy feels because of it. For example, a drill instructor type of character that just HAS to be lifted whole-cloth from real-life experience...there's just no way it's not.
Basically... If you know, you know. 😉

This title touches on bullying, military service, honor, duty, sacrifice, moral ambiguity, and of course, plenty of combat. I can only see things escalating further as the series progresses, so know that going in, especially if you're getting this audiobook for a younger listener. I would personally be fine with my tweenish kids listening to this, but your mileage may vary.

I ended up burning through this audiobook in two days. Fife is masterful at having a quick pace, relatable characters, and a bit of solid action in almost every chapter, ending on a cliff-hanger, always leaving you wanting more. It's definitely a binge-worthy title, and I'm excited to listen to more of D.M. Fife's work. I REALLY hope that Roberts will be narrating book 2, but the story is so good, and well thought-out that I would listen to any followup titles, regardless of his involvement.

This is clearly a multi book series, not a one-off book. So there's a lot of world building in this title (though done REALLY well). I look forward to returning to White Rock Academy of Illumination, and exploring the battle between The Light, The Dark, and The Grey.

Wow!

Mikhail does an incredible job giving each individual an unique voice, especially since there are so many! I listened to the first book in a matter of a couple days because I couldn’t wait to hear the rest. On the second book now and it’s even better!

Fun Harry Potter- esque School for magical knights

This was a fun story. Had moments of classic Goonies style young adult adventure with some interesting twists along the way.

The narrator’s varied characters were great and it was so easy to distinguish who which characters spoke which allowed me to just dive into the adventure. Loved his voice.

Because it’s a first book in a series you have to get through a bit or world building and exposition but over all I throughly enjoyed this exciting story.

Give this a listen for some fun fantasy escapism and you won’t be disappointed.