Mage-Provocateur

By: Glynn Stewart

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

Vengeance hunts them.
Rebellion seeks them.
Loyalty commands them.
The shadows will fear them.  

Captain David Rice and Mage Maria Soprano have made their choice, signing up with the Martian Interstellar Security Agency and converting Red Falcon into a covert operations ship for the Protectorate.  

Their new duties drag them back into the very underworld they once strove to escape, intentionally provoking the Azure Legacy into a renewed conflict. They find unexpected allies with secret agents from Legatus’s rebellion against Mars as they seek to stop Mikhail Azure’s Blue Star Syndicate from being reborn.  

The Azure Legacy wants revenge. Legatus wants blood. David and Maria are bound by the overriding duty of all officers of the Mage-King’s Protectorate: protect the innocent. 

©2018 Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc. (P)2018 Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc.

Great story, Bad Narration,

This really is an excellent book and continuation of the series. but mispronouncing important words along with male voices sounding like old women completely threw off my immersion into the story I would suggest buying the Kindle book version of this and skip the audiobook.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

I love Glynn Stewart but..,

I love Glynn Stewart and enjoyed Hillary Huber in the Duchess series. However this reading and this story are NOT a good match. I am not sure if it is the story or the reader. I want to enjoy it but don’t. Wish I had spent my credit on something else.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Another great story in the series, bad narrator.

Would you listen to Mage-Provocateur again? Why?

yes, but it would not be my first choice.

Would you be willing to try another one of Hillary Huber’s performances?

For a non-fiction book, yes. She can't handle male voices well, everything else is fine but she doesn't do a good quality male voice.

Any additional comments?

The third book should have a different narrator. The entire trilogy should have a different narrator. Jeffrey Kafer is a better narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Narrator ruined this book for me

The narrator mispronounced many world's names that have been in the books from the beginning. It's almost as if she never listened to any of the other books. Also the unarcana world's in the book are pronounced un-are-can-a. just can't even enjoy it.

I know the book is from the perspective of a lady but her range of voices are few. The narrator only sounds as if she is normal, sick, or happy. It has many of the same characters from the first book so I'm just disappointed in the change. :(

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good book, but.

It was a great book, but I did not like the narrator. Why did you change from the original two to this one? also why did you change the pronunciation of certain people and certain groups?

Polygamy? Homosexuality? Why?

The plot of this book is not very exciting. There was potential for some good things to happen but nothing remarkable ever developed.

I love the Starships Mage Universe. The magic, simulacrum chamber, space travel, government themes are rich. Those ideas give this universe the potential to compete with the big stars in the space race, Star Wars and Star Trek.
One problem is that the writer is limited by political interests. Glynn Stewart never fails to sprinkle in homosexuality, and in this book he adds polygamy. Neither of these adds anything to the story. The attempt is to make it seem natural by casually making a character here or there homosexual but nothing is gained by these additions. It disrupts the flow of the book if anything.

2 of 5 people found this review helpful

The narrator change has saved the series

The first book in the Red Falcon series was plagued by some of the worst narrators I've ever heard. Luckily, the author listened to feedback, and replaced them with Hillary Huber, who is great. That has saved the series for me as I wouldn't have been able to listen to another one with the old narrators, and I doubt I would get around to reading the book in text form. Huber makes the characters her own and brings the professionalism of a good narrator to the series, which it deserves.

As for the story, this series will always be in the shadow of the main series, and I don't think that can - or needs to be - fixed. It's still an excellent series on its own, and well worth the read. This book moves the series forwards, which Stewart seems to be very good at doing (compared to author scifi authors whose series go five books between any major developments). Red Falcon and its crew are slowly filling in blanks left by the main series, as well as filling in the blanks of how interstellar operations function in the SM universe when you don't have a hand...handy...get it? It develops both characters and entities (agencies, syndicates, whatever) further, adding depth.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

not what I was hoping for

I've enjoyed the mage stoeys but this one hardly involves them. they have a part but it's secondary to another space battle

excellent story

loved it. well paced and great characters as always. can't wait for the next.
found the change of narrator a little strange at first but soon enough it just flowed and the quality of the writing came through.