Magic for Nothing

By: Seanan McGuire

Narrated by: Emily Bauer

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

The sixth book in New York Times best-selling Seanan McGuire's witty urban fantasy InCryptid series about a family of cryptozoologists who act as a buffer between humans and the magical creatures living in secret around us.

"The only thing more fun than an October Daye book is an InCryptid book." (Charlaine Harris, number-one New York Times best-selling author of Sookie Stackhouse series)

Improbable, adjective:

1. Not very likely to happen; not probable.
2. Probably not a very good idea anyway.
3. See also "bad plan".

As the youngest of the three Price children, Antimony is used to people not expecting much from her. She's been happy playing roller derby and hanging out with her cousins, leaving the globe-trotting to her older siblings while she stays at home and tries to decide what she wants to do with her life. She always knew that one day, things would have to change. She didn't think they'd change so fast.

Annie's expectations keep getting shattered. She didn't expect Verity to declare war on the Covenant of St. George on live television. She didn't expect the Covenant to take her sister's threat seriously. And she definitely didn't expect to be packed off to London to infiltrate the Covenant from the inside...but as the only Price in her generation without a strong resemblance to the rest of the family, she's the perfect choice to play spy. They need to know what's coming. Their lives may depend on it.

But Annie has some secrets of her own, like the fact that she's started setting things on fire when she touches them, and has no idea how to control it. Now she's headed halfway around the world, into the den of the enemy, where blowing her cover could get her killed. She's pretty sure things can't get much worse.

Antimony Price is about to learn just how wrong it's possible for one cryptozoologist to be.

©2017 Seanan McGuire (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Fantastic Ending!! Unexpected Plot Twist

I do enjoy this series and those amazing characters!!! And there are so many different characters and each one is amazingly unique.

In this book we get to know a new sister who we expect she will do A, B, C, then end at Z. But no way!! This book has one of the best endings so far in this series, and if you enjoyed the series so far, you will love this addition.

Narration is great, Emily Bauer does a great job in this series.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Darker than the rest

I really enjoyed reading incryptid novels period and this one was no exception. it was, however, a lot darker than most of the others and I really felt for the characters and their not so happy endings.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Antimony hit the field!

Finally, we get to hear from Antimony. Yes, she is the little sister, but she does grow up. She made the ultimate sacrifice for any Price and finds it is easier to critique than being in the field. We learn more of the original renegade Price who left the Covent and the mice that stayed with them. If you have gotten this far in the series, you know that it is a wonderful book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Another wonderful book

I have yet to read a book by this author that I didn't love. Smart, funny characters and a complex storyline.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Introducing the Youngest Price!

We finally get a story about the youngest of the Price siblings, and Seaman McGuire does not disappoint. This story is obviously told from the point of view of someone with less life experience than her older siblings, but well told from "youngest of the family" point of view. Narration was great (as always in this series). I hope we get more of the humorous but very literal Aeslin Mice in the next book though!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Seanan Mcguire never misses!

Loved this book and thus series. Seanan Mcguire always makes her world feel like my world. I never want her books to end.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Incredible!

This is a very good book in the incryptides serie, great characters well written. Very much worth it!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Another exciting adventure

McGuire hooked me from the beginning as narrator Emily Bauer took on new voices and new creatures. Antimony (Annie) is twenty-two and a roller-derby loving young woman who is still living at home. She hasn’t quite decided what she wants to do in life but throughout Magic for Nothing, we witness her come into her own, through growth and sacrifice.

Being inside the Covenant of St. George was just as creepy as I hoped. From their thorough investigation and testing of Annie, we learn quite a lot. She has one lone Aslin mouse with her. Wait until you see what this young mouse uncovers, aside from a full inventory of their cheese.

Thanks to Annie’s unusual skill set with knife throwing and trapeze work the Covenant sends Annie back to America to infiltrate and spy on a traveling circus. Here things get interesting and deadly. As always, McGuire delivers an intense suspense thread while fleshing out new characters and showcases different types of cryptids. Explosions, death-defying tricks and Covenant operatives await you.

The books typically have a romantic thread and Annie develops feelings for one of the performers. Holy Weirdness peeps! Now ya’ll know her extended family is filled with cryptids, ghosts, talking mice and more, but most of the Price family are married to HUMANS. I am not saying more but the movie Jumanji came to mind as I listened. LOL

Can't go wrong with these books

Where does Magic for Nothing rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Emily Bauer is easily one of my favorite narrators. This entire series has been a lot of fun on audiobook.

What did you like best about this story?

Seanan McGuire is a master world creator in my mind. The research she clearly did made the setting come alive for me.

Have you listened to any of Emily Bauer’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Absolutely as great as the previous books (three I think) I've listened to from her. Excited to dive into the next book in this series that is always read by her.

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

Monkey love and roller skates.

Any additional comments?

One of my favorite urban fantasy series. Highly recommend if you are looking for a fun listen.

Author and Reader are both amazing!!

I was lying in bed listening to the end of this book, and I just had to get up and write about how good it is. Except all I kept saying when I had finished the book was, "Oh my gosh!" over and over again. I had started to read this book once before and never got more than halfway through because I didn't like Antimony Price. She always whined so about her sister, any time I was getting to like her. This time I was listening to the audible version. When I passed the point at which I had stopped reading before, I was on the edge of my seat. Seanan McGuire's writing and Emily Bauer's reading of this fabulous story should not be missed. The plot twists, the amount of growth and depth of the characters, even the incredible descriptions of things, are above and beyond so much of what is out there.

I really wasn't sure about the audible version, since this same reader read the books about Verity Price, and I associated her voice with Verity's character. But she pulled it off. The scenes that Verity are in, I can "hear" Verity, but when she reads Antimony, its a different person. And so good!

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars.