Mark of Fire

The Endarian Prophecy, Book 1

By: Richard Phillips

Narrated by: Caitlin Davies

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

An ancient prophecy. A young woman's destiny.

Lorness Carol, coming of age in the kingdom of her warlord father, Lord Rafel, aspires to wield magic. But she's also unknowingly become the obsession of Kragan, an avenging wielder as old as evil itself. He's waited centuries to find and kill the female prophesied as the only human empowered to destroy him. However, dispatching the king's assassin, Blade, to Rafel's Keep, ends in treason. For Blade arrives not with a weapon but rather a warning for the woman he's known and loved since he was a child. With a price on his head, Blade flees - as Carol and her family are urged away on their own desperate route of escape.

Now, traversing the lawless western borderlands, Carol struggles to understand the uncanny magic she possesses and must learn to master. Though separated, Carol and Blade are still united - not only by the darkness pursuing them both but by a quest toward destiny, revenge, and the revelations of an ancient prophecy that signal the ultimate war between good and evil.

©2017 Richard Phillips (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Good start to a new series

I'm not sure how I got turned on to Richard Phillips in the first place, but I read his Rho Agenda books soon after they were released and was pleased with them. Recently, I finally decided to take the Rho Agenda Inception trilogy out of my wish list, as I had heard he finished the third book of the third series, the Rho Agenda Assimilation. I started from the story's chronological beginning through the final story. I like Phillip's writing and the narrator, MacLeod Andrews. It was with some elevated expectations that I started Mark of Fire, hoping to continue the good storytelling.

It took me a bit to get used to Caitlin Davies voice and intonation. I can't say she is my favorite, but after a while you get used to her style.

As for the story, it is a nice, fun fantasy, mixing coming of age with magic and prophecy/legend. I'm sorry the next two books are not out yet, and will buy them, as I very much want to see how it turns out. There is some good world building, good character development (if somewhat predictable), and a story line that kept my attention.

It doesn't however fall into the "must read" category - yet. I feel like I have had to lower my expectations a bit from the action-packed Rho series. This one is more unrequited love set in a magical fantasy world. Nothing new here, but I hold out hope.

I do like Phillips' timeline details, however. He doesn't rush people from place to place. He takes into account that a caravan of 100 wagons will take several months to cross a continent, not a few weeks. Scouting parties don't return within the hour, but within the week. Resources must be secured along the way, not found in a pack in the back of the wagon.

There seem to be some things that seemed odd to me, like how all the animals are identical to ones found on Earth, though the assumption is that this isn't Earth. Rabbits, deer, horses (along with bows and arrows, wagons, swords, etc.) all are the ones familiar to us rather than some off-world variant that provides the same function. They even have the same English names. This almost seemed like a corner that he cut in order to write more of the plot. Acceptable because it doesn't change the story, but seems a bit of a cheat.

Overall, though, a good read.

Solid story - horrible, robotic performance

The story is solid. I enjoyed the author's work and I plan on continuing the series but definitely not in audiobook format. I strongly suggest avoiding this audio book in favor of buying the book and reading it. Caitlin Davies performs this book like you would expect Siri or Alexa to read it. You can tell that she is trying hard to read 'clean and clear' but it comes across as robotic and emotionless. Her sentences all end on the same pitch, she uses the same inflections over and over again as if she is supposed to use them based on word count rather than content and it ends up being very choppy and disjointed. This isn't just a case of a narrator having a limited vocal range, which can happen, this is a case of very carefully chosen pitches and voice inflections being used repetitively and it will drive you absolutely crazy after about 10 minutes.

I am hooked.

I'm really like fantasy books. This book did not disappoint. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. Love the story and characters.

Worst narration

I read this book a while back and recently decided to continue the series. I remember the story being good but this narration does not enhance it in any way.

Mark of 🔥

I could not bear listening to the narrator's voice it sounded like she was drunk and trying not to show it. I was very disappointed in the quality of this audio book.

An engaging story but felt a little light on the plot

I enjoyed the story and the characters but I was a little disappointed in the story content. I expected more to happen I guess. The climax of the story was kind of... early relative to the end of the book and there was a lot of follow-up that kinda led me to believe there was going to be some more plot advancement before the end and then there wasn’t.

I’m torn about the narrator’s reading. Sometimes her voice is very flat and monotone like a bored news reporter almost. Other times I could forget about it and just listen. She pronounced a lot of words kind of weird like she wasn’t familiar with them and that would often knock me out of immersion in the story.

Rehashing of a host of fantasy cliches—disappoints

Such a talented author and yet this book treads the same old fantasy ground, which if pulled off with engaging writing and characters that draw you in...would still be okay. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen...I gave up after 4-5 hours.....simply boring. Richard, you can do so much better...your prior books told such fascinating stories with interesting characters and plots that drew me in...not this time.

Exciting First Episode in the Series

I loved this book but am impatient for the next book in the series. Thankfully it is scheduled for release in early January 2018. Caitlin Davies does a marvelous job bringing to life the characters and magic in this new world.

Narration is super distracting

Just read the book or have a fire tablet read it to you. It would be better.

Slow start got better

I thought the beginning was soso but I continued on and it improved. Its decent

Good story but ‘robotic’ narration...

Interesting story and character development over course of the book. I was convinced that some of the narration was ‘siri - like’ and artificially generated - pace, inflection, cadence etc unnaturally consistent to my untrained ear. I’ll probably reach for the Kindle rather than audible book for the second in the series.