Magic Mirror

By: Sean Ellis

Narrated by: James Conlan

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

It begins with a mysterious disappearance.... It will end with a world on the edge of destruction.

Twenty years ago, Derrick Sayler made a fantastic breakthrough, then vanished off the face of the earth. When Michael Rook, an environmental engineer with a deadly secret, finds a car belonging to the missing genius in a remote Oregon lake, the question of Sayler's fate appears to be answered. But Rook's discovery uncovers something far more immediate... and infinitely more dangerous.

Willoughby Bane, Sayler's former partner, is poised to unveil Magic Mirror, a magnetic-levitation space launch facility in the Canadian wilderness, but he cannot escape his obsession with his long-lost partner. Rook's search for the unbelievable truth will put him on a collision course with Bane and Magic Mirror.

©2005, 2011 Sean Ellis (P)2012 Gryphonwood Press

A simple and boring mystery

The story centers around the mysterious disappearance of a creative genius and the subsequently finding of his car in the middle of a lake far away from his last known location. The primary characters are the diver that found the car, who for some reason becomes a key part of the reopened investigation … and an FBI agent sent in to ride herd. The diver has a dark past and the FBI agent some personal drama that provide nearly all of the conflict until the end, where the story does pick up the pace somewhat. For most of the story, the only villain in sight is a tech billionaire that provides the author with an opportunity to preach and moralize about society today and they are some issues with how some of the tech actually works that seem to defy conventional science. There are also some new agey elements that bookend the story and a few minor plot surprises, but this is unfortunately undermined by the complete lack of any reader suspense for most of the book. In fact, there is way too much of the “narrator” within the story talking (aka info dumping) that there is actual action or true dialog, making the whole about as exciting as a Great Courses lecture. The performance was solid though.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#MagicMirror #FreeAudiobookCodes

Fantastic writing and narration

I first read Magic Mirror a few years ago, I remembered that I enjoyed it and that I gave it 5 stars but for whatever reason, its just sat on my bookshelf, its not a book I have re-read. After just finishing the audiobook, my first instinct is to kick myself, why has it taken so long to go back to such a great story? Listening to it, I couldn’t help but notice the growth in author, Sean Ellis having read most of his work, you can see how he has improved, but that doesn’t mean my rating has changed at all, because it hasn’t, it is definitely a 5 star read, I just noticed the progression, which can only be taken as a positive, in my mind at least.

Magic Mirror has a hint of the paranormal, some action and a lot of mystery. Mix in some fantastic characters and that about sums up the book, I could say more, but it would be very difficult to do so without including spoilers and I would hate to give anything away, that would take away from your enjoyment when you read it, go ahead and buy it now, you won’t be sorry.

I have never listened to anything narrated by James Conlan before so this was a new experience for me, I was very impressed, I had no difficulty following the story and it was very obvious when a character changed. I thought the action was narrated particularly well, at times I was so lost in the story and narration that I forgot where I was and what I was doing. Personally, I think that is the reaction you look for in an audiobook, when you know it was worth the time and money. I will definitely be looking for more audiobooks by James.