Frost Moon

Skindancer, Book 1

By: Anthony Francis

Narrated by: Traci Odom

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

In an alternate Atlanta where magic is practiced openly, where witches sip coffee at local cafes, shapeshifters party at urban clubs, vampires rule the southern night like gangsters, and mysterious creatures command dark caverns beneath the city, Dakota Frost's talents are coveted by all. She's the best magical tattooist in the southeast, a Skindancer, able to bring her amazing tats to life.

When a serial killer begins stalking Atlanta's tattooed elite, the police and the Feds seek Dakota's help. Can she find the killer on the dark fringe of the city's Edgeworld? Among its powerful outcasts and tortured loners, what kind of enemies and allies will she attract? Will they see her as an invader, as a seducer, as an unexpected champion...or as delicious prey?

Frost Moon is Book One of the Skindancer fantasy series by debut author Anthony Francis. Filled with unforgettable characters, spine-tingling action, kinky rebellion and edgy love, Frost Moon is classic storytelling at its best, and Dakota Frost is an irresistible new star of fantasy fiction.

Anthony Francis is a computer scientist who works at the "Search Engine That Starts With A G". By day he studies human and other minds to design intelligent machines and emotional robots; by night he writes fiction and draws comic books. He received his Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from Georgia Tech. He lives in San Jose with his wife and cats but his heart will always belong in Atlanta.

©2010 Anthony Francis (P)2012 BelleBooks, Inc.

skip it

What would have made Frost Moon better?

a new author and a new story, way too much "baggage" in this book for me

What was most disappointing about Anthony Francis’s story?

everything was disappointing. I think she could have done a better job fleshing out her main character instead of tying her up in dog collar regalia

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Traci Odom?

have no idea, don't know very many narrators yet

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Frost Moon?

the whole book and started over

Give it a pass

When the lead character comes straight from a male author's wet dream, is superficial and incredibly stupidly behaving (hello? you don't have them dress and act kick ass then immediately become compliant and stupid) and the supporting characters are more of the same.....

Traci Odom does a fantastic job with the narration. The characters have clear and easily distinguishable voices. Too bad this was not worth reading.

In summary - if you want marginal urban fantasy featuring a lot of primarily female BDSM/bisexual play as conceived by a guy this might be the book for you. If you want sex that is linked to the plot - go read Hamilton. If you want excellent urban fantasy relating to magic and tatoos - go listen to Angel's Ink.

So Bad I returned it!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A different book.

What could Anthony Francis have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The main character was unlikeable.

What didn’t you like about Traci Odom’s performance?

Could'nt get past the plot.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Total boredom

Any additional comments?

Don't waste a credit.

So bad

In order to fully express how much I detested this book, I’m going to have to admit some things I am not proud of. Here it goes: I listened to all nine million hours of Robert Jordan’s Waste of Time epic. I slogged my way through the never-ending Pretty Little Liars saga. It wasn’t because I loved either series. I hate not to finish things once I’ve started them.
I could not bring myself to finish the last two hours of this book. I cannot do it.
The characters are shallow. I don’t mean that their philosophies on life lack meaning. I mean that they are poorly developed. They act inconsistently with the little character that is developed in an effort to drive the story forward. They are pathetic, rebelling against the establishment (which I am generally in favor of) without reason, explanation, or effect (which I’m not).
Everything is too convenient. Although the protagonist is a Mohawk sporting, tattooed, bad attitude wielding smart-mouth, pretty much every person she comes across, man or woman, young or old, hard boiled Fed or paranoid werewolf, wants 1. To have her and 2. To help her. Need a way to get the totally private evidence in an ongoing investigation to your sketchy friends? Find a Fed who is ready to jump you or wait patiently by your hospital bed for no reason. Can’t defend yourself? Run into a martial arts instructor at a bar who wants to give you lessons because you ordered a Guinness. What could be more natural?
There’s a heavily sexual theme, although no actual sex at least with two hours left to go, but even that is weird. The main character is bi, counter-culture, and in with the BDSM crowd, but she’s weirdly prudish, blushing when she almost (Gasp) kisses another character and telling him she stopped moving that fast in college. And what there is about sex is vaguely queasy-making and pathetic. I did not find myself feeling excited by any of it, just a little sad and embarrassed for everyone involved.
There is a mystery here, and I don’t know for certain who dunnit. Usually, that would be good for only having two hours left, but honestly I just do not care and I don’t think I can accurately predict an outcome when the people behave so unnaturally. The mystery isn’t even all that interesting, and it involves a serial killer slicing tattoos off his victims while they are living. How bad does the writing have to be to make that dull?
The only nice thing I can say is that the narrator was acceptable, and even that isn’t entirely good. If she’d been terrible, I wouldn’t have bought it in the first place and wasted my time.

Bit of a Mary Sue

The idea of the book has good bones, but the writing style and how info is given is stilted. It reads a little forced and once I realized the author was a man writing in the first person as a female, the forced feel of the book made sense. It is not a bad book, but it is not a great book either