Magic Lost, Trouble Found

Raine Benares, Book 1

By: Lisa Shearin

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens

Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Raine is a sorceress of moderate powers, from an extended family of smugglers and thieves. With a mix of street smarts and magic spells, she can usually take care of herself. But when her friend Quentin, a no-quite-reformed thief, steals and amulet from the home of a powerful necromancer, Raine finds herself wrapped up in more trouble than she cares for. She likes attention as much as the next girl, but having an army of militant goblins hunting her down is not her idea of a good time. The amulet they're after holds limitless power, derived from an ancient, soul-stealing stone. And when Raine takes possession of the item, it takes possession of her.

Now her moderate powers are increasing beyond anything she could imagine - but is the resumé enchancement worth her soul?

©2007 Lisa Shearin (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Lisa Shearin has the potential to become the Janet Evanovich of fantasy. She writes with a fun, unpretentious style, and she has mastered writing with humor.” ( SFF World)

“Edgy and fascinating….This tough and feisty woman kicks butt.” ( Romantic Times)

Totally the wrong person to narrate this book!

There is a flow to a story. This woman does not have any decent grasp on this concept.
The voice is fine. The rythme and flow are terrible. She chops it up in ways that really don't work. And if she messed up the flow of thought and action any more than she does, I would be pushed over the edge into screaming and pulling out my hair out of frustration. I have read these books in print. This recording is terrible. The fragmentation makes the story being read confusing. This is not a confusing text. The flow of the writing is quite natural and engaging, until this woman reads it. Avoid books read by Eileen Stevens.

Enjoyable

Where does Magic Lost, Trouble Found rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A fun and exciting series with a very human heroine. No dark, depressing segments.

Worth the listen

My type of book, with the heroine who may be in over her head, will never walk away from doing what is right, even if she expects to die doing it. Her family may be the most notorious pirates around the seas, but she loves them anyway. While searching (which is her talent) and trying to keep her pirate cousin out of trouble she is attached to the most evil magical power. After fighting off those who wish to misuse this stone, and discovering her father used to be the protector of the stone is now vanquished inside the talisman she must go on to find a way to disconnect the stone from her before it eats her soul as well. Loved by both the most black magician around and the strongest white magician around, although neither will admit it, she must continue stumbling her way while trying to remain alive.

Excited about this series

Slow to start, but enjoyed the characters development. Narrator did a great job of putting voice to different characters.

Not enough emotional investment from main character

I liked this first book. It seems like an interesting beginning of the story and good amount of action. But somehow I don’t fell like there is a lot of emotions pass through from the main character or any character. Everything is just a bit bland. I’ll listen to the next book but I’m not as thrilled for it as with some other of my favorite series.
Also I like a bit more promise of romance in the first book than what I saw here. There are 2 potential romantic interests and Raine seems to be as okay with one as the other but no enthusiasm either way..

Great story, substandard narration.

There is a rhythm and a beat to a well written, first person, story. Lisa Shearin feels it, Raine Benars has it. Unfortunately for the listener, Eileen Stevens has neither; at least not in this first installment of the series.

This is a happening story. It's fun, fast, believable, and full of magical mayhem of the highest caliber. Raine Benars, elf, is a street kid at heart. She has high standards, but they may not always reflect those of her society. She finds things for a living. Some of the things she finds may or may not be considered legally lost...

In this story she starts out with the best of intentions and, through a series of events which are completely beyond her control, ends up the center of attention in a wild magical quest which drags her through the lowest of the low to the highest levels her society can offer - and she manages to fit in perfectly at every turn. If you are ready for fun, this is the perfect series for it.

This story rates 4 stars. Unfortunately, the narration doesn't.

Decent Story

The Story/plot was pretty good, however the narration wasn't. I had to rewind several times as the monotonous tone of the reader had me drifting. The lack of inflection, and rise and fall of voice had me falling asleep several times. Get someone else to read this series as I believe it is a decent one. In my opinion buy the book.

Don’t give up! Narration takes a minute to get into. But worth the listen!

I read the SPI books by the same author first and fell in love with her writing. I can tell these are an earlier effort and her craft has improved. That being said, it is a very enjoyable read and fascinating to hear the back story for some of these characters that make brief appearances in the other series. Don’t get me wrong, the writing isn’t bad or even close to it. But in the author’s later series, there is more depth to the story from the get go. As this book progressed, I started to see the depth I’m accustomed to in her writing develop rapidly.
The narrator has a similar caveat. Starts off fairly rough, as if she can’t get into the book. As the story goes on, she finds her groove and becomes enjoyable to listen to. Don’t give up, it’s worth the rough beginning.

Great Series

Any additional comments?

This is the latest series I'm listening to. As a first book, it was a pretty good start and the series keeps getting better as it evolves. I just bought book 5 and plan to get the rest. The only odd thing I had to deal with was trying to imagine tall sexy goblins. I've always thought of them as squat ugly things; but I just picture Legalos with fangs.

Couldn't finish the book due to unsuited narration

What would have made Magic Lost, Trouble Found better?

This audiobook would have been better with a different narrator. I hope Audible commissions a different recording in the future.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I had such a hard time staying interested in the story because of the monotonous unsuitable narration.

Any additional comments?

I never read the book in print but heard I would probably like it. As it was, I got about 3/4 of the way through the audiobook before abandoning it because the narration is so unsuited.