Skinwalker

Jane Yellowrock, Book 1

By: Faith Hunter

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind - a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. But now she's been hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katie's Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who's killing other vamps.

©2009 Faith Hunter (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Nominee - Judges' Award for Best Paranormal Audiobook, 2011

"A new, strongly unique voice in the dark fantasy genre." (Kim Harrison)

"Hunter's very professionally executed, tasty blend of dark fantasy, mystery, and romance should please fans of all three genres." ( Booklist)

"Khristine Hvam portrays Jane with an adventurous-sounding voice edged with a twang.... Hvam’s voices for the Louisiana locals whom Jane learns to love and respect.... augment an intriguing story with hints of Native American mysticism." ( AudioFile)

So slow you wonder what the plot is

Was she paid by the word? Maybe. either way at least Dickens kept the plot moving so you'd buy the next installment.

Great series opener!

I’m listening to it at least the third time. It is better each go-through, I find stuff that I overlooked before!

Narrator is apparently not as smart as Jane

The narrator's voice is pleasant, but she has no idea what a real Southerner sounds like. As for Cajun, well, it's just embarrassing. Furthermore, she repeatedly pronounces "fleur-de-lis" as "fler de leese" and "jewelry" as "jewlery." Oh, and "objet d'arte is "Ob jet duh artay." The coup de grace, though, is when one of the male characters treats Jane with condensation (sic), which I am rather certain Faith Hunter wrote as "condescension."

This is the first audio book during which I found myself trying to glimpse the printed word beneath the hash the narrator made of it. I think Jane is a lot smarter than the narrator portrays her to be and that Hunter wrote a better book than comes off in this audio version. While it's nothing special in the world of urban fantasy, the book would have been enjoyable were it not for the clunkers thrown in by K. Hvam. Since it appears that she narrates future books in the series, I won't be pursuing it.

almost quit listening, glad I didn't

Actually, I quit listening to this book about two chapters in. The dialogue of Jane's beast about drove me nuts, the first time she changed forms. I absolutely hated it, so I quit listening. Then, I read other reviews, and the majority really liked the book. So, I gave it another try. The story developed, and became quite interesting, and luckily beast didn't do too much hunting ( cause I still don't care for the dialogue). At any rate, it turned out to be a good book, and I will buy the next installment.

Jane Yellowrock - Rocks !

Any additional comments?

I have listened to the entire series so far and have enjoyed it very much. I hope there will be many more books to this great series. I will be purchasing them as soon as they come out. :)

Jane & Beast Are An Awesome Duo On Audio!

When I originally heard about this series my first thought was “not another vampire hunter book” but, I quickly changed my tune when I met Jane’s Beast. I enjoyed the alternating POV’s of the main character, the large variety of unique supernaturals in the Jane Yellowrock universe and Faith Hunter’s descriptive yet action-packed writing style. Khristine Hvam’s superb narration also played a key role in my enjoy enjoyment of this audiobook; her transition between characters was smooth and I loved the way she read Beast’s parts.

For a novel about a skinwalker, Hunter reveals a surprisingly large amount of information about all of the other paranormals in her world with the exception of Jane herself, the character that I most wanted to learn about. Frustrating, yes, but the continued mystery surrounding Beast was even more maddening. Out of all of the creatures introduced in this book I enjoyed the witch mythology the most. I think this is the first time that I’ve come across magic practitioners that aren’t portrayed as human. Granted, there are tons of series’ out there where they evolve over time into something more but in this case, they are something other from the get-go which I found was a interesting twist on the typical witch.

I loved the back-and-forth between Jane and her Beast; they aren’t always in agreement as to the correct course of action in a given situation which made for some wildly entertaining internal arguments. Yellowrock’s POV was pretty much what I’ve come to expect from an Urban Fantasy heroine but Beast’s was something else entirely. Her perspective is more instinctual; she talks in halted sentences and is more hyper-aware of scents/sounds than your typical protagonist. I really felt like I was experiencing Hunter’s world from an animal’s POV, albeit a very intelligent one. This is also where Khristine Hvam’s narration really shined; her tone and rhythm captured my impression of Beast and brought it to life.

My biggest annoyance with this book was the lack of information where the main character is concerned. Normally I complain about too much information in the first installment of a series but in this case it was too little. Beast knows a lot more about Yellowrock and how they came to be together than she is letting on which again, frustrated me to no end. I couldn’t resist asking a friend who’s a few books ahead of me if more is revealed in the next installment because I don’t think that I could stand being strung along for too much longer. I need a lil’ something to keep me going! Luckily her response was affirmative so here’s hoping that Blood Cross sheds some light on a few more of this duo’s secrets. Aside from that, Skinwalker breathes new life into vampire hunter story line and takes talking to yourself to a whole new level of crazy. I look forward to seeing where this series goes from here.

Can't wait for more!

I loved this book. I love the separation between Jane and Beast, two separate beings in one body, working for a common goal. I really liked getting to know both distinctive personalities. The narrator Khristine Hvam is great as well. And there is even a sample from book 2 at the end, which I am just about to buy!
If you like the Spider (Elemental Assasin) series by Jennifer Estep, the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, or the Kate Daniels series by Illona Andrews you will like this...and if you haven't listened the above listed series they are all incredible as well!!
Happy listenenig!!

Great Read, but...

There is definitely a need to describe in detail the process of Jane's change, along with giving detailed descriptions of her weapons,and what they do, etc. But seriously? Is there a need to re-describe in all the details, and all the weapons, and what they do, each time Jane "suits up" for battle? The second and third and fourth time, it got a bit frustrating.

Loved it!

I wasn’t sure about this book, glad I got it. Ended up really enjoying it. Now I Am reading all the books. Narretator was good, she did a great job with the diff voices of the diff ppl. Look forward to the next book! #vampirehunter, #skinwalker, #louisiana, #tagsgiving,#sweepstakes

Confused

Book was listed under ROMANCE, but there was none to be seen. Story was interesting if a bit muddled here n there.