The Dragon Hunter and the Mage

Wounds in the Sky, Book 1

By: V. R. Cardoso

Narrated by: Todd Menesses

Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Two brothers destined to change the world....

Aric and Fadan are half-brothers. Both sons of the empress, but only one of them son of the emperor. A decade earlier, Fadan's powerful father tore the empire in two by outlawing the use and practice of magic. When Aric and Fadan stumble upon an ancient manual of magic, they're faced with a choice: take the book straight to the emperor or see if one of them has the forbidden magical talent.

But dark forces are moving in the shadows. Tragedy and conspiracy send Aric and Fadan to either end of the empire, one to train as a dragon hunter, the other tapping into magical powers that could spell his execution. In a world of dark mages, fearsome dragons, and vengeful gods, only friendship, loyalty, and love can keep the brothers from meeting their doom.

The Dragon Hunter and the Mage is the first audiobook in a series of coming-of-age epic-fantasy novels. If you like fast-moving plots, magical world-building, and political intrigue, then you'll love V. R. Cardoso’s spellbinding tale. Buy The Dragon Hunter and the Mage and start the magical adventure today!

©2016 Vasco Rodrigues Moreira Cardoso (P)2016 Vasco Rodrigues Moreira Cardoso

Not bad

I enjoyed the story line but I am an adult and the word hell is not offensive to me using the word heck is since damn was used.

Good Start to the Series

I listened to The Dragon Hunter and the Mage in audiobook format, and overall I’d say it was a pretty good book. I did have a few issues with it, but positives first, the world was very well built, the plot well written, and overall quite enjoyable. Magic is usable by people with “the talent” to do basically anything. As far as I’m aware the potential of magic is basically limitless, except that they need to ingest a substance called Rudium which is made from dragon blood and is also illegal. It also appears to be insanely difficult to practice magic without gruesomely killing yourself in some way.

The plot was a bit of a weird one for me. The second half of the book was really well written, however, the first half was very slow and it took me quite a while to actually get into it. The real inciting incident didn’t occur until somewhere near 30% through the book, and even then it took a little while for things to start happening. At around halfway through the book really hits its strides and things really start to get interesting.

The characters were overall pretty well done, however, I did find a few of the less major characters to be a little bit bland. For example, the emperor seemed to have no real agenda and just liked to piss everyone around him off. The main characters, Aric and Faden, were mostly well written with a few weird moments, however, their motivations were evident, and character development well done.

The author also appears to not like using swear words. I found it frustrating that most swear words were replaced with “heck” instead of actual swear words. That’s really just a personal pet peeve, I found it particularly annoying when it was out of character and the tough guy dragon hunter was using “heck” instead of the actual swear words you’d expect them to use.

Overall, The Dragon Hunter and The Mage was quite a good book, but not quite in line with my own personal tastes.

This book was very entertaining

This book will want you to keep listening the narrator's are well put together to make this story come to live.
I can't wait for book 2 to be available in audio books

Good read

I liked the storyline, the characters and eager to hear more. I had a hard time with the reader though. His accents were horrible and I was tempted to stop listening many times but I was intrigued to hear what would happen. I will listen to the next book when it's available.

Very Good

Very interesting and creative book! Excited to read part 2. Will be reading the next novel right away.

great plot....

didn't care for the narration though. it was actually pretty jarring at times. hard to get into for a while.

Good story

Will be frustrating if you don't like it whennnn the speaaakkeerr spreaaadds ouuuutt hisss worrrdds.

Solid but not great

First things first, the cover is very misleading. The Hunter and the Mage spend less than 1/10 of the book together. The only thing that connects the two are that they are half brothers. Now, I dare say that it's safe to assume that the two of them are going to meet back up (Probably in book 2), but I originally purchased this book thinking that this was going to be some magical version of Royce and Hadrian. And that was all due to the cover.

Now, to the actual story. You're getting a decent start into a new world. One where magic is on the run (due to the mage's father. A little predictable, but time honored) and dragons are the blood line for the magical community. In reality, there are 2 books going on there. The Hunter goes and faces dragons, gets a team, gets some friends, and saves the girl. The Mage plays politics, learns magic, and gets involved with espionage. Again, let me say that the book is plenty good. World development is a strength and the descriptions are top class. The character development is a little lacking and the plot is highly predictable, but it at least keeps you interested the entire time.

The true downside to the purchase is Todd Menesses. He's definitely not the worst I've heard, but he's on the bottom of the spectrum. His voice changes are mostly jut various degrees of roughness, but the worst part is that he holds on to the last syllable of every sentence. You get used to it, but it really bothered me for a while at the beginning.

Worth a credit.

The book

It's a fine book I just wasn't captivated so I'm not saying I don't like it I'm just saying the hook didn't sink

Good listen

Awesome new book along with great ( Audible ) narration done by Todd Menesses. I am not one to drone on with a review, but I will say that it's like a YA book, but less whiny, more action and start to a good world building along with a magic system.

I would normally toss a YA book out the window into a burning fire BUT there are a handful that I will let slide when the YA ( protagonist ) is not acting like a total self entitled know it all ass hat.

Oh, and if you like Dragons it has plenty of them.