The Wizard Hunters

Fall of Ile-Rien, Book 1

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Talmadge Ragan

Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Ile-Rien is in peril. A mysterious army known only as the Gardier has surrounded the country, attacking in ominous black airships. Hope is not lost though, for a magical sphere created by Ile-Rien's greatest sorcerer may hold the key to defeating the faceless enemy. But the sphere is unpredictable and has already claimed several lives. When a magical spell goes disastrously awry, young Tremaine Valiarde and a brave band are transported to another world-a world of rough magics, evil mages, honorable warriors, and a secret Gardier base.

©2003 Martha Wells (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The subsequent story seems intended to combine elements of high fantasy and cross-time travel, as if it were a collaborative work by Andre Norton and S. M. Stirling. Thanks to Wells' narrative skill and considerably above-average characterization, it largely succeeds in those intentions." ( Booklist)

Great story, awful to hear

I love this author and this series and was looking forward to listening to this book instead of just enduring interminable rush hour traffic. Unfortunately the narrator has made sitting in rush hour seem even longer with her over enunciated and oddly emphasized reading. I an trying to finish this but don't know if I can.

If Siri read a book, this is what you would get

I think this is a good story, but it is difficult… to get over… the narrator’s horribly timed… pauses mid-sentence. Every scene (be it dramatic or general information) and all the characters are read with little differentiation or inflection. Then there is the mispronunciation of words- names of places and people that were featured prominently in the 2 preceding novels. I cringed every time the narrator said “Ile-Rien”. I can only hope for improvement in the next novel, because the reading can’t get much worse!

Fast paced but not lacking in anything

A great start to a gripping trilogy. Well crafted, interesting characters and fascinating world building.

And it never fets boring.

One of my all time favorites

This is one of my all time favorite trilogies. It’s hard to classify since it starts in a roughly WW1 era, Paris like city, then gates to a pastoral fishing world, and from there to something like Nazi Germany. The characters are amazing. The heroine, Tremaine, and her uncle, the romantic interests - past and present, and a host of other characters. so real you feel like you know them, even as they face impossible odds trying to solve a mystery and save their worlds. I love the way that Tremaine takes on every challenge, the harder, the better. Talmadge Ragan does a very good job of narrating. #FemaleProtagonist #PortalFantasy #Magical #Suspenseful #HappyEnding #Underdog #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

I love this series, but...

the narrator is flat. Her efforts at other character voices make me wish that she wasn't trying to do voices. a straight reading would have been better.

good story, well read.

I see a lot of complaints about the book being read rather than performed. These reviewers are correct. The book is read rather than performed. However I will take a good reading over a baff performance and this is a good reading. The reader's voice is clear and pleasant with good diction. I'm still in the middle of the book but I'm enjoying it so I'll likely continue with the series.

Good story

Good story once it gets going, some of the names are a bit confusing, but that might be the narration. Narration really struggled, weird cadence and pauses in the middle of words. It was quite distracting.

Great story, disappointing narration

The world is complex and interesting, the plot is gripping, and the characters are engaging. All together, these pluses outweigh sub-par narration.
The narrator has very strange cadence & phrasing, adding many more pauses in a sentence than a normal reader would add and putting emphasis on words that a normal reader wouldn’t emphasize. The overall effect is to make the narration less enjoyable and harder to follow.

Decent but slow starting story, dragged down by narration

I normally enjoy Martha Well’s work, and this story, while slow to get going was no exception. Unfortunately the narration had me grinding my teeth and nearly made me ditch the whole thing. Misspronounceded words, and nextrad letters and syllables, along with peculiar pauses and a strange accent that grated on my non American ears made it very difficult. It may just have needed some direction, and editing, but it certainly needed something. I’m sure Talmadge Ragan is very good in other circumstances, but sadly this is not a something that worked well. Still deciding if I can struggle through the next books, but the story has its hooks in me so ……….

Story is okay. Narration struggles

So far all the Il-Rein books have been slow to move along, but they got somewhere, so I was willing to stay with the story, But the narration is so stilted with odd breaks in words and sentences that it was painful to listen to. I'm not sure I can manage the next two in the series with the same reader