Seraphs

Rogue Mage, Book 2

By: Faith Hunter

Narrated by: Natalie Gold

Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Living among humans in a post- apocalyptic ice age, neo-mage Thorn St. Croix is a source of both fear and fascination for the people of Mineral City - and now she faces her ultimate test. Deep under the snow-covered mountains beyond the village, an imprisoned fallen seraph desperately needs her help. There, hidden in the hellhole, the armies of Darkness assemble to ensure this subterranean rescue will be Thorn's final descent.

©2008 Faith Hunter (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

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

“[A] darkly alluring vision of a future in which the armies of good and evil wage their eternal struggle in the world of flesh and blood.” ( Library Journal)

Hunter is captivating as usual.

I knew that Jane Yellowrock would be a hard act to follow. As a happily addicted fan, I was in doubt, and did not want to experience the letdown of struggling through a new series, inferior to the first.
To my grateful ears, unfolded a new world, different in pace and story, but just ' ducky'.
I love the way Hunter weaves a story. She takes us from hard action, to story line narrative, and back again.
I am happy in her new world and look forward to new offerings in the series.

Great story, lousy narrator.

Great worldbuilding by Faith Hunter as always, but the narration was horrid, stuttering and awful. I am ever so grateful that most of her other books have a different narrator.

interesting story but not Hunter's best

The idea for this series is interesting, but not nearly as well written as Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series. This narrator was a disappointment. Her emphasis often did not match the punctuation and structure of the sentences, making them more difficult for the listener to follow. She also mispronounced a number of words and worse, she changed her pronunciation of a couple of words multiple times throughout the course of the book. This was worth listening to at the sale price, but I would have been angry about the purchase had I paid full price or wasted a precious credit on this book.

Editing Aweful

What would have made Seraphs better?

1) Being able to listen to Chapter 152) The Editing of the audio is aweful. you can obviously hear wher they cut the audio. Never hear that in other books.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story was a decent story, wish I would have read these instead of listened to them.

Okay - Descriptions get a bit tedious

Any additional comments?

The series follows "Thorn" a stone mage living (illegally) in a post apocalyptic world ruled by vengeful angels. The post apocalyptic world is split between orthodox and progressive sects of humans, and Thorns life is disrupted by both "dark forces" and the orthodox humans, hating her mage status.

Through the books Thorn discovers more about herself and her past and bounces between various "love/sex" interests. However, due to a lack of character development it is hard to really care much about any of them.

As book one was only "okay", I only choose to read book two as I had little time to look for another and I was taking a long flight and needed entertainment. It has some potential and the narration is good, however, the descriptions are too lengthy for audio book, and as noted, character development needs a bit of work. Perhaps if I was reading it in paperback (or kindle) I would be able to skip through long descriptions of magic, clothing and gems and get back to the story. However, in audiobook it gets a bit tedious.

Very interesting world Faith Hunter has created.

The Rogue Mage series for me was very thought provoking. I could tell that a ton of research was done for this series. The detail was amazing and I don't think I have ever read anything like it. I will listen to or read a lot of books twice back to back because the first time through I do a lot of thinking about different aspects of the book etc. and miss things sometimes miss an important bit of info etc especially if I have read a lot of reviews beforehand. With a second read/listen, I tend to pick up little bits here and there that are important to the storyline. I tend to do this with movies too. Also if I have a copy of the ebook or print on hand, I will read along with the narrator. You would be surprised at how doing this helps enhance the story and help me remember things easier.
Another thing...I kept a pad of paper and pen handy to write down the 26 words I had to look up in the dictionary (I write down and look up words a lot when I read. It helps me fully understand what is being said. I also write down quotes and keep a written log of through books I read). Anyway...this is a great series and author. If you want something different or that makes you think or brings a book out of the "mold", then Faith Hunter is a must read author!!

This Series Is Awesome!

Would you consider the audio edition of Seraphs to be better than the print version?

Yes, Natalie Gold reads the characters so well. She brings them to life.

What did you like best about this story?

Thorn St. Croix as a Neomage, trying to make a living among people who would kill her just for being able to work the elements around her.

What about Natalie Gold’s performance did you like?

I liked Natalie's "voice" for Thorn's character and the life she breathes into the other characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and it was almost that...

Any additional comments?

Read all three of these books beginning with Blood Ring. Natalie does all three in the series...

awesome story

loved this book; narrator was great. Author is fabulous. I look forward to book 3.

There is no way this was written by Faith Hunter..

I tried and tried to get through this book and could not. I am going to return it and I have read everything Faith Hunter has written because I'm a huge fan. Actually this reads like a book written by a high school or college student. Could it be they dug up something old to push out there? Even the narrator was annoying. They should take this book off her rotation because if anyone reads this first, they will never get a chance to understand what a great writer she is.

very good

rogue mage book 1 was good but slow start. book 2 is good all the way through. reading book three starting tomorrow.