Shadow Magic

Darkling Mage, Book 1

By: Nazri Noor

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

The gods are dying. But for one man, death is only the beginning. 

Murdered as a ritual sacrifice, amateur thief and professional charmer Dustin Graves mysteriously survives, finding himself gifted with strange, dark magic. Then more dead bodies turn up. Some are human, but one is a god of the old world, slain at his own doorstep. 

Mortal or divine, the bloodshed must end, and Dust is the mage for the job. But first he must contend with a succubus, a talking sword, a spider queen, a goddess of magic, and eldritch abominations from beyond the stars. No big deal...right? 

If you like snarky heroes, snappy dialogue, and a bit of grit and gore, you'll love the first standalone audiobook in Nazri Noor's series of urban fantasy novels. Explore the Darkling Mage universe and discover a taste of Shadow Magic today.

©2018 Nazri Noor (P)2019 Nazri Noor

Great narration. Story fell short for me.

I have listened to Luke Daniels before and like him as a narrator. His performance in this book was also well done. Good enunciation and emotion given to the voices of characters. Different characters sounded different and I could easily tell who was who. These are the important points for me and he hit them all splendidly.

The story in this book is very confusing at first when you are dropped in to the middle of a scene with no introduction and the situation is slowly explained over the course of the book. The main character was not very likable for me as I have never really been a fan of weak-willed characters with false bravado. The different situations in the book never felt real or dangerous for the main character either. Everybody, friend or foe, was nice to the main character and it really made everything feel fake. The abilities in the book seemed interesting but were never really used much or given good descriptions. I think this story could have been good but the execution fell short.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Excellent!

I found this book while looking for another fantasy series narrated by the talented Luke Daniels. And I loved it! I immediately wanted to start the second one as soon as I finished (and the second one is now available on Audible!). Very interesting and fast paced story and magic system. Humorous with a good balance of action and plot. The main character is very likable. This reminded me of the Iron Druid series, which is one of my favorite series. Highly recommend if you like fun urban fantasy and excellent storytelling.

Made For TV

This book was obviously born from the imagination of someone familiar with D&D, fantasy video games, comic books, mythology, and HP Lovecraft. The protagonist is a self-professed geek. As I am also a self-professed geek who is founded in all of those prerequisites, I connected easily.

However, were I not a self-professed geek who was founded in all of those prerequisites, I might have found this book to be a drab read, with one-dimensional characters, and a fairly common plot. And, while that may seem like a dig, it isn't. The story isn't the problem here. The medium is.

This has all the components to be a hit TV show. If the audience only had 45mins of viewing time per episode, this would be perfect. If someone from a major media network is reading this, please contact Nazri Noor, get started on this pilot, and let me know when to tune in. Because, this novel was made for TV.

Excellent Start for a New Series

I had no expectations going into this book. I had not herd of it before, and had not read any reviews. I also did not read the prequel, Penumbra. The tone and pacing of the story are both well done. The magic system is different. The plot is interesting, and the story was great. The narrator, Luke Daniels, did an excellent job with the voices, tone, and pacing. Overall it was a great experience and I look forward to the rest of the series.

Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Noor rocks! Luke is bad ass! Fun and fast times!

Magical, mystery, mages of masculinity. Can't wait for Book 2!! Noor and Daniels rock hard.

80% Internal Monologue

If you want the best bang for your credit, skip this one. I'm an hour in and not impressed. Considering the audiobook is barely longer than seven hours total, the fact that nearly 80% of the content is just the main character's internal monologue is insane. Every little action he takes seems to require intense introspection, to the point that few actions have actually been taken over the first hour. If that changes throughout the book, I'll be sure to update this.

I also couldn't help wondering if a different voice actor would have been the right way to go. Luke Daniels can't seem to decide on accents or speech patterns for characters to have. It's not too distracting but it does take away what little the book already has

Edit: Managed to finish the book. My assessment remains the same. The book barely manages to account for a few days. The seven hours are filled with more introspection, the main character walking to get food, eating, describing the food at length and the back story of a restaurant manager, etc. The book reads like the author just needed to reach a certain word count and just fluffed wherever he could. While still managing to avoid going into any detail about any of the actual magic in the book

more please

what Harry Dresden might have been like as a young man in different circumstances. I enjoyed the narration and look forward to more.

A new fantasy world and series to fall into

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

With that done, this is a great book. The narrator hits it out of the park with the voices, enough variance in tone and cadence with the characters to make them a great listen. The story, while treading in familiar water, swims in a different way. A touch of battle magic, a hint of spying, a dash of awkward main character and amusing side characters makes a great book. If you're looking for something new, in the fantasy/hidden magic world sort of setting this will scratch that itch.

I liked the story, didn't like the narration

I think I would have like this book more if it had a different narrator, or at least a different tone and such for the main character Dustin's voice. Others might not mind it as it shows in the reviews, but he, the narrator made Dustin sound dumb, to me, he was too excitable and irritating (just my opinion). I wish I could explain it better, but all the other voices were good, even great, but having the main characters voice sound like it does, almost made me stop listening right away, but I listen to it all, as the story line was pretty good, but I cringed every time I heard Dustin, which was all the time. If the narrator gave Dustin a different "vibe" to his voice, made him sound more mature or smarter (even though he is new at this whole magic thing, talking about Dustin), Dustin's voice seems to "fit" Dustin's character or do his character justice. Anyway, I would love to see where book 2 takes the character and the story, but I couldn't listen to Dustin's voice for another 7 hours or so. But, again, just want to point out that the narrators other voices were good, but I gave a one star for it, because (only in my opinion) Dustin was the main character, so the enjoyment of listening to the book wasn't there for me.

Good Start To A Series

I really liked the main character Dustin. He has a sense of humor and quick wit to back it up. The story has a fresh take on magical powers and the supernatural. The ending was extremely enjoyable and had a grand battle to boot. The Narration is spot on for conveying the tone of the story. I am looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A great introduction to a new series

Shadow Magic by Nazri Noor is the first book in the Darkling Mage series, a supernatural adventure which introduces us to thief-turned-mage Dustin 'Dust' Graves. We meet Dust as he is beginning to come to terms with a more magical existence, and learns that he must use his new powers for something a bit more dangerous than pilfering some supernatural pottery.

Dust is a classic 'lovable rogue', though one who probably told you that himself while excusing some sketchy behaviour. This wise-cracking wizard seems to find trouble wherever he goes, but has a cat-like ability to wriggle out of it. In the employ of a Top Secret Magical Corporation known as the Lorica, he is charged with solving the murders of old gods - 'entities' - who are being sacrificed by someone who is intent on absorbing their power. Someone who may also have been responsible for Dustin's own murder...

Shadow Magic was well written and I enjoyed the story. I really liked the premise but as the first book in a series I would have preferred Dustin's first adventure to have kept him at the Lorica. It is difficult to find the balance between setting up a series arc and creating a standalone story, but I would have loved to learn a little more about it and the other mages with Dustin still on the inside and part of the team, so I hope it features again in later audiobooks. Noor does a good job of setting up the alternate universe in which it is set; one where magical artefacts and supernatural creatures rub shoulders with the 'normals' in modern-day California. The book's lore develops nicely, and because our glimpse behind the veil mirrors Dustin's own journey of discovery it never feels as though there is unnecessary exposition. Some of the humour was a little laboured, with far more time than necessary given to a magical book of very little importance just so that Noor could make a joke about Facebook, but in a way that, too, was authentic. Guys like Dustin who make jokes about everything are going to drop a few clangers.

As I was listening it did feel as though there were parallels to a few other series' which may have had some influence on the author. Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series and Jim Butcher's early Dresden Files bear a few distinct similarities, though fortunately without the misogyny which plagued the latter. It's difficult to incorporate old gods in 21st Century America without making people think of an acclaimed novel by Neil Gaiman, but Strange Magic is very different in tone and execution to American Gods, and does not feature the deities with as much prominence. The incessant snark and first-person narrative reminded me of the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer, though that may be because the narrator also worked on that series. (Something I hadn't realised until I plucked Off to be the Wizard out of my Audible library to double-check the spelling of the author's surname for this review.)

I was very pleased to note that despite reminding me of these other great books, Strange Magic never felt as though it was borrowing from them too heavily and - most importantly - did not pale in comparison. It held its own very well, keeping me engaged and entertained until the end, and I will certainly add the rest of the series to my wishlist if this one does well enough for them to become available in audio.

The narrator, Luke Daniels, has an enthusiastic, expressive delivery which suited the protagonist's snarky showmanship. There were times when the relentlessness of the dramatic, irreverent, quips became a little annoying but that had more to do with the character than the narrator.

I would recommend this audiobook to fans of the other books I have mentioned, and anyone who likes urban fantasy.

*I received this audiobook free of charge in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Good story

Really enjoyed listening and Dustin made me laugh in places . Luke Daniels narrated perfectly and I’m going to buy book 2 soon.

Bad narration

definitely one of the worst audio books I've listened to. would return if I could

Magically Awesome

Absolutely can't wait for the next instalment. This book is so good. Easy to listen to the audio artist did an amazing job. Especially with all the character's. Dustin the main character is AWESOME & it's got werewolves vampires mage & maybe even God's. I'm so sad it ended😭 Quickly searching for next instalment

New series starts strongly

I had previously read the ebook version and enjoyed it in that format, but it meant I was not going into this version blind. Luckily, this book is one that stands up to rereading/listening with a well-realised world and magical system, filled with an array of interesting characters.

Dustin, the main character, is a Hound for a shadowy organisation, which means he steals potentially dangerous magical items from those who do not understand what they have, he is a likeable mix of competency and idiocy with a healthy dose of snark to round things off.

Anyone who has listened to a lot of audiobooks will probably be very familiar with the prolific Luke Daniels who delivers another quality performance with his narration, bringing the characters to life as always and my only slight quibble is that some of the voices he used in this one sound just like some from another series I am listening to at the moment, but luckily they work well in both places.

Overall, an enjoyable book becomes an even better audiobook and I will eagerly look out for the other books in the series to follow this one onto the format.

[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]