Starlight

The Dark Elf War, Book 1

By: William Stacey

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart

A secret power. The revival of magic. An ancient evil stirs.

Twenty-year-old university dropout Cassie Rogan has returned to her small British Columbia home. Tortured by an accident that killed her parents, she drifts, failing life at every turn. When an impossibly localized lightning storm hits the surrounding forest, Cassie discovers her supernatural side.

After centuries of atrophy, the forces of magic are flowing back into our world, and Cassie can wield arcane powers. Her life seems destined to turn around, until the downside of magic brings everything to a screeching halt. Horrifying mythical beasts now prowl the Northern wilderness - including the basilisk - an enormous eight-legged lizard that can turn its prey to stone.

Recruited by a secretive agency, Cassie must quickly master her powers to protect mankind. As she develops her skills, a dark power secretly watches from the shadows. The Fae Seelie (aka the Dark Elves) - humanity's ancient enemy - have returned to settle the score.

Contains mature themes.

©2015 William Stacey (P)2018 Tantor

Good fun and worth the credit

This was a lot of fun and an excellent world jumping/portal fantasy. The fact that most of the world building takes on Earth was a good twist. What we thought was myth was/is reality. We just needed magic back in the world. The character building was also good. It took the extremes and made them more human by the end. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

Not for me initially, but grew on me.

Initially felt like what I would expect from a YA story. Lead character was not likeable to me in the first half of the book but the more she interacted with older adult characters (primarily Paco) the more she seemed personable.

Girl Powers ACTIVATE!!!

First off, I AM enjoying the book. However, the men all seem like dullards, or sufferers of "toxic" masculinity while the women are doctors and THE heroes and THE bad guys etc, ad nauseam. The men all seem to come across as A-holes in one way or another. Either they're pot heads, or drunkards or military A type personalities whose character dimensions do not go any farther than that. It diminishes what would otherwise be a compelling story.

Something different Finally

Avid reader of Military Science fiction. to the point most stories are predictable. But this was different. Good Story and good character development. Even learned a few things about the Canadian military. Would Recommend.

Good read

The story started off slowly but got better as it went along.

The narration was good.