Steal the Dragon

By: Patricia Briggs

Narrated by: Jennifer James Bradshaw

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

Patricia Briggs' "unique" (Kliatt) novel of a slave, swordwielder, and spy gets a second life with an exciting new package to attract the fans that made her Mercy Thompson novels bestsellers.

©2011 Patricia Briggs (P)2011 Penguin Audio

good, not great, but good

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

no

Would you be willing to try another book from Patricia Briggs? Why or why not?

i love patricia briggs, and i love most of her books (the Mercy Thompson Series is a must read), so i had high hope for this book (i loved masques) but i didn't fall in love with any for the charaters (like i did with wolf).

Have you listened to any of Jennifer James Bradshaw’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

i have heard her in The hob's Bargan and it was ok, but i would have had Katherine Kellgren read all of the Sianim Series.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

no

Any additional comments?

dont think of it as part of Sianim Series (Masques and Wolfsbane) think of it as its own book.

Narration improves on weak plot

Excellent narration by Jennifer James Bradshaw. She differentiated the voices, and sounded not "sexy" (as someone said) but mellifluous, with a smoothly modulated voice.

As for the story itself, please excuse any misspelling of names, since I listened only. I liked the developing relationship between the healer Tristan (a sylvan, a green magic user) and the empath Riella (escaped slave turned horse whisperer and spy). That was nicely handled, even though Tris pulled a fast one, and should have had to grovel more.

However, the plot is weak. The final resolution didn't hold together well, because of a sudden character shift. I couldn't see "the prophet" as anything but a slave trader and rapist. His link with "the night god" didn't make sense, since this god was known for providing refuge for the weak, by covering them in darkness, hiding them (not raping or enslaving). Thus, the prophet's characterization went wonky, when Briggs tried to re-draw him as benign, just because he helped... Never mind. No spoilers here. Also, the whole cats plot thread went nowhere, really. I expected more of that.

This is part of a series, but it can be read as a stand alone, no problem. Overlapping characters are the spymaster (Wren) and the aeMagi.

Contents include rape, murder, and torture.

Ignore the title. No dragons, except in a game and a memory.

Narrator tried too hard to sound 'sexy'

I've read every book written by Patricia Briggs at least twice, and have listened to all her audio books until this one. I found Ms Bradshaw's narration irritating, so much so that i couldn't listen to the book. It seemed she was trying too hard to make her voice smooth and husky instead of using a natural tone. If not for that, I might have been able to listen to the characters because they didn't seem too bad at first, and I thought once she got into the book, they'd only improve. Unfortunately, I found myself grinding my teeth at her narrator's voice. Disappointing.

Surprisingly Good!

My expectations were not high since the characters were different. How could this be as good as the last? It exceeded my expectations and I couldn't put it down. So many twists and turns in the story kept me guessing as to what would happen. The narrator's performance was great!

Creative premise but overall result - not great😕

Just my personal opinion- This book was not one that held my interest, so it made listening to the entire story difficult. I only stuck it out because it said it was part of a series, so I didn't want to miss anything in case future books in the series got back to the characters I learned to like during the first two books. This was very creative, as the author is extremely gifted, but I just was not able to build up much interest in its characters as I did listening to her other books. The narrator's performance was ok but I think there was a lot of room to make this listening experience much more enjoyable. I won't lister to this one a second time & I'll be double checking the main characters & narrator in the next book in the series to see if they change back to originals or something new entirely - if it appears to be more of these characters' story, I'm going to save my credit/money and wait for something different to buy & listen to. Maybe Patricia Briggs's next book about Mercy will be ready soon & I'll buy it ASAP!

Dreamy voice.

I enjoyed the narrator's dreamy voice with this story. It's exactly how I would expect Rialla's voice to sound like. The characters were distinctive from each other and she spoke in a consistently controlled cadence that was easy to listen to and understand.

creative

her storys are constantly changing and getting better, every new one i listen to is intriguing. I started out as a mercy Thompson fan and now i can accurately say I am a Patricia Briggs fan !

I enjoyed the book and performance equally

both were what I expect from Patricia Briggs and anyone who works with her. I hope there's a sequel.

This is the one I keep coming back to!

So amazing and unique, I've listened to it at least 20 times and still love it to no end!

Excellent series.

As stated above an excellent series, also a great stand alone story.
Jennifer Bradshaw again another great job as narrator.
A fun way to spend a rainy afternoon.