The Dragon Hunter and the Mage

By: V. R. Cardoso

Narrated by: Todd Menesses

Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

Magic can make you invincible, if it doesn't get you killed first.

Aric and Fadan are half-brothers. Both sons of the Empress, but only one of them the son of the Emperor. A decade ago, Fadan's powerful father tore the Empire in two by outlawing the use and practice of magic. Forbidden from seeing each other, Aric and Fadan defy the Emperor and wander the vast Imperial Citadel until one night, they stumble upon an ancient Manual of Magic. They are faced with a choice: take the book straight to the Emperor or see if one of them has the forbidden magical talent. Their world is turned upside down and the half-brothers find themselves swept away as tragedy and conspiracy separate them, sending each to either end of the Empire. In a world of dark mages, massive creatures, and vengeful gods, one will train as a Dragon Hunter while the other taps into magical powers that could spell his execution.

Dark forces are moving in the shadows and no one in the Empire is ready for what's to come. Will Aric and Fadan survive to ever see each other again?

©2016 Vasco Rodrigues Moreira Cardoso (P)2016 Vasco Rodrigues Moreira Cardoso

Good listen

Awesome new book along with great ( Audible ) narration done by Todd Menesses. I am not one to drone on with a review, but I will say that it's like a YA book, but less whiny, more action and start to a good world building along with a magic system.

I would normally toss a YA book out the window into a burning fire BUT there are a handful that I will let slide when the YA ( protagonist ) is not acting like a total self entitled know it all ass hat.

Oh, and if you like Dragons it has plenty of them.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Fun adventure for all ages with a twist

The story was fresh and original and the narrator was very good at giving each character a distinct voice and personality. This was more of a performance than a narration! I eagerly await the next book in the series.and hopefully it will be narrated, excuse me performed by Todd Menesses as well.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Good Start to the Series

I listened to The Dragon Hunter and the Mage in audiobook format, and overall I’d say it was a pretty good book. I did have a few issues with it, but positives first, the world was very well built, the plot well written, and overall quite enjoyable. Magic is usable by people with “the talent” to do basically anything. As far as I’m aware the potential of magic is basically limitless, except that they need to ingest a substance called Rudium which is made from dragon blood and is also illegal. It also appears to be insanely difficult to practice magic without gruesomely killing yourself in some way.

The plot was a bit of a weird one for me. The second half of the book was really well written, however, the first half was very slow and it took me quite a while to actually get into it. The real inciting incident didn’t occur until somewhere near 30% through the book, and even then it took a little while for things to start happening. At around halfway through the book really hits its strides and things really start to get interesting.

The characters were overall pretty well done, however, I did find a few of the less major characters to be a little bit bland. For example, the emperor seemed to have no real agenda and just liked to piss everyone around him off. The main characters, Aric and Faden, were mostly well written with a few weird moments, however, their motivations were evident, and character development well done.

The author also appears to not like using swear words. I found it frustrating that most swear words were replaced with “heck” instead of actual swear words. That’s really just a personal pet peeve, I found it particularly annoying when it was out of character and the tough guy dragon hunter was using “heck” instead of the actual swear words you’d expect them to use.

Overall, The Dragon Hunter and The Mage was quite a good book, but not quite in line with my own personal tastes.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The book

It's a fine book I just wasn't captivated so I'm not saying I don't like it I'm just saying the hook didn't sink

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

This book was very entertaining

This book will want you to keep listening the narrator's are well put together to make this story come to live.
I can't wait for book 2 to be available in audio books

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not the same old song

It's rare when there are young protagonists who are reasonable and intelligent; when stubbornness and arrogance are not the plot device used to throw them from one climactic moment to the next. The lead characters get a whole star to themselves just for not making me want to ground them.

The magic system and world building is good. Not great, but the elements while not entirely original, are at least not the most commonly repeated.

This doesn't sound like a great review, does it? But there is something about this book that makes it greater than the sum of it's parts.

I think, perhaps, that it's the narrator that drags my opinion down. I wonder what I would think of the book if I had seen it first in print.

Todd Menesses is gifted, but self indulgent. His character voices are rich and varied. His dialects and accents are pretty appropriate. His narrator voice, however, is affected and almost jarring in it's over enunciated phoniness. In between character voices, he sounds like a bad impression of the worst stereotype of a snooty British butler. I can only think that he must be so impressed with his own voice that he doesn't realize that he upstages himself- and the story.

So I'm a little on the fence with this one. Yes, I will buy the next in the series; I am engaged enough to commit to that. I'm going to do it knowing that I may have to hit the back button from time to time as I get distracted by the narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

What is with the voice Todd ?

I seriously cant for the life of me understand why Todd uses a faux English accent for the majority of the story, in such an odd baritone. Sure, he does an English accent realy well, but it just gets distracting as the book goes on. Why he doesnt use his natural voice for the narrative and save his character voices for individual characters is beyond me. On top of the distraction of the odd accent it also seems to cause him to mispronounce or use the wrong word entirely in a number of places. Im really struggling to make it to the end of the book due to the performance, from a performer I usually love to listen to.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Okay story - Infuriating Narrator

The narrator uses strange and unnatural intonations all throughout the story. The REALLY annoying thing, though, is that he can't seem to keep the same voice for any character. The character's voices and accents constantly change, sometimes within the same scene a few times within the same CONVERSATION. It is absolutely infuriating.

The story is.. Meh... Okay.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

A neat little story

Any additional comments?

This book didn't really offend or entrance, but it was a decent story. It flowed well. There are quite a few characters, so it can be a little much at times. I believe even the reader had issues creating the same voices for each of the characters...which was distracting at times.

I will say I am looking forward to the sequel, just to see where the story goes. ...and unlike many books, I don't feel cheated at the end....so, good show.

On the positive side, the characters do show growth...which has been an issue lately with books I have been going through. On the negative side, the initial "teen" phase of the kids was annoying as hell. The queen also seemed a little too weak at times, while being too strong at other times...the consistency for the character was missing.

Spoiler: ...characters die. Whoot. Worth the credit.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

good listen but slow

the book itself is great and the narrator has a very good voice but I did find it hard to follow the characters on voice alone. a lot of the voices the narrator gives seem to be close or the same and make it a little harder to listen too. that being said I will be buying the second narration and listening to it.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not Great Unfortunately

Unfortunately this audio book was really quite difficult to get into. The continuity is disjointed and the plot is quite weak.
On the plus side, the wonderful voice reading allowed me to see this book through to the end.

Decent story with a bad narrator.

The story is good. But the narrator has a bizarre habit of over emphasising on words, leading to him miss pronounce words.