The Fever King

Feverwake, Book 1

By: Victoria Lee

Narrated by: Michael Crouch

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks - refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son - cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful - and the way forward becomes less clear.

Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.

©2019 Victoria Lee (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Lee thoughtfully gives the subject of refugee and immigration policies center stage...the setup of this new world and planned series is genuinely compelling, and it’s filled with striking moments.... Readers will be absorbed as the book melds fantasy and action with psychology and political intrigue."--The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"This fast-paced, issue-driven thriller will collect readers, who will eagerly anticipate the sequel. With references to the Holocaust as well as present-day issues of immigration, deportation, martial law, and racism, Lee has worked philosophical and current-day realities into a promising series opener."--Booklist

"[A] standout. Diverse characters, frank discussions about sexual and mental abuse, and reasonably plausible science-based magic elevate this above many dystopian peers."--Kirkus Reviews

Don't read this ONLY for the gay rep and sci-fi...

... if you love tension, political intrigue, and watching in horror as a character gets manipulated, you'll love this book! Seriously, I see how that could be thrilling.

Personally I found the tension and depictions of manipulation stressful to listen to. Don't get me wrong -- I think this is really well done! The magic system is intriguing, as is the world and the villain. Noam is a frustratingly dense but well-characterized protagonist. I'm invested enough to get the sequel, I think. I hope Dara and Noam end up happy. I want to see more of this hundred-years-later world. I wanna see how they get out of this.

But right now I'm specifically looking for escapism to carry me through hours of dull work. I guess it wasn't so on the nose in 2018, but right now the talk of protests and plagues and radicalized teens and old men hanging onto power... Well, that's not escapism.

Still, the intrigue of this story outweighs the stress, most of the time. I hope the next installment has happier moments.

Good story, bad performance

I found the performance to not make sense at many points. Everytime a chapter curses, the narrator sounds like he’s never heard anyone say the word before in is life. I like the book itself, but I found the performance to be very difficult to get through.

Amazing

Fantastic story with magic, politics, pain, revenge, and love. Expertly performed by Michael Crouch - a must listen.

This is a must listen!

In 2018, the United States fell apart. In the aftermath, several different countries were formed. One of the main reasons was the emergence of a deadly virus, the survivors of whom end up developing various powers.

Noam Alvaro is the lone survivor in his family when they get the virus. With a powerful presenting power, Noam is quickly catapulted to living among the magical elite of Carolinia. Noam, whose parents were undocumented immigrants from Atlantia, has long been working against the elite of Carolinia because of the country's treatment of immigrants. So when Noam is provided the opportunity to work directly with the Defense Minister who seems to agree with Noam's own views on immigrant rights and the actions Noam wants to take. But then he meets Dara, Minister Lahra's son, and his pathway seems much less clear.

But, when it comes time to carry out the plan, just how far will Noam go for the greater good? And just whom will Noam trust?

The twists and turns in this book are so good, information coming in so fast, that it was hard to determine what end was up. When you take away the magical abilities, the issues over immigration and the treatment of immigrants are very applicable to today. With the political intrigue of a coup serving as the backdrop for the love story, there were so many threads to the story that it was almost difficult to keep up by the time they had all gotten going. That said, the first half of the book was somewhat slow.

Still, the plot was interesting enough that I kept listening, and I'm glad I did. The narrator, Michael Crouch, gave a solid performance - the tension and emotion he gave to Noam's inner thoughts, particularly as he was struggling with his beliefs and his feelings, who he could trust, and what he really thought should be happening, are what carried this book, and Michael Crouch knocked that out of the park.

With the way this book ended, I am definitely looking forward to reading/listening to the sequel. Especially with the revelations at the end.

let it be known that i am not often emotional

i found this book from reading the (ongoing) comic by the same name, and, well... the full story gutted me. i grew attached to the characters quicker than i could have anticipated, and suffice to say that i did not expect to be crying over them multiple times before the finale. this is the representation i've been longing for and, especially now, the camaraderie i've been needing. i can't wait to get my hands on the second book.

The Fever King Book Review

I selected this title as a part of my Kindle First book. I would like to offer a disclaimer to those who are looking for books for their teenagers. This book has profanity and some sexual reference that I didn't find appropriate for the audience. I have not read many books for this age group that maintained profanity or sexual references, so I would not know if they should have been censored some more or if those who read this type of book find it appropriate. I generally do not enjoy books with much profanity, so that was a no for me in this book. There are not as many sexual references, but the one I took note of was enough to question whether it is appropriate for the audience: "Probably went home with someone. Probably suffocating himself on dick as we speak." For parents who are wondering if their children should read this book, I recommend having a read through themselves first to properly judge whether or not they want their teens reading this book. It is not one that I, myself, will be recommending at all to anyone.

The narrator in the story did not draw me in. The voice just did not captivate me. I found myself wondering what is the main struggle going on here, what the author's intent was in creating such complex conflicts. I understood the character's struggle with his technopathic ability. I had no problem with that and actually was very interested in that part of the story. That is was drew me in. However, the author seems to create more conflicts with the character's attraction to the minister's son. That love interesting was believable enough. The love interest was created to cause tension, and I got that.

What I did not understand was the whole undocumented and deportation part of the novel. I did not understand what the purpose of that part of the novel was about. It appeared as if the author wanted to tackle many different issues in one novel, and it just came out very confusing to me. That whole part of the story confused the hell out of me when I read it. The story takes place in Durham, North Carolina, so I was confused as to what was really going on. I just don't think I ever got a good grasp on this world Lee created. I just never really understood this whole dystopian United States. I found myself asking, "where are they being deported to?" If all of this information was provided, then I completely missed it. Again, I was not drawn into this story, so it is possible I missed that explanation when it was explained.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but there were more cons that pros for me. I am a voice-driven reader. If the voice does not draw my attention, I give the plot a chance. If both the plot and the voice fail to draw me in, then I will not enjoy a book. If this is a book that I did not have the audiobook for, I would have stopped reading and added it to my DNF shelf on Goodreads. The only reason I got through this book was because of the audiobook, and even then, I only listened while working on other things.

Audible Review:

Crouch's narration was well done. The narration was not overenthusiastic, and I am not quit sure it really captured the character's personality that well, but it was not bad in a way where I couldn't listen. I did not enjoy listening at 1.0 speed; the narration is not enthusiastic, and listening at a 1.0 speed was frustrating. The narration at 1.25 speed is a bit more tolerable but still not quite good enough for me. I had to speed the narration up to 1.50 speed; that was the slowest speed I would listen to. For those of us who like to multitask and listen on the go, I recommend listening at a 1.75 or 2.0 speed, so one does not miss anything. For those who are listening while reading the book, I found  2.5 speed to be the best. 3.0 and 3.5 speeds were too fast for me, and I was missing a lot of what the narrator was saying and had to eventually slow down the narrator's reading speed.  

Who To Trust?

I wasn’t quite sure about this book at first after reading some mixed reviews. I did enjoy Victoria Lee’s unique old world new world dystopia thriller. I will say it took me some chapters to keep me fully vested into story. A lot happens in the beginning then it slows down a tad then it picks back up towards the middle and end. I did enjoy the main character but felt like he couldn’t of made brighter decisions. As the book develops you don’t know who Noam should really trust. I’ll have to listen to the second book to see what will happen next.

Praise Fever King

I read this book a couple years back and it helped my get back into reading, I listened to it so as to remember everything before I start the second book

Insightful, Frustrating, and Enthralling

The one thing that is crystal clear I from reading this book is that revolution is messy. Combine that with magic, telekinesis, and old-fashioned political manipulation, this is a fascinating story. My one issue is that the main character is slow and almost stupid in his blind devotion. Characters this year and that grow up in a difficult environment help more StreetSmarts to warn them about who to trust and who not to trust that is depicted here. Well there are people like the main character who retain a naïveté after suffering, they are generally not a good as a protagonist. Nevertheless, I was constantly fascinated by where the author would take the story and while I disagree with many of her choices, this is a solidly built novel with a lot of insight into politics and revolution.

Slow at first and then Shezam!

love books that I can't predict the ending to. The intro is a smidge slow, but I had questions the whole time, and I just have no idea what book 2 brings. can't wait to find out!