The Reluctant Mage

Fisherman's Children, Book 2

By: Karen Miller

Narrated by: Nell Geisslinger

Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

Four years have passed since Rafel disappeared in the expedition over the mountains. Deenie, now 18, starts having disturbing dreams about her brother. She comes to believe he's not dead after all, but is in trouble and needs her help.

She enlists the aid of her cousin Randa and the girls hatch a plan to escape from Lur. They escape and survive the hazardous journey round the coastline past the mountains. To their dismay they discover that the lands beyond Lur are blighted with lawlessness and chaos. The remnant of Morg's consciousness that survived his death splintered at his downfall and sought refuge in whatever bodies could be found to host them.

Throughout their travels and adventures they get some answers about the other lost expeditions, and keep hearing about one fearsome mage who's slowly but surely gaining the upper hand from his stronghold in the blighted near-mythical land of Dorana. Deenie knows this is her brother - that Rafel's not only in danger, he's become dangerous. If he's not stopped he could become a threat to the whole world. Perhaps even another Morg.

©2010 Karen Miller (P)2010 Hachette

I couldn't finish this book.

I was so distracted by the strange changing accents and the new pronunciations of names that I couldn't focus enough to finish listening.

Be prepared for another reader

I enjoy this series a lot, and even with this book having a 4th reader, the immersion into the world is still there. But with this new reader be prepared for absolute butchery. She gives characters random accents, and mainly butchers the crap out of the pronunciation of Lurr, Rafael, and a bunch of other things. It's very difficult to get used to her killing the names of people and places after 3 books of the same pronunciation.

Narrator change

How could the performance have been better?

If you change the Narrator make them listen to past books so it's easier to follow some names sound different makes it harder listen

What character would you cut from The Reluctant Mage?

None

Any additional comments?

Wish they just have the same narrator for the books

narrator bad pronunciation

the narrator pronounced lur as lore; rafel as raFEL; among others.

great story none the less.

Poor listen

the way that it was red and how some of the names were mispronounced and some of the places were pronounce really took me out of the context of the story. There were many cringe moments when a character's name was mispronounced. I did although make it through the book. but I cannot recommend anyone listen to this.

great book

the story was an amazingly great conclusion to the innocent Mage series. what I didn't like was a changeup in narrators from The Prodigal mage to The Reluctant mage. I know that changing narrators happens lot but it was weird because The Reluctant mage pronounced main characters names entirely different. it was very off-putting and I had to force myself to listen to the book. It wasn't until halfway through the book that it no longer seemed weird.

Narrator changed

Would you listen to The Reluctant Mage again? Why?

The narrator is awful on this reading. She mispronounces the names and even pronounces babies like baaahbies once. The story itself is good.

Would you be willing to try another one of Nell Geisslinger’s performances?

I would not listen to anything else narrated by Nell Geisslinger if I can help it!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

In the publishers summary it reads "She enlists the aid of her cousin Randa." Who is Randa?? There are no cousins mentioned that I'm aware of.

struggled to finish

I struggled to finish, but I did finish listening because I paid for it.

The difference a narrator makes!

This is better than the first book in this series and the narrator made the entire world of difference!