The Staff and the Blade

By: Elizabeth Hunter

Narrated by: Jay Britton

Length: 15 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

Warriors. Lovers. Enemies. Legends.

Their union became pivotal in Irin history, but to understand Damien and Sari's ending, you must go back to their beginning. Four hundred years ago, a young singer and a hardened warrior met and loved each other, but their life was torn apart by violence.

But no matter how much pain and anger stain their lives, bonds in the Irin race cannot be abandoned. Damien and Sari will never truly leave each other, because those who are destined cannot be ignored.

The Staff and the Blade is the fourth book in the Irin Chronicles.

©2016 Elizabeth Hunter (P)2018 Elizabeth Hunter

Love the book but hate the audiobook

I enjoyed the reader from the first few books in the series but this guy lacks warmth and almost sounds robotic. I would not recommend this recording at all, just buy the book and read it for yourself.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Love and time!

The Staff and The Blade is Damien and Sari’s story. The book takes you back to the beginning of their relationship, the reason for their separation and hurt feelings, through Ava’s meeting the fabled Irina, and Damien’s family. The story is an extraordinary tale of guilt, love, happiness, battles, pain, revenge, and joy. The characters are believable. You’ll laugh and cry. Jay Britton did a good job. I turned the speed of the audiobook to 1.25x since the pauses between each sentence wasn’t to my liking (personal preference not to be used to dissuade other buyers) I wish however that since Zachary Webber started the series he could have narrated this book too. I’m a listener who devours series and when narrators change halfway through with different voices for the same characters in previous books it’s very annoying and dissatisfying.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Stilted narration, bad editing....

I'm not sure how much to blame on the narration or the editor. There were long pauses between phrases and in the middle of conversations or actions. There were at least 3 times that phrases repeated themselves. If I didn't like the 1st books in this series I wouldn't have plowed through to the end of this one.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Beautiful love story of Damien and Sari..

Although, I was bummed the fourth story was not continued using narrator Zachary Webber, Jay did a really good job. I was glad to get the history on the lives of Damien and Sari. Heartbreaking at times, but hopeful for love separated... In the first three books, the reader was aware that there was a long, sad history between the two. Glad to understand it now. These chronicles can shed light on many different stories, emphasis on the fallen angel lives, greggory defectors etc. I'm excited to see what Elizabeth Hunter has up her sleeves, in future books of the Irin chronicles! I'll be waiting 😀

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Terrible narration

I really loved this series until this book. The voices were all different, he pronounced key character names differently from the entire series, the series was about the Irina which he now pronounces completely different. Confusing for the storyline and the narration was just boring. Totally ruined the book for me.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Narrator

I wish it had been narrated by the same person that narrated the other 3 books. The story just didn't have the same feel as the others.

Loved this book just as much as the previous books!

I Really enjoyed this narrator! I wasn’t sure if I’d like this story since we already knew the outcome of Damien and Sari from the previous book but I absolutely loved it! I am addicted to this series and hope the other books are made very soon. I’m not sure if I can wait for the audios or if I will just read them instead.

Absolutely Amazing

Elizabeth Hunter continues to do an amazing job! I loved the many aspects of the story. Jay Britton was more than amazing! I am super picky about narrators, but he was 100% perfect.

Couldn't Finish - Not a Good Narrator

I had to rate the story in order to submit this review but truth is I couldn't get past chapter 2. The narrator pauses constantly and has no emotion in his voice. I even tried speeding it up as one reviewer did, but still couldn't handle it. I'll be buying the kindle version for this one.

The saga continues!

Loved the story, nice addition to the series. Narrator was a challenge to listen too though, almost stopped many times as he so monotone or odd cadence with words, although some characters were great, as was the story so I made it through.

Same story and annoying voice

Same story from different perspective and annoying reader, at least Damien's voice was. Not totally bad story but not worth a lots of money.

Disappointing

The story is brilliant - giving the background of Damien and Sari, but the change of narrator was a big distraction. I found his narration rather stilted for most of the book and, to me, his voice for Damien seemed to change occasionally. When Rhys appeared he had a Scottish, I think, accent - a complete change from the earlier books where he was English. Ava was girlish when she appeared also. I realise that we all 'see' characters in our own way and this is influenced by narrator, so a change of narrator this far into the series is disappointing. This is the second time I've listened to the series and I'm still so disappointed that I'm submitting this review (again) - I'm sure I submitted a review after my first 'listen', but I can't find it on amazon.

Spoiled by the change in narrator

For those who enjoyed the Irin Chronicles, this is an interesting book. It tells Damien's and Sari's story up to and after the events in the first three Irin books. Unfortunately Zachary Webber does not continue the narrative. I was surprised, when I looked him up, to find Jay Britton to be an acclaimed voice actor. His delivery is somewhat robotic, although very clear. He's also guilty of some unforgivable mispronunciations; and a shocking lack of research - a few pages of The Scribe would have told him that Ava is an independent American woman, not an insecure English child. BUT he does the most amazing voice for Damien. Really amazing.

Listen to the sample if you're considering buying this. I did, and will listen again sometime. But if the reader is really wrong for you, leave it and read the book.