Superb story and narration!!!

I can't praise this audiobook enough!!! The story is complex and intriguing, with great strong characters and plenty of room to grow. I can't wait to see where this story line goes after this. The writing was excellent! This was my first time with this author and since listening to this audiobook, I have started devouring the author's other works. I'm now in the middle of the Kate Daniels series. It's interesting to read that series when knowing this Hugh d'Ambray first. I've also stared the Innkeeper series, and it's also fun to read. This is a great author!

The narration. Wow. I was browsing Audible, trying to branch out beyond my favorite author who's narrator is excellent. I listened to a couple other books, highly rated, but ended up returning them because of the narration. They were overly dramatic or flat and weak. I couldn't get through them or would never recommend them. So i tried the sample clip of this book. I was hooked! Steve West was masterful! I absolutely enjoyed every second of listening to this! He's now my favorite narrator and anything else he does goes into my 'try this one!' list. I have listened to this audiobook multiple times in 1 month, and with my husband who is now a devoted fan now too. I've listened to this author's other narrator, and Steve West is far superior! His voices are distinct, sarcasm drips, and he brings so much depth to conversations between characters then just the written words. He's amazing to listen to!

I loved this book! I can't wait for more of this series, the author, and the narrator! 5 stars all round and I recommend it to everyone!

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Narrator had some trouble

The story was great, as I tend to expect from these authors.

I believe the audio recording was rushed to minimise the wait between ebook and audiobook release dates, so maybe some things were overlooked during editing. The narrator occasionally mispronounced certain words - like a character at one point was shown their spacious and well-appointed suit. I had expected them to be shown to a suite, since there was a bed and bath in it, and no sleeves. Andrea and Raphael feature, but the narrator never bothered to check on their existing profiles from any of the previous books and so chose to give the blonde haired married Andrea Medrano a Spanish pronunciation rather than the Anglo-American one more appropriate to the character born in the US as Andrea Nash. There were more mistakes in pronunciation that gave an odd meaning to certain passages until context cleared up the actual intended word, which pulls the listener out of the story a little.
In the end though, it's a story that grew out of an April fool's day joke, and is well plotted and thoroughly enjoyable despite its initially unplanned origin. I hope these characters are rolled back into the Kate Daniels story for the final chapter!

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Enjoyable

Enjoyed listening. However, while the narrator was good he pronounced the majority of names and significant words from the Kate Daniels series differently from the narrator for that series. The few characters that had a cameo he spoke them with different accents. It was jarring and annoying as I’ve listened to the first 9 books of that series twice. Otherwise it was good.

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Excellent, another hit Ilona and Andrew!

I loved the interaction between Hugh and Elara, so full of fire and conflict. I never understood before how fighting could build excitement and anticipation, but now I REALLY do ;) the relationship between them was brilliantly developed.

The narrator performs the story well. The reason I gave it a three is because the pronounciation of key words was totally different from the Kate Daniels novels, and every time he said those words, the illusion of the story world was broken for me.

Despite that, the story was able to carry me through those moments, and overlooking them was well rewarded by my delight in the story.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

More Hugh and Elara!

I have read Iron and Magic 2 or 3 times and this is my first listen. I think this is the first book of Steve West’s I’ve listened to and I’ll be checking to see if he’s narrated other titles that interest me.

Hugh is an antagonist in the Kate Daniels series and Iron and Magic is a story of his beginning to become someone beyond Roland’s dog. Iron and Magic is also Elara’s introduction to readers and I’m still not clear on what she is. Hugh is Iron and Elara is Magic, but Hugh is also very magic.

There are obscure plot points for readers unfamiliar with Kate Daniels and I agree with the recommended reading order from Ilona Andrews’ website where Iron and Magic slots between Kate Daniels books 9 and 10.

Did Not Enjoy

In this rare edition of Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays, you get.... a negative review!

I really wanted to like this one. I wanted some good Urban Fantasy and wanted to be blown away. All of my Goodreads friends LOVED this one, so when it came up as an Audible Daily Deal, I was sold. Except... I wasn't. It was really disappointing and I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

Mostly, my pain comes from not being sure what time period it was until much later in the book because the cover, the castle, and the way the characters act make it seem like it was many moons ago when in reality it is present day. Which blew my mind. I had to go back to some of the beginning chapters to see why I thought it would be the past and then remembered most of the plot was around building a moat to defend a castle. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But really, I didn't like so much about this. Even though it is the start to this series, it is a spin-off of another. And I am getting pretty bored of authors and publishers who say you can start series when they are clearly in the middle of something else. To truly understand the backstory and the intricacies, I needed the other aspects of this. And that's on me, truly, for not reading the rest.

What isn't on me is that the characters were just terrible. I can't tell you much more about Hugh except that he is moody and Elara is white. That's pretty much all I know about them. And their "romance" was just meh to me. I wanted to know more about the world and truly I would have rather watched them build the moat a thousand times than have to listen to those sex scenes again.

TLDR: This was not my favourite read this year. I did not really enjoy it and thought the romance parts of this took over the rest of the plot rather than supplement it. Also the cover is bad and made me think this was like a historical urban fantasy rather than contemporary.

Amazing

Absolutely amazing story. Lots of crossovers from Kate Daniels stories. Hugh and his Iron Dog's are great. I can't wait for the next book.

Iron and Magic - an excellent series starter

I completed the Kate Daniels series and was looking for something similar to read, when this book popped up in my audible recommendations. What a happy surprise!
It intersects the Kate Daniels series before Magic Triumphs. Many of the characters from the original series are presented in this book.
This is the story arc of Hugh D'Ambray after he is rejected by Roland. Now you could read/listen to this book without reading the original series, but you'll miss out on how Hugh arrived at this point in his life, and the intersecting characters and their behaviour when interacting with Hugh may not be clearly appreciated.
What can I say? I absolutely loved this audiobook. Notwithstanding an exceptional storyline, but the narration by Steve West is outstanding. His voice was perfect and he played each role incredibly well.
I highly recommend this audiobook. My advice is to read the Kate Daniels series first, but pick this one up before you start Magic Triumphs. You won't regret it, I promise!!

Spoiler alert would be nice

Enjoyed the book very much. I am no prude but I was taken by surprise when after maybe 9 hours the super hard core porn scene started. Personally I liked it but I was glad I wasn’t lying on a beach if you know what I mean. Also a good thing I wasn’t listening to it in public sans headphones. Anywho, good story!

Enjoyment by the minute.

Enjoyed the narrators performance as well as the story line. Thank you I will most definitely listen to more books.