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Magic's Pawn

Valdemar: The Last Herald Mage, Book 1

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Magic's Pawn

Written by: Mercedes Lackey
Narrated by: Gregory St. John
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In Magic's Pawn, an ancient age in the history of Valdemar comes to life - an age when the kingdom was ravaged by the ungoverned fury of bandit warlords, ferocious ice dragons, and the wild magic of wizards. A new addition to Lackey's Valdemar kingdom - and her most powerful series to date!

©1991 Mercedes R. Lackey (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Magic Paranormal Royalty Wizardry

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Read this book a while back. Decided to get the audible version and I was so happy. Just amazing. Great narrator draws you right in. Definitely worth buying.

So amazing

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I love this trilogy, excellent story, character development, and the start of my Valdemar obsession, haha.

This is where my obsession began

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Overall the story is good, but the pronunciation of names is strange to me, and also there are some very strange mistakes where the narrator will misspeak or use the wrong pronunciation of words, such as "bow" the action instead of "bow" the object, and he sometimes also uses strange pauses that break up or run on the sentences strangely. However, the character performances are mostly good, especially Andrel and Tylendel.
This performance needed a director to catch all the mistakes.

Good overall but performance is lacking

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I'm re-writing my review after finishing the trilogy. I had high expectations after reading some of Lackey's books and seeing the reviews. To be honest I don't get the hype, these books are just okay but not invigorating. It didn't get better after the 1st book.

I do admire Lackey tackling tough topics and making moves that were and still are very needed in the fantasy world. I love that she's highlighting LGBTQ, it's just that the story was a bit lacking. No real plot, just a strung together something near the very end. This trilogy is all in all just a love story, which is fine but even the love story had so much potential yet fell a little flat.

The narrator is pretty bad. You almost think he's good sometimes but then he gives characters random accents that fade and there's absolutely no pause between scene breaks that make you confused for a few seconds. Then in the few scenes where there is action or drama he talks much faster and in a weird rhythm that you can barely understand what's happening.

***spoilers below:
I just couldn't get attached to this story. Hard to feel connected and strongly for their love when the characters were teenagers, a bit one dimensional, and fall madly in puppy love for a summer, so maybe 3 months... grieve for 12 years but "it makes sense cause it's a life bond." Then at 28 stating to not being attracted to children but be insanely tempted by a 16 year old.... only at 34 to fall madly in love again with a 17 year old who then turns 18. But it's okay, they're reincarnated and we talk about how mature he is. It just felt rather stretched and unrealistic.

A decent listen but really lacked something

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