ARALORN: MASQUES & WOLFSBANE

ARALORN: Masques & Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs
Books 1 & 2 of the Aralorn series
Read by Katherine Kellgren
Genre: fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About ARALORN: Masques & Wolfsbane:

After an upbringing of proper behaviour and oppressive expectations, Aralorn fled her noble birthright for a life of adventure as a mercenary spy. But her latest mission involves more peril than she ever imagined.

Agents of Sianim have asked her to gather intelligence on the increasingly popular and powerful sorcerer Geoffrey ae'Magi. Soon Aralorn comes to see past the man's striking charisma - and into a soul as corrupt and black as endless night. And few have the will to resist the sinister might of the ae'Magi and his minions.

So Aralorn, aided by her enigmatic companion, Wolf, joins the rebellion against the ae'Magi. But in a war against a foe armed with the power of illusion, how do you know who the true enemy is - or where he will strike next?

This omnibus edition contains the two titles MASQUES and WOLFSBANE.

Source: Info in the About ARALORN: Masques & Wolfsbane was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16074463-aralorn on 26/04/2015.

My Thoughts:

I was in an "In-Between-Good-Books" funk and looking for something to read. Since I am an old Patricia Briggs fan with the Mercedes Thompson series, I went looking for more of her work to read. Thus this book got bought and read. I was a bit apprehensive going into this one because I came across polarized reviews about this book/series. Plus, there was the intro by Patricia Briggs where she went on to say that this was her first work and did not sell too well back then. However I was hoping I won't be too disappointed given that she has edited it extensively since then. So I went into this book "hopeful" but not with raised expectations. Which was good! Because if I went into this book with high expectations, I think I would have been disappointed. As it is, I enjoyed the book just the way it is, with no disappointments. I would say that this book was not as good as the Mercedes Thompson series but not a disappointment either. In fact, it was more than just a "not a disappointment", it was good! The storytelling quality is the same Patricia Briggs good. The plot however tend to meander a bit which was not her usual style. The world building was also not as good as I would have expected of this author either. However, the narration was bang-on. I like Katherine Kellgren's interpretation of the book. The voice quality is not as pleasing as Johanna Parker but I agree with her interpretation. Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 5.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 3.5
Plot = 4
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries