OF BLOOD AND BONE

Of Blood And Bone by Nora Roberts
Book 2 of the Chronicles of The One
Narrated by Julia Whelan
Genre: dystopian urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Of Blood And Bone:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the epic Year One returns with a new tale of terror and magic in a brand new world.

They look like an everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed.

Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed before — the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature since the Doom sickened and killed billions. Traveling anywhere is a danger, as vicious gangs of Raiders and fanatics called Purity Warriors search for their next victim. Those like Fallon, in possession of gifts, are hunted — and the time is coming when her true nature, her identity as The One, can no longer be hidden.

In a mysterious shelter in the forest, her training is about to begin under the guidance of Mallick, whose skills have been honed over centuries. She will learn the old ways of healing; study and spar; encounter faeries and elves and shifters; and find powers within herself she never imagined. And when the time is right, she will take up the sword, and fight. For until she grows into the woman she was born to be, the world outside will never be whole again.

Source: Info in the About Of Blood And Bone was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37638128-of-blood-and-bone on 04/12/2018.

Buy Link(s):
 

My Thoughts:

A chapter of a bigger book. This is what this book is. However, it still finished this chapter nicely while hinting on what the next chapter would be which we could safely presume would be the next book in this series. I usually do not like this kind of series. But Nora Roberts being Nora Roberts, the story telling quality is very good. Therefore, I enjoyed this book very much. So I would continue following this series until I either finish this series or I get annoyed so much that decide to abandon this series. The plot is quite straight forward. The heroine comes of age. That's it. However, I also want to know what happens next to the New Hope community who fought so much to live. That there, have so much potential for tangent story lines and I want to know how the author would spin that thread!...

This is my first Julia Whelan listen and I like the way she reads. Her voice is not aggravating to the ears. And I would listen to another audiobook by her again.

In the end I enjoyed this book and looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 5
Writing Style = 3.5
Ending = 3
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (13 hrs and 42 mins)
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Chronicles of The One Series:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

YEAR ONE

Year One by Nora Roberts
Book 1 of the Chronicles of The One
Read by Julia Whelan
Genre: dystopian urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Year One:

It began on New Year's Eve.

The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed — and more than half of the world's population was decimated.

Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river — or in the ones you know and love the most.

As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.

In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a saviour, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.

The end has come. The beginning comes next.

Source: Info in the About Year One was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34311452-year-one on 14/11/2018.

Buy Link(s):
 

My Thoughts:

Year One being the fist book in the series, is typically a coming of age book. It introduces the reader to a dystopian world which just started to become dystopian and the memories of a normal modern life is still fresh in peoples' minds. The world of Year One reminds me greatly of the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, a world shifting from tech to magic. And this kind of shift is not the first time and wouldn't be the last, and that this shift happens every so very, very many years. Sort of cyclic. That right now we are living in the tech cycle, so much so that magic is all but disappeared in our world. And in Year One, the magic cycle has begun.

This is my first Julia Whelan audiobook listen. I like the way she reads and her voice is not aggravating to the ears. Kudos to the narration!!

This is the first Nora Roberts book I've read that uses the "multiple thread" kind of format in telling a story. Where every other chapter follows a different thread of the story. I hate this format in a book!! I guess in this one it fits because the story tells of the different stories of the different characters. It is still annoying though...

Now, the plot.... what plot?! *sigh* ...yeah, there isn't much of one. The ending is not exactly a cliffhanger, but it is the prelude to subsequent books.

In the end, I did enjoy this book, but not as much as I expected to with Nora Roberts' name on it.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 3.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (12 hrs and 20 mins)
Plot = 2
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Chronicles of The One Series:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

FTC Disclosure:
The different formats of this book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

SHANNARA CHRONICLES Season 1

The Shannara Chronicles
A television series adaptation of the Shannara books by Terry Brooks
Genre: post-apocalyptic fantasy
Format: dvd box set

About The Shannara Chronicles:

The Shannara Chronicles roughly follows the storylines set out in The Elfstones of Shannara, set in the fictional Four Lands. As the series opens, demons start to return after being banished from this world to a place known as the Forbidding — locked by an ancient tree called the Ellcrys. The series chronicles the journey of Wil, Amberle and Eretria who, with the guidance of the last druid Allanon, must go on a quest to protect the Ellcrys from dying and releasing all the banished demons back into the Four Lands.

Source: Info in the About The Shannara Chronicles was taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shannara_Chronicles on 29/05/2017.

Book Trailer:

Allanon

My Thoughts:

For some reason I kinda imagined Allanon to be Gandalf-like, not that I'm complaining about Manu Bennett, mind. :)

The main reason I stopped reading the The Sword Of Shannara, four chapters in, is that I got annoyed with the "too stupid to live" (TSTL) element in it. I was kinda hoping that this would get lost in the translation from the book into TV series. That, was wishful thinking... *sigh*... With our heroes/heroines being TSTL, it's a good thing that our villains are such incompetent, eh?! Otherwise the fight of good versus evil is lost. As if that is not enough, Poppy Drayton can't act... *another sigh*... But anyway, the world building is beautiful. The cinematic effects are great and almost flawless. The plot is not bad. And, I really, really like the premise! **says the fantasy geek in me** Hopefully season 2 will see less TSTL and more kick-ass fantasy! By the way, is season 2 really happening??

Empirical Evaluation:
Cinematography = 4.5
Acting = 3.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Plot = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

FTC Disclosure:

This box set was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.