THE LORD OF STARIEL

The Lord Of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster
Book 1 in the Stariel series
Narrated by Finty Williams
Genre: victorian fantasy / steampunk
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Lord Of Stariel:

The Lord of Stariel is dead. Long live the Lord of Stariel. Whoever that is.

Everyone knows who the magical estate will choose for its next ruler. Or do they?

Will it be the lord’s eldest son, who he despised?

His favourite nephew, with the strongest magical land-sense?

His scandalous daughter, who ran away from home years ago to study illusion?

Hetta knows it won’t be her, and she’s glad of it. Returning home for her father’s funeral, all Hetta has to do is survive the family drama and avoid entanglements with irritatingly attractive local men until the Choosing. Then she can leave.

But whoever Stariel chooses will have bigger problems than eccentric relatives to deal with. Winged, beautifully deadly problems. For the first time in centuries, the fae are returning to the Mortal Realm, and only the Lord of Stariel can keep the estate safe.

Source: Info in the "About The Lord Of Stariel" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41838393-the-lord-of-starie on 25/11/2023.

Buy Link(s):

 

Hetta

My Thoughts:

The premise of a sentient land is very appealing to my fantasy geek self, thus this book got read!

This is my first A.J. Lancaster read and this author sure knows how to weave a story!

I've read a lot of fantasy books. Epic fantasies. Urban fantasy. Paranormal thrillers. And most of them have little to no plots. Especially the urban fantasy genre. However, this book not only have a plot, it is actually twisty enough to rival a crime fiction! Now, how is that for plot building in this genre!

I was impressed!

This is my first Finty Williams audiobook. She has the same deep voice as Lorelei King. I prefer softer voices like that of Therese Plummer. However, one cannot deny the fact that Finty has talent. Does not read with a singsong. And gives the lines just enough inflection to bring the story to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (10 hrs and 46 mins listening time)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Stariel Series:

 

Meet The Author

About A.J. Lancaster:

Growing up in rural New Zealand, AJ Lancaster escaped chores by hiding up trees reading books. AJ wrote in the same way as breathing — constantly and without thinking much of it — so it took many years and accumulating a pile of manuscripts to connect this activity to ‘being a writer’. Along the way, AJ collected a degree in science, worked in environmental planning, and became an editor.

Now ensconced in a house with two cats and a wide variety of houseplants, AJ writes and indie publishes romantic, whimsical fantasy books. The Lord of Stariel is the first novel in the now-complete Stariel Quartet.

In 2021, AJ Lancaster received the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent, New Zealand’s preeminent awards for science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

ajlancaster.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Finty Williams:

Finty Williams was born in London in 1972, the daughter of actors Judi Dench and Michael Williams. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and has appeared in many British films and theatre productions. She is the lead voice for the animated children's series Angelina Ballerina, and has narrated a number of audiobooks.

twitter | instagram | imdb | wikipedia | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Review: PLANESRUNNER

Planesrunner by Ian McDonald
Book 1 of the Everness series
Read by Tom Lawrence
Genre: science fiction | YA
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Planesrunner:

There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.

To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.

Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!

Source: Info in the About Planesrunner was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11291920-planesrunner on 16/02/2014.

Buy Links:

My Thoughts:

It took me a long time to get into this book, even with the convenience of the audiobook and ebook formats. However once I crossed the halfway mark it did pick up. Tom Lawrence is so obviously British (other than his accent, of course) that he pronounces "Mall" as "mal" as opposed to "mawl". Little things like that makes me smile. That, on top of his good reading, good diction and clear words, made him an excellent narrator for this book. I believe that any other accent other than British wouldn't suit this book at all!

The audiobook cover art has a dirigible as center piece and I like it! It is not only apropos to the story but pleasing to my fantasy geek's eyes. Something that would ping my book-buying radar. The old versions of the cover of this book though are quite ugly. I am so glad I did not see them before I started reading/listening to this book or I would never ever start reading it to begin with. It was that awesomely unappealing.

The plot wasn't too bad. But it was kind of quite straight forward. So that kind of didn't help the rating of this book. My guess is, the author is more concerned about laying out the fundamentals of this book rather than the plot. Setting up the stage, so to speak. This is book one in a series, after all.

The premise of the world building sounds good. But for some reason I could not wrap my head around millions and millions versions of Earth. The scientific explanation seems logically convincing. But somehow I am not convinced. Why is that? I reckon it is tied to the way the story is told. The story telling quality is not bad. In fact, I kinda like it. But, it is just not doing a good job of convincing my subconscious to suspend disbelief about parallel worlds in this case. I also reckon that maybe I need to read further into this series to fully appreciate the world building. Some series has that effect on me sometimes. The further down the line I read, the more it grows on me. Like wine, it tastes better as it matures.

I have issues with some little things in the book but in the bigger scheme of things, are tolerable. And despite the slow start, I did enjoy this book and am looking forward to listening to Be My Enemy.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 5
Pace = 3
Plot = 3
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Everness Series:

Thank you to Audible Ltd. for the audiobook review copy received. And thank you too, to Mary Chen of Buried Under Romance who hosted a contest which made it possible for me to win an ebook copy of Planesrunner by Ian McDonald!

FTC Disclosure:
The audiobook copy of this book was received for free from Audible UK. The ebook copy was received for free from Mary Chen as a prize for a blog contest won. No money received for this review.