A Quest of Heroes by Morgan Rice Narrated by Wayne Farrell

A Quest of Heroes

The Sorcerer's Ring, Book 1
by Morgan Rice
Narrated by Wayne Farrell

9 hours 41 minutes
Self Published

                                       

Narrator Wayne Farrell

Wayne Farrell, brings something very special to this uninspiring book. Although the story
is very predictable and been written many times before from biblical times with Joseph of
the many colored coat, to the present, which are to numerous to list. The story is almost a duplicate of another one I listened to a couple months ago.
It draws from many fables, like, Joseph, Cinderella, The Odyssey, David and Goliath, well you get the idea, even the names are not very original, Thor, Argon, The Silver and even the beast is close in name to Cyclops and dreadfully Thor aims his sling and....

Book Review: A Quest of Heroes

A Quest of Heroes is like a cut and paste of many other books I can't say it is even well written to redeem it, but the genre is popular with, more particularly young boys due to the theme of boy overcomes evil caretakers, boy has magical or mystical powers, boy discovers his powers, boy saves, name anything here, princess, land, anything that needs saving. The only thing that is saving anything is Wayne Farrell's excellent narration. He manages with such skill to breathe some life into some fairly unoriginal and pale characters. Without such a fine narration by one of our better story tellers, Farrell does make the book more palatable. Kudos to him for such a fine display of his talents. Always an interesting and engaging narrator.


Thor, a fourteen year old boy is a shepherd living in a village on some planet or dimension far, far, away in some unknown mystical realm. He lives with his father and three brothers and is quite aware that he not only physically doesn't resemble his brothers who are a little older than him but he is different in every way, from his father as well as his brothers. Thor is anxiously waiting for the arrival of the Silver, the royal army that goes from village to village in search for young boys and men who will be selected to join the forces to fight in the legion. He's always dreamed of joining the Silver but his father thinks he's better off staying home and minding the sheep. This is not the life Thor thinks of for himself but when he is jeered at and passed over but the leader of the Silver and they take his brothers and not him, he is despondent.

Later when everyone has gone he argues with his father who's told him to go round up the sheep and Thor leaves in a huff and says he's never coming back. After sulking in the hills that night he wakes next day and looks for his sheep. One is missing he see's it has wandered a couple hills away and its heading towards the forbidden area called the Darkwood. He does go after it and enters the forbidden woods and finds himself eventually on the other side where Argon the kings personal Druid, which means his personal sorcerer, seems to be waiting for him. Argon points Thor, in the direction he should go to find his destiny.

This type book might be your cup of tea but, I suggest that you look elsewhere for something written better, after the one hundredth time of  "Thor just stood there." and "He could hardly believe it" and his constant badgering and well heck Thor, is just one annoying kid, you might throw the book at the wall, or if you're listening to the audio version you might finish the book, as the narrator does an excellent job in expressing what the author should be intending.

There is no comparison to J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter series, so don't even look for it. Her writing is far more enjoyable even by adults, her cast of characters have personality and charm, their adventures are fun and everything is much more original and quirky. Most important of all Rowling's books have a plot. A Quest of Heroes does not. I have not done any reviews on the Harry Potter books because there are already thousands of them and I'd only be repeating what has been said already. I did love the series, and the narrator is outstanding. In fact I tried to read a hard copy when the audio edition wasn't out yet, and gave up, I just missed the voice of Jim Dale.

I can not provide a picture or information about Morgan Rice, there is simply very little information about this author. The link for the webpage is all I can find. There is no way to tell if Morgan is a male or female, or if they are a real person and not a think tank of people who throw darts at a wall that's covered with plots to put the story together.

Murder on the House By Juliet Blackwell Narrator Xe Sands

Murder on the HouseBook 3, in The Haunted Home Renovation Series
Author: Juliet BlackwellNarrator: Xe Sands

Producer: Tantor Audio
7 hours 03 minutes
                                                             

Narrator Review: XE Sands

A magnificent performance by Xe Sands is hardly sufficient praise for one of the most talented and multi-dimensional narrators of the century. Sands never is just reading the book, she is acting out the story in the manner of true storytellers since the beginning of time.

Xe Sands Narrator

She has a wonderful affinity with the characters in the Haunted Home Renovation Series, delivering each of them with emphasis on emotional content whether of fear, hesitation, affection.

Sands deftly moves between the ghost of Annabelle singing in her childish voice to the skepticism of policewoman Annette Crawford discussing Mel's explanation of the ghost activities in the house.

Listening to Sands is a personal and intimate experience as she reads in a conversational and instinctive way.

Audio Book Review: Murder on the House By Juliet Blackwell

Juliet Blackwell Author

Murder on the House starts out with a bang, when Mel has competition for the restoration of a haunted Victorian Mansion owned by a sweet, spunky little old lady Betty Bernini, and an older couple Marty and Kim Propak who have a purchase agreement with Mrs. Bernini to do some renovations and take over the  mortgage payments.

Mrs. Bernini will remain in the house until she either passes away or decides to move somewhere else. The Propaks want to restore the house and make it a Haunted Bed and Breakfast.

When Mel arrives at the mansion for a meeting with Mrs. Bernini and the Propaks. A young girl, Annabelle, opens the door to Mel, and says she will take her to the parlor to wait. Annabelle motions Mel in,

Mel looks around and sees the parlor is bare and dusty and looks like no one's been in it for quite awhile. When she turns around to ask Annabelle if this is the right, Annabelle is nowhere to be seen. heh, heh.

Mel's starting to feel a little uneasy and well, heck, just a bit creeped out when she hears weird noises, clank, shuffle, clank, scrape.

Murder on the House by Juliet Blackwell

The Propak's tell  Mel there's just one condition before they make the final choice. For her to win the coveted contract both Mel, and another restorationist, Avery, must spend the entire night in the house. At first she's not at all pleased with this and isn't going to do it, but, on re-consideration, it is a plum job.

As much as I loved the first one in the series If Walls Could Talk and the second one, Dead Bolt, Murder on the House is my favorite. Its exciting, its scary and its fun and Mel is really developing her talents at seeing ghost. Never a dull moment here and lots of interesting tidbits about San Francisco. Xe Sands does a superb narration that will knock your socks off. I give it a five star in all departments. I'm looking forward to Home for the Haunting.