Unexpected

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but it grew on me over the course of the telling. Set in modern day London in an alternate, secret and parallel magical community it is full of interesting characters and action.
I found that the beginning was a slow burn as the main characters and their world was opened to the listener. The pace and the twists pick up after this establishment phase.
Alex Vruus is happily running his magic shop when a friend brings him a relic to him which has strange properties. This item is the catalyst for marking them targets of a few factions in the magical community, none of whom are friendly.
Alex’s talent, of forseeing the many possibilities of any action, is needed to keep them alive and to solve a centuries old problem.
This story is well read and very pleasant to listen to.

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1 person found this helpful

Good Solid Story

I enjoyed Fated. It's a good solid story with some action, character and a good (if somewhat too measured IMO) narration. I was looking for something similar to Rivers of London, but that was silly of me. Same genre... not the same tone.

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6 people found this helpful

Loved it but....

Absolutely loved Alex, Luna and Starbreeze. The story was fast paced from the first chapter.

Hated the pompous narrator who reminded me of those voices that did documentrys in the 70's.

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2 people found this helpful

Promising but...

Interesting listen, but I struggled to get into it. I disliked the narrator's female voices, and I found Alex to be aloof and unsympathetic. Normally I love a hero with a hint of moral ambiguity and maybe he'd grow on me in later books, but I'm bowing out for now.

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Would have been grumpy if I paid full price

Was not a fan of this book. The narrator has a nice voice but the reading was forced and poorly acted. Think high school play script reading.

I felt the story was...ordinary. The protagonist is arrogant and the writing is patriarchal at best. I'm not going to bother with the rest of the series. It's rapey and misogynistic.

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1 person found this helpful

Enter this world -

Certainly, a fun series to listen to, and it all starts here! Fast-paced. good characters, a fun story full of adventure - now hooked on the A Verus series thanks to this one. Lots of magical mayhem in this well-written and well-paced book 1 to a great series. I was hooked from the beginning. Loved it.

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Poor man's Dresden Files

Derivative and poorly written. Avoid unless utterly desperate for urban fantasy and lack other options. Listen to Butcher or Aaronovich as vastly superior alternatives by choice.

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Main character is kind of rapey

At first I was a bit put off when I realised that when the story referred to a girl, it wasn't actually a child but rather a 22 year-old woman. But then things move beyond casual sexism to kind of creepy. Like when the main character decides that he has to assault and abduct a woman (sorry I mean 22 year old girl) because she's too stupid to know what's good for her. Besides being rapey, the main character is not exactly likeable so far, he has an unfortunate combination of feeling constantly hard done by while always needing to be right. The book so far kind of feels like a conversation with some pompous prat in a pub who tries to pick you up by lecturing you about the finer points of Deleuze. Not sure I can make it through.

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28 people found this helpful