Excellent story & narration

Really enjoyed this book. I’ve had it a while in my library and finally got round to listening. The narrator is up there with the best of them and the story is very well written and enjoyable. I don’t write many reviews but felt this title deserves one.

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1 person found this helpful

Amazing narration - loved this!

Firstly, as per the title the narrator was awesome. He puts his own spin on all the characters from different lands and he does it with such enthusiasm. Frankly brilliant!

The story comes from two different lands. The barbarians struggling to survive on their bleak islands and how they raid the mainland to get by, eventually invading to settle permanently.

The mainlanders have their own story, fending off the raiders with increasingly tight defences. The main pov’s are a boy from each culture, and the duchess who rules on the mainland.

Folklore and myths aplenty, there is a third race, the Fae, waking up as a new religion sweeps amongst the townsfolk.

This is reminiscent of the celts invading the british isles and is clearly written to set the scene for what will come in the following books. But the prose is great, its really well structured and i devoured it in two days. Thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

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Great story on to book two

An interesting story. Reminiscent of GOT and the age of misrule by Mark Chadbourn.
I very much enjoyed it.

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couldn't stop listening

this appeared as a facebook advert and as I wasnt much in the mood for anything else I thought I would have a listen. the story is gripping and the narrator is among the best I have heard, I listened to it in 3 sittings. cant wair to listen to the next one.

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An All Round Winner

I really enjoyed this audiobook! a good story with unexpected plot turns. I really empathised with all the lead roles which were well portrayed. Best of all though was the narration! If I could give it a six I would have!

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2 people found this helpful

Unbelievable!

this is by all accounts a fantastically dark adult fairytale, and highly recommend subversive reading.

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2 people found this helpful

Great Narrator for a good book

I enjoyed this book, the narrator is amazing and the story was engaging but I definitely feel like the purpose of this book was to set the stage for the other books in the series.
I will definitely be looking for further titles from this author.

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2 people found this helpful

Great listen!

This book reminded me of the Norman and Viking invasions of England in 1066, but in a fantasy setting.

It follows a number of different story arcs, which coverge in an exciting finale.

I found all of the POV characters interesting and am looking forward to seeing how the storylines continue in the next book.

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3 people found this helpful

A tale of multiple invasions

Disclaimer: I was gifted a copy of this audio book by the author with no string attached. This review is as genuine as I can make it.

This is as spoiler free as I can make it.

I was sold this as a "[…] tale of the return of the fae to a world which has utterly forgotten them. They were banished hundreds of years ago, and are understandably rather miffed about this. This return takes place against the backdrop of an invasion by Bjornmen raiders who are abandoning their coastal raids for outright invasion." While it is utterly accurate, it sells the book short.

What I got was not a simplistic adventure yarn full of evil raiders and weird supernatural monsters. Oh no, what I got was great characters, a solid world building, and points of view that made the many sides of the conflict sympathetic.

Many a time I was left thinking I knew where the plot was heading, just to be surprised by a natural change of events. Time flows by and many years pass between some chapters. It is hard to know if the line lines are concurrent or not but that matters not. All the stories are interesting in their own right and when they interact, the time line makes sense.

The book is split between Anlan, where most of the plot takes place, the land being invaded and the Barren Isles where the Bjornmen live. We follow the stories of two children and a newly wed duchess as they grow up, make friends, and slowly become heroes of their own tales. The rest of the cast is full of memorable and interesting characters, all well fleshed out and multidimensional. We see their culture through their eyes, slowly but surely fleshing a vibrant world. The fae are left as a mystery, yet the few point of views we get point at much deeper and more tragic than meet the eyes. I strongly suspect that subsequent books will have more on that.

The new religion sweeping the lands is probably the weakest part of the book. Whereas all other sides have some good, some bad, and mostly some grey in them, the Church is clearly evil™. We know they are. They try to stop people believing in fae and trash all the "superstition" of the old way. Just how evil remains to be seen. They could just be felony stupid, although I seriously doubt that.

There is plenty of adventure and excitement of raids, bandits, and hopeless fights again supernatural foe. None of it is forced and death (including of main characters) does happen remarkably often. The effects of violence are to be seen, impact all those taking part.

Since this an audio book, I should mention the reader: Jonny McPherson. He does a stunning job of making the characters come to life. One slight annoyance is he actually whispers when characters do so. Since I listen to books on my commute, I do miss some dialogue which is just too quiet for ambient noise. Otherwise, his narration is spot on and very enjoyable.

Since then, I have picked books two and three. I am about a third through book two and am still enjoying it very much.

Note that this review appeared first on /r/fantasy.

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I admire Austin-King's worldbuilding

I have to admit, I’m really on the fence about Fae: The Wild Hunt. It’s been ages since I’ve read the blurb of it, so I went into the book pretty blindly. I didn’t know what to expect. But I also had certain expectations as I’ve read some of Austin-King‘s later books and loved them. I don’t know if it was the audiobook, the fact that I probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind, or that it’s quite different from his other books, but found myself not to enjoy it as much as I hoped to. Whatever the reason, I really can’t put my finger on it and I’m overall annoyed by this situation in general.

Fae: The Wild Hunt starts out pretty interestingly. Devin and his mom have to get on the road to get away from Devin’s abusive and violent alcoholic dad. But their caravan gets attacked and they are forced to hide in the forest, where strange things are lurking in the shadows. Devin’s introducing chapter sets the atmosphere quite nicely. You have this sense of foreboding right from the beginning. And you don’t have to wait too long for it to pay off.

The story is told from four POVs: Devin, Klöss (sorry if I misspell his name, that’s the downside of listening to the audiobook), Selena a duchess and a mysterious old man. The different plotlines come together slowly, and generally the whole book feels like a slow build up to the later books in the series. Kloss and Devin’s plotlines get about the same amount of time and we get a look into their lives and different backgrounds and lifestyles. The old man and Selena has supporting POVs to show us what is going on in the wilder world outside of Devin and Klöss’ quite narrow world. While Devin is confined to the village and the forest around it, and caught up in the affairs of its people, Klöss, against his father’s wishes joins the reavers and becomes an oarsman. He belongs to the people whom the islanders call Bjornmen. It’s quite intriguing to see the brewing conflict from the POV of both sides.

I might be wrong, but I had the feel that this story was partly inspired by the Vikings invading Britain, even if that explicitly wasn’t said out. Another interesting aspect was the clash of the new religion (New Days, which has the characteristics of Christianity) and the old religion which faded into superstitions and only a very few people still believes in the Fae, who are getting ever stronger and waiting in the shadows for the right time to claim their glory. And they are far from the joyful, friendly creatures you might know from the Disney movies.

I think I was hoping for something more folketale-y in regard to the setting and overall feel. While I admire Austin-King‘s worldbuilding and the way he waves the life of his characters together, Fae: The Wild Hunt lacked the charm to sway me off my feet. I really couldn’t get invested in any of the characters and eventually that affected my enjoyment. But if you are into some dark atmospheric epic fantasy which doesn’t shy away from some bloodletting, then you definitely should give Fae: The Wild Hunt a try.

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