A (Non) Comprehensive Guide to Sea Serpents

Sorcerer's Grimoire, Book 1

By: AJ Sherwood

Narrated by: David Lee Huynh

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Two new apprentices. One charming engineer. A potential battle with both sea serpents and evil sorcerers.

When Sorcerer Adrien Danvers takes on a job that leads him into the slums of England, he never imagined he'd end up with not one but two apprentices. Despite his doubts about himself, he's the only chance the two pre-teens have to escape their hellish life.

When Sir Hugh Quartermain contracts him to deal with the mysterious circumstances surrounding his home on the Isle of Man, Adrien finds the more time they spend together, the more his walls come down around the beguiling engineer—an unusual occurrence and a terrifying prospect.

As it turns out, this case is about to take a turn—a battle with both beast and man, the ultimate test of Adrien's willingness to accept help. When he does, Hugh proves to be a fierce protector and friend, more so than Adrien could've ever bargained for, and he finds himself longing for something he shouldn't.

Falling for his new friend is not a complication Adrien needs. (His matchmaking apprentices disagree.)

©2023 AJ Sherwood (P)2024 Podium Audio

Loved it!!

The story is amazing as always from AJ Sherwood. Great world building and characters. iThis is a new narrator to me and he did an amazing job!! I hope he is able to narrate book two!

Fabulous narration

Super slow burn. I loved the characters and the world-building. AJ loves a historical magic story and is very good at it.

Sorcery in the Victorian Era

What an interesting title to an entertaining and truly enjoyable 8 plus hours of magic and sorcery set in a recognizably human historical time period!
Adrien is a gifted sorcerer living alone after being booted out by his wealthy social family for being homosexual. The very beginning caught me up when Adrien is alerted to a powerful burst of magic out of the blue while walking home. He immediately senses the potential danger the source of that magic is in and finds himself frantically searching for that source in the cold foggy environs of the worst part of London. Adrien finds two young men in desperate need of rescue and takes them home with him intending that they become his apprentices. Wow! What a beginning!
Adrien and his two apprentices are working together well when an engineering genius named Hugh seeks Adrien's help in solving the problem of a sea serpent interfering with his mining operation on The Isle of Man.
What follows is a well written story that kept me listening without allowing much interruption since my mind was completely living in AJ Sherwood's magical realm. David Lee Huynh is an excellent narrator of the story.

awesome characters, and terrific narration

ended with a cliff hanger ..... I really hate those. I was looking forward to at lease the cousins meeting and acceptance of the boys .

Wonderful!

Such an amazing new series. I can’t wait for more in this world. The narration was fabulous.

Enjoyable story

Loved this book. I found it refreshing in the sense that is different from other fantasy books I've read.

A great beginning to a new series

I really like this new cast of characters and the adventures in this new series. I’m a big fan of AJ Sherwood so I had already read the book and the audiobook is just as enjoyable. My only critique would be that the accents feel a little inconsistent, but the overall performance was well done. I’m looking forward to hearing the second book and hopefully reading the third!

Enjoyable

Very enjoyable listen, I liked the world and character development. Lots of adventure and action and maybe some scheming but for a good reason. I hope there’s more

I enjoyed it

I loved the story line. Many themes came out and how it should be handled. Looking forward to the follow up

a more restrained sherwood is still a fun sherwood

4.5⭐️
Audio: 4.5⭐️

A [Non] Comprehensive Guide to Sea Serpents is full of the typical Sherwood charm and her love of game-breaking OP MCs, however with a lot more restraint and a bit quieter. I liked the more serious tone (well as serious as her story-telling vibes can be) and am just as fond of Adrien’s apprentices, Julian and MacMallin as he is. Sherwood takes her time building the relationship between Adrien’s wary, abused new apprentices and learning the ropes of being a parent and teacher before bringing the ridiculously brilliant and competent Hugh into play.

They are both taken with one another at first meeting, but Adrien has been shown by his birth family and previous lovers he isn’t worth the effort and can’t see when someone is expressing romantic interest. Besides, there is no time for romance as monsters and rogue sorcerers are on the loose so the story ends with friendship and a Hugh determined to romance the ish out of Adrien. Also per usual, Adrien’s found family is utterly delightful and loving to Adrien, the boys and each other. The warmth oozes from the page and gives all the feels.

David Lee Huynh is a new-to-me narrator, and I found his performance to be almost pitch perfect. His voice work, especially for Adrien, is a great fit and no character sounds miscast or like a struggle for him to voice. The only thing that bothered me is that he pauses at odd moments and for distractingly and unnecessarily long times. Some pauses are so long it almost feels like a scene/section break. It ruins the momentum and makes some scenes, especially the dialogue feel odd and disjointed. That being said, the story is very charming and Lee captures the tone and personalities well; I’m eagerly counting the days until the second installment next year.