Fortress of Gold

Magicians Gold Series, Book 2

By: David Harten Watson

Narrated by: Ray Greenley

Enemy sorcerers destroyed the gold that powers white magic on Rados, leaving the Kingdom of Eldor defenseless. A prophecy said the only hope of restoring the gold was for 16-year-old Pran to travel to the mythical world called Earth with three companions: Jelal, a spy whose accident with an eternal youth spell at age 12 cursed him to remain that age forever; Pran’s classmate Samir, who nearly killed Pran last week (but that was before they discovered they’re cousins); and Vitina, the exotic enchantress Pran fell in love with at first sight.

They arrive on Earth in New Jersey, a foul-smelling place infested with millions of horseless carriages. The prophecy leads them to the family destined to be their native guides, but then their plans go awry. Although they brought diamonds to trade (knowing Earthlings consider those useless rocks valuable), they learn it's hard to trade diamonds the size of eggs for gold. The FBI believes they’re international jewel thieves or diamond smugglers, Samir is captured, and the others must rescue him.

Pran begins questioning whether his love for Vitina is real or, as she believes, a magical side effect. Adding to his confusion, Pran is torn between his feelings for Vitina and a new, totally unexpected love interest - another boy. The only way to get enough gold to save their kingdom is to pull off a daring daytime heist of the most heavily-guarded building on Earth!

And Jelal has secret orders to steal other items from Earth besides gold....

©2018 David Harten Watson (P)2018 David Harten Watson

Critic reviews

"David Harten Watson explores complex relationships and layered characters in this delightful second adventure. Watson has a humorous and charming flip on the idea of characters in a strange new world, only this time, the new world is our own. They encounter a new language, horseless carriages, and the strangest magic of all: technology. Watson has plenty of jokes poking fun at society and technology that are clever and charming. Their time on Earth also has a thriller element woven into it as the FBI [is]...determined to catch them.... Each part of the plot is coupled with humor, family, first love, and plenty of romantic complications. ...While dealing with heists and break outs, these teenagers are also dealing with matters of the heart rooted in Pran's feelings for Vitina and her insistence on those feelings being a side effect of her healing him. This leads him to explore his own feelings to figure out what's real, which is complicated when he figures out he has feelings for another boy. The romance is sweet and charming.... Fortress of Gold is a fun adventure with humor, action, romance, friendship, magic, and an unforgettable heist." (Liz Konkel, five stars, Readers' Favorite)

"Fortress of Gold has it all: romance, deceit, jealousy, a villain, pizza, ghosts, alien bodies, a cat, a wounded warrior, counterfeit money, pizza, the FBI, spine-tingling adventure, and, oh yes, pizza! The author has topped his previous effort in this series, producing great fun for the reader." (Thomas Wm. Hamilton, author of Time for Patriots, The Mountain of Long Eyes, and several astronomy books; retired astronomy professor who worked on the Apollo project)

Not what I expected

I was hopeful with this one, even though I hadn't read the first one it sounded like a fun twist on a heist story. I found it a bit repetitive in their lack of earth knowledge and technology. It was a bit long and drawn out and I felt could have done with a good edit to shorten it a bit. The narrator did a great job and was fun to listen to.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Good Sequel

I read the first book, and was keeping an eye out for the sequel. From the description i received from the Audible page, it sounds like an interesting twist on both the "fish out of water" type of story and the heist story. And thankfully, no opportunities were missed in either of these areas, but I do think there are areas for improvement that were missed.

So, First, the good: the characters are fantastic. My big concern from the previous book was that there wasn't much room for the few female characters to grow, but thankfully the female protagonist, Vitina, did grow quite a bit, i feel. Further, her relationship with the main character, Pran, while (SPOILER) not developing in a romantic direction (END SPOILER) grows into an interesting friendship and i thought the two worked well together. I liked Alice, a new character, and wish she'd been more of a presence in the story. I think the same about Samir as well. Oliver was one of my favorite new characters, a Iraq war Vet who helps the Eldor Gang with their heist, and has to deal with both the PTSD he's struggled with since the war and with the stigma society has towards vets with a mental illness. I think Jelal is still my favorite character, and is the most original character in the series (a boy who is 100+ years old due to an eternal youth spell and is constantly torn between mature and immature tendencies).

I missed Pran's father, the eponymous magic teacher of the previous novel. He seemed like an interesting fellow, and i'm looking forward to the Eldor gang rejoining him in the next novel. I also feel that the threat of the Meraknese (not sure if spelled correctly??) invasion of Eldor is represented well throughout, like a giant clock ticking down to armageddon, keeping the main characters focused.

All of these characters are fantastically brought to life by the narrator, Ray Greenley. Seriously, he does amazing work in these audiobooks. So they characters should carry it for you.

I think the big problem area i had was how the story and pacing needed to come to a screeching halt every few pages so Oliver could give a bit of gun trivia. While i understand the dilemma (SPOILER) the Eldor gang is fighting an invasion and has been asked by an Eldor loremaster to bring guns back to a pre-industrial world (END SPOILER), I didn't need a reminder about the difference between semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and I certainly didn't need Oliver to interrupt a robbery to explain why one type of gun won't work because of the ammo type it takes. I understand the author, David Harten Watson, is a vet, and I'll admit it is nice to get a generally neutral take on the gun control issue from somebody who knows the weapons and what they can do. But it got repetitive for me after a while, if i am honest.

I also found a lot of the conversations to be a bit repetitive. The Eldor Gang has to explain/demonstrate their magic system several times throughout to earth people, which i guess makes sense, but got old after the second time. I also felt the Eldor Gang's abilities to teleport and heal from any injury defanged a lot of the threats they faced. Granted, this is a Young Adult novel and i'm not expecting blood and guts or anything, but some type of adversity would be nice.

Regardless, despite feeling a bit overlong because of the repetitive gun and otherworld conversations, I would say that the hits cancel out most of the misses. At the end of the day, I feel like this is a good type of sequel, one that uses the original novel as a starting point to explore new ideas. If i were ten to thirteen years old, I'd probably be talking about how great this novel and its prequel, The Magic Teacher's Son, are. If you have a son looking for a good read, I'd recommend first The Magic Teacher's Son, and then Fortress of Gold.

great book for teens

wonderful storry for teenagers. full of Adventures and great things.... the book was very well-told and very well developed.... I think it's a great book for teenagers and for adults as one...
it's a great young adult story and it was very interesting and it flew by very quickly the narrator was very good as well it was very enjoyable to listen to
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

My son and I continue to enjoy this series

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

As with the first book in this series, although it is geared towards a younger audience, I think this is one that could be enjoyed by any fan of this sort of story. My son and I both really enjoyed listening to the story. It picked up where the last one ended, so it was easy for both of us to follow and enjoy. The narration is well done. All in all, I would definitely recommend this book.