Magic of Thieves

Legends of Dimmingwood, Book 1

By: C. Greenwood

Narrated by: Ashley Arnold

In a province where magic is forbidden and its possessors are murdered by the magickless, young Ilan has only one hope for survival. Concealment. In the shadow of Dimmingwood, she finds temporary protection among a band of forest brigands led by the infamous outlaw Rideon the Red Hand. But when old enemies reappear and new friendships lead to betrayal, will Ilan's magic and the power of her enchanted bow be enough to save her?

©2013 C. Greenwood (P)2013 C. Greenwood

It's has decent story line.

It's entertaining but the narrator just sounds like a robot for most of the story.

Poor Narration

Narration not very good. Lack of needed inflections, barely noticeable voice changes. Chosen dialect mismatched, writer keeps changing tones and you lose a sense of the error as the story progresses. With that said, although the first volume is very short, the story line is interesting enough to compel you to move on to the second. Hopefully it will be better written.

Great short read

I enjoyed this book. i have now read the entire series. in my opinion they should have put all books together to make one book. after first book there is a lot of repition and i was able to easily one book a night.

Unenjoyable narration

I have no complaints about the book itself. The narrator on the other hand was flat. She struggled to differentiate between voices and read in a monotone for the majority of the book. This would have been much more enjoyable with better narration.

Good read

liked it good read fast paced action
a well balanced story . I would recommend to everyone

An enchanting story

What did you love best about Magic of Thieves?

I enjoyed the tale and the characters. I felt like they were acquaintances after the first few chapters.

What other book might you compare Magic of Thieves to and why?

I saw similarities with many different saga types I have read but with a unique twist and an air of mystery surrounding the players

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

This is where I found the biggest fault with this production. The narrator lacked any semblance of emotion or ability to inflect her voice to show the difference in feeling coming from the parts read. Also, disappointing was her lack of vocabulary and mispronunciation of several words repeatedly. I would relate her narration to a monotone with no feeling.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I was able to finish listening to the story in one sitting while I groomed the dog.

Any additional comments?

I really would like to read the next book in this series but I would rather not hear it read to me by this inadequate narrator.

An original coming of age tale.

I read about 200 books per year, mostly Fantasy. I have to say this book was a refreshing surprise. The story, about an orphan girl with magic name Ilan, could have been completely formulaic,with her discovering her magic, being raised by a kind mentor to utilize the magic, and then going off as a super powerful magic user to stop the evil...whatever. Instead, this is a much more relatable tale, with characters you really care about, or really loath. Magic is banned by the Praetor, so Ilans parents were killed as magic users by the Praetors soldiers. Ilan managed to escape, and a friendly neighbor paid a peddler to smuggle her to her people enclave in the next country over. Sadly, highwaymen robbed and killed the peddler, although the killing was accidental in a way. At first, a very young Ilan is left at the peddler's wagon, but one of the highwaymen, who lost his family years ago, come back for her and takes her back to the camp. He there faces off with the bandit leader Rideon, who basically says she earns her keep or she's dead. She joins the bandits, basically as a mascot, with cleanup duties. She also learns the skills of a bandit over the years, including using the bow, and even though her Foster father tries to protect her, she accompanies them on a raid. The raid goes badly, as a knight/monk with magic beats them badly. He also tells Ilan if she want to learn to use her magic beyond the basic person reading/compulsion she can use it for, she should meet him in a city a few days away. After a series of betrayals and setbacks among the bandits, Ilan leaves the bandits to seek her fortune with the monk who is willing to teach her magic.
The characters are a real strength in this. Carol Greenwood does a great job of bringing the characters to life, giving them realistic motivations, desires, dreams and ambitions. Ilan is particularly sympathetic, wanting to fit in and be part of the group, while being different with magic she can't tell anyone about. She is strong, but not in a ridiculous way that makes her some kind of tank warrior, just a 15 year old girl that has been trained by a bunch of bandits in their various skills. You find yourself rooting for her, as she goes through the typical growing pains of that age, while meeting the demands of a taskmaster of a bandit leader. Ridion is a bit of a mystery, since he seems to be more than he appears. All in all, a very good book. Fans of Jennifer Roberson and Steven McKay should really enjoy this book. Ashley Arnold did a decent job of narrating. She doesn't have a huge variation of voices or tones, but there is enough to differentiate the characters. She keeps the story moving without distracting. She's not Kate Reading, but then again, who is? Anyways, a good book and narration.

A young child taken in by a thief.

Magic of Thieves
Legends of Dimmingwood, Book 1
By: C. Greenwood
Narrated by: Ashley Arnold
This had it's moments that were pretty good but most was just a kid taken in by a thief. His boss tells him to kill her but he doesn't, the other thieves seem to cheer up with a little one around. Boss says she can stay. It's her life growing up, interactions between the guys, and she has to hide that she has magic, it's illegal. ( Not that they are doing anything wrong by murder, rape, pillage,..)
The narrator was excellent.

Fun and Unique Story!

Would you listen to Magic of Thieves again? Why?

Yes, I really enjoyed the story and the narrator wasn't bad. I'd love to listen to it a couple more times. For a self published book I was quite impressed.

What other book might you compare Magic of Thieves to and why?

It's not similar enough to another book to be compared -- it does however remind me of a D&D or Pathfinder campaign. So if you are a gamer you will enjoy this book.

What about Ashley Arnold’s performance did you like?

Her voice fit the part and she read with enough emotion that the book just flowed. It felt much shorter than it was because the time listening to it just flew by.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No but I enjoyed the characters very much and the story.

Any additional comments?

My only complaints about this book are: 1) that it was too short. and 2) the Narrator pops her p's.

OK but...

there is too much narrative - no character development due to no conversations between them