Stories of the Raksura, Book 1

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak

In "The Falling World", Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court, has traveled with Chime and Balm to another Raksuran court. When she fails to return, her consort, Moon, along with Stone and a party of warriors and hunters, must track them down. Finding them turns out to be the easy part; freeing them from an ancient trap hidden in the depths of the Reaches is much more difficult. "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" explores the history of the Indigo Cloud Court, long before Moon was born. In the distant past, Indigo stole Cloud from Emerald Twilight. But in doing so, the reigning Queen Cerise and Indigo are now poised for a conflict that could spark war throughout all the courts of the Reaches. Stories of Moon and the shape changers of Raksura have delighted listeners for years. This world is a dangerous place full of strange mysteries, where the future can never be taken for granted and must always be fought for with wits and ingenuity, and often tooth and claw. With two brand-new novellas, Martha Wells shows that the world of the Raksura has many more stories to tell....

©2014 Martha Wells (P)2014 Audible Inc.

More please

I was so sad when I finished the original series. Thank you for bringing these characters back to life for me and fleshing out their backstories.

Loved it

This story takes place amongst nonhumuns. It took a couple chapters for me to get my head around the people and there capabilities. The story also takes place out of order of time. This made the story more interesting to me. The characters were developed and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

It develops...

This is a collection of stories, the first is not necessarily unique at first, more like gender role swaps on a tried and true formula, but it does serve to establish characters and by the second and subsequent mini stories, hooks you for more.

The downside is that there is a fair amount of strong emotional angst, and at first I took it as the story was written for a younger audience- which it probably is, yet, it kind of makes sense and fits the characters overtime.

What makes it confusing, more then the gender role swaps, is the narrator, whose “female” character voices sound more like a dim witted giants.

If you can get past these quirks, the stories are nice.

I love Raksura backstories

I’ve always disdained prequels before. But these are different somehow, making the characters I love seem more real - fleshing out their personalities.

My favorite series

The reviews ragging on the social structure of the Raksura have obviously not read the true novels of this series, which gives an exorbitant amount of context for their society, names, and Moon's anxious disposition. I absolutely recommend them, they are fabulous.

The narrator was okay, but as some have said the voice used for female Raksura was meh.

Enjoyed Three-Fourths of the Short Stories

Shorter is Better.

I've listened to two of the current three novel series (which I mildly regret, for there were spoilers for BK 3: Siren's Depths, in the first short) and I found that these short stories held my interest more consistently than either of those novels.

The first short, The Falling World, was my least favorite for this reason. It was long enough to suffer from novel-like pacing and had a conflict that felt like a mediocre Dr. Who episode.

The second, The Tale of Indigo and Cloud, was my favorite. Set in the court's past, which seemed cheery and upbeat when compared to the presently stiff court. This difference in emotional tone was likely a heavy point in its favor after hundreds of pages of reserved dialogue from Moon, Stone, and Jade. I enjoyed the cast of characters as well. I even listened to it again after I finished the collection.

I found the Forest Boy to be equal parts cute and eye rolling cliche. I enjoyed it in the end. You can't really dislike a childhood Moon.

I was skeptical about the last one once I realized what it would be about, but enjoyed it as well.

Either I was enjoying myself too much to notice or the narrator was enjoying himself as well and did a better reading because of it. The narrator was not what I wished in the novels, but after the first story in this collection, I don't remember any odd and distracting pauses that seemed to fill the novels.

wonderful

loved it. story unique and charming. would listen to it again and recommend it to friends

If you liked the first Raksura books, you’ll like these stories

The stories are a welcome filling in of the characters from the books. I particularly like that, in the audio books, it is the same excellent narrator as the first books.

I don't want to he finished with the Raksura!

The more I read, the more I fall in love with the Raksura. I have finished all 5 books and just completed Tales #1. I am sad knowing that Tales of the Raksura #2 will be my last visit to this fascinating world and with this wonderful group of characters.

No thanks

Character names are terrible. Chime, moon, stone, flame and pearl sound more like the names people give their pets, than actual characters. Initial plot was interesting, but the characters interactions feel really numb and difficult to care about. The females have even deeper voices than the males.