Storm Glass

By: Maria V. Snyder

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck

As a glassmaker and a magician-in-training, Opal Cowen understands trial by fire. Now it's time to test her mettle. Someone has sabotaged the Stormdancer clan's glass orbs, killing their most powerful magicians. The Stormdancers--particularly the mysterious and mercurial Kade--require Opal's unique talents to prevent it happening again.

But when the mission goes awry, Opal must tap in to a new kind of magic as stunningly potent as it is frightening. And the further she delves into the intrigue behind the glass and magic, the more distorted things appear.

With lives hanging in the balance - including her own - Opal must control powers she hadn't known she possessed...powers that might lead to disaster beyond anything she's ever known.

©2009 Maria V. Snyder (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Narrator is too old!

The narrator sounds like an old woman and uses the weirdest inflections and worst accents and strangest pronunciations. Not a good fit for a story about a 20 year old student.

Gabra spoiled me.

Why does the narrator sound like she is about to shove Hansel and Gretel into a huge oven? Ancient and curmudgeonly. All of the emphases are in the wrong places and it's just too emphatic overall. Everybody just sounds bitchy.

Mispronounciations

I hungered for more and was hooked on this side story. It took a bit to warm to the new characters in this story but when the reader mispronounced “curare” it unraveled from there. I cringed every time the word was uttered. Makes me wonder if the producers caught the mishap? Well makes me wonder how this could happen.

OK, but not as good as first series

This series is a spinoff (from what I can tell so far) of the Study series. I'm not sure what happened with this audio. There are only 7 physical chapters to the audiobook, but they squish together several chapters and seem to skip quite a few of them. I was also irritated with the way the narrator pronounced important names and other important words (pronounced them differently from the Study series narrator) and gave the characters all the same sort of voices. It was hard to keep track of who was who. The parts of the book that are in the audio were good and captivating like the previous series. I wish I had the physical copy of these books so I could give them true justice. I'm hoping the other books in this series are complete.

Sound gets too soft to listen while driving

That is my biggest complaint is the recording. Some of the characters are spoken so soft that there were several times of waiting until out of the car to listen. Nothing ruins a story faster than a bad recording.

Narrator doesn't fit

Although this book is well written, it does not compare to the study series. I think what caused me to struggle to finish it was the narrator, who wasn't a good representation of the main character in my opinion. The voice was similar to Star Trek's older and dignified Captain Janeway, while the character is a very youthful artist with a lot of room to grow. I'll read on because I think the full story will be worth it, but I won't be listening to this book again.

Not bad, but I'm opting out after this

What made the experience of listening to Storm Glass the most enjoyable?

I like the story and the world. Opal is not as strong a character as Yelena and I think her development isn't as realistic and consistent, but it's overall a decent read.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked her relationship with the Stormdancer the best.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Pronunciation!!!! Please make it consistent from story to story and narrator to narrator. Some words were unrecognizable, others merely annoying. (Cur-rare, anyone?)

Any additional comments?

Series Spoiler!!!!! Don't read if you don't want to know what happens!!

I have decided not to continue reading this series because, even though I loved the Yelena series and had high expectations about Opal, I am not going to buy books that depict happy endings for rapists and torturers. I did some googling and synopsis readings - I understand how and why it ended that way, but I respectfully disagree with the creative choices Ms. Snyder made and the impact that has on an audience, especially the younger members. Enough said!

Entertaining but unsatisfied ending

I loved Poison study due to its ability to grow characters but also write an amazing plot. All the books had a clear end that was concise but left for the series to continue.

This book left me desperate to read the next, only because I love consuming books. I could easily put down this series and not go back. I'm hoping the 2nd book will make it memorable. Cheers!

Storm Glass

Really missed the original reader of the first two books. Took a while to grasp the story.

Where is Gabra Zackman????

Ms. Synder's spin off trilogy with Opal as the main character could be almost as good as the "Poison" series and as the ladder is my most favorite series of all time that is saying a lot. Which is why the narrating of this spin off is such a let down! Ms. Van Dyke REALLY takes away from the story-to the point that I ended up just reading this book on my Kindle. Opal is about 18 in this first story but has the voice of someone TWICE her age and complete with a southern accent! I'm from the South and I'm saying how wrong that is! Which is soooo sad because Gabra Zackman does such an amazing job narrating the other stories in this world! Where were you Ms. Zackman???