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Obras por Armen Pogharian

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The Warders, the secret protectors of the city of Eridan, are facing a new danger. It's alarming enough when an agent working in another city is killed, and a magical artifact stolen. When the local head of the Thieves' Guild contacts the Warders, the message, and one of the messengers, is even more alarming.

The unexpected messenger is a rogue Shaulan assassin, Khelan, and the message concern a plot whose roots are in a centuries-old conflict between two groups of elves. A Chaotic Order sorceress is determined to gain control of the long-suppressed elven magic, and use it to seize power over the entire Federation of which Eridan is a part.

To stop the sorceress and her plot, they have to recover the stolen artifact, and a matching artifact the sorceress is now after--and then defeat the sorceress, who is powerful even without those artifacts.

Khelan, whom the Warders need but worry they can't trust, the experienced agents the dwarf Draham and half-elven Toran, and budding mage Adara, set off on the hunt. Along the way, they encounter danger, treachery, and magical threats both familiar and new. Demons, dragons, and someone believed to be quite dead turn out to be critical.

It's a lively story, with both new and familiar characters, and Babb does a lively and excellent job of narration.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
LisCarey | Feb 2, 2024 |
Toran is a half-elven, half-barbarian young man, who has been raised by his elven uncle. It's only when an accident in a war game with friends briefly unleashes his barbarian battle rage that his uncle tells him the full truth of his heritage. It becomes important then because the elf supremacists (no, Pogharian doesn't use this loaded phrase; that's me) succeed in banishing him. Aside from contributing to his banishment, it also means he has a really useful inheritance from his dead father.

His uncle sends him off to the city of Eridan, where elves and elf mixes are fairly common and accepted, with a letter of introduction to an old friend.

Toran finds his uncle's friend in the tavern his uncle said he would, though it's rather seedier than he had anticipated. Nevertheless, he's given work, and room, and settles in fairly easily. His elven hearing makes working in the tavern a more interesting job that it might have been, because it's a hangout for the members of the Thieves' Guild, and other people of dubious means of earning a living. When the imminent arrival of the Princess of Veloria is announced, like everyone else who can get the day off, he's in the crowd watching the procession. He is, as always, wearing that inheritance from his father--two recurved swords slung over his shoulders. He's very skilled with them, and very fast (elven speed), and he thwarts an attempted assassination of the princess. This leads to him being drawn in to a group called the Warders, who are dedicated to protecting the city of Eridan in ways the city guard can't.

It should be no surprise that the tavern owner his uncle sent him to is prominent in it, and his uncle is a former member.

As they work to track down the assassin, a second attempt is made, and the princess is poisoned. Due to a quirk of how Eridan's wine is flavored, she isn't dead--but she isn't going to survive long if the Warders can't obtain the key ingredient for the antidote quickly.

From here, we have two parallel tales. A party consisting of Toran; the princess's handmaiden, Adrelle; and the leader of the group, a dwarf named Draham, are off to obtain and bring back that key ingredient for the antidote, while another team is trying to track down the traitor within the princess's entourage.

These are all interesting characters, with multiple layers. Adrelle in particular is worth noting as tough and smart, and not easily intimidated. Draham is no cookie-cutter dwarf, either, with wit, intelligence, and a very believable conviction that dwarves were not meant to ride horses.

What's surprising is that Pogharian gives that same attention to the assassin, Yuden. He's a member of the Shaulan assassins' guild, and...for him, this is just a job. We get a couple of point of view chapters for him, and see him enthusiastic over a ball game in the street, very professional in his attitude toward killing people, surprisingly squeamish about torture. He's a really bad guy, but he's a quite human bad guy.

I should also say that Toran's skill in tracking, as well as with the bow, are presented as a result of his uncle's elven training, not Toran being particularly "special." The swords are another matter, but they're from his dead father, and, in a world where magic is common, well, I'll say no more. Toran is a clever and tough young man, but not anybody's Chosen Hero. That's part of what I like about Pogharian's books.

The target audience for this is "young adult and up," and it should be noted it opens with a rape scene, though not an explicit one. Some parents might want to be aware of that before handing it to their advanced-reader younger kids.

The narration is excellent.

I received this audiobook as a gift.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
LisCarey | Jul 25, 2023 |
Penny Preston, her friend Duncan, teacher Mr. Myrdin (who is the actual Merlin), Myrdin's companion Master Poe--an exile from the 7th dimension who has assumed raven form in our world, and not least, Penny's companion, Simon, who looks like a very large housecat but is actually a cait sith, one of a race of transdimensional cat-like beings native to our dimension, might have thought they were entitled to a break after their last two adventures. That's not to be, however. A new threat has arrived, a beast from the 5th dimension, is attacking the barriers between the dimensions, threatening the very survival of the multiverse.

At first, all they know is that the weakening of the dimensional barriers is happening. Before they can save the multiverse, they have to figure out what the source of the threat really is.

Penny is attacked by a merman during swimming practice. A shapeshifter with Peter Pan-like skills snares a woman visiting the local clothing store, and is rescued by Simon. A project at the Monroe Institute, where Penny's parents both work as theoretical physicists, is attempting to create sustained nuclear fusion, and is instead getting bizarre surges of energy that don't match any known forms of energy. They've been referring to it as "transdimensional energy," a phrase Penny and her friends find rather disturbing.

And there's a robin flitting around, a European robin, which shouldn't be in New York; it should be on the other side of the Atlantic. Simon keeps calling it "the bird that is not a bird."

There's also a strangely powerful new bodach, who after 1600 years is determined to get revenge on the lesser bodach that helped King Arthur defeat her, as well as on pretty much the entire universe for getting ousted from her role as Prime Principal in the 5th dimension, and exiled to our far more limited dimension. Even she is a lesser threat, though, compared to the ghostly, seven foot tall wild boar who has been near the Monroe Institute's fusion reactor.

Penny and Duncan are real kids, despite their magical and universe-defending responsibilities. They worry about school work, indulge in favorite foods, have normal misunderstandings, and just play. They do great things, but they're kids, responsible kids, but normal kids, not superheroes. It's part of what makes these books a lot of fun.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the narrator, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
LisCarey | Sep 6, 2021 |
Penny Preston is just trying to figure out what the mist-figures in the corridor outside the school cafeteria are and what they're doing, when she accidentally opens a transdimensional rift and starts a food fight. It's not any great surprise that, though it takes a bit longer than she expected, she's soon enough sitting in the office of Mr. Myrdin.

It is a surprise that she's not there to be disciplined for starting the food fight. Two other students have been blamed for that, and being as unaware as everyone else of Penny's involvement, they've accepted it. No, Penny is there because the only other person who noticed the strange creatures is Mr. Myrdin. He wants to talk to her about the fact that she's "misaligned," existing in more than just the usual three dimensions, and thus an important key to stop transdimensional beings from attacking and destroying our universe.

What follows is a wild adventure for Penny, and her best friend, Duncan, who need to learn the ins and outs of fighting higher-dimensional beings from Mr. Myrdin and his companion, the raven Master Poe. Along the way, Penny acquires a wonderful, large, black cat named Simon, who isn't exactly your average pussycat, and Duncan acquires an amulet that lets him share some of the "misaligned" powers Penny was born with, and assist her in the battle.

These are two normal kids, thirteen or fourteen, neither the most popular kids in school, nor social outcasts. They have friends and rivals, and classes they like and classes they hate. What I really love, though, is that The Hobbit is an important touchstone for them, and for Mr. Myrdin, and the teacher who is a major threat is also a really good teacher. Honestly, I would have loved to have a class with her at that age, as long as I could skip the "conspiring against me with transdimensional enemies" part. Truly, in years to come, I think Penny and Duncan would only regret the "conspiring against them" part, and still value having had that her class.

There are also excursions into Celtic myth and Arthurian legend, which also add to the story and the atmosphere.

A lot of fun, and well worth the time.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the narrator, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
LisCarey | Apr 27, 2021 |

Estatísticas

Obras
6
Membros
8
Popularidade
#1,038,911
Avaliação
½ 4.5
Críticas
4
ISBN
5
Línguas
1