Audiobook Review – Taken (Alex Verus, Book 3) by Benedict Jacka, Narrated by Gildart Jackson (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 10 hours and 7 minutes (320 pages)
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Release Date: January 27, 2014
ASIN: B00HZT4JCE
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Alex Verus series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Mage apprentices have been vanishing without a trace—and someone on the council might be involved. Alex Verus has no evidence, no witnesses, and no suspects. All he knows is that someone is keeping tabs on him. And after assassins target his own apprentice’s classmate, Alex sees that he doesn’t know the half of it—and that he could be the next to disappear…”

This is the third book in the Alex Verus series (currently there are seven books released in this series). This was a well done investigative urban fantasy series. Although I never think these books are spectacular I do enjoy them quite a bit.

I listened to this on audiobook and this is a great series to listen to on audiobook. The narrator does an awesome job and I would highly recommend the audiobook version of this series.

This whole series reminds me of a cross between The Dresden Files and the Iron Druid Chronicles. Verus is a diviner who gets his butt kicked a lot but usually is clever enough to makes things come out in his favor in the end. Luna is now officially his apprentice and she is slowly learning to get her curse under control. There is quite a bit of characters growth for Luna in this book as well.

We meet some new characters in this book; Anne and Variam are the two major newbies to the story. They were both very intriguing characters and are well fleshed out. We also meet some of the other types of magical creatures in this world (Rakshasa for one).

The world-building was well done and the story is interesting. I enjoyed watching Alex try to unravel the mysteries of this big old house as he tried to prevent the kidnapping of yet more apprentices.

The story is fast-paced with lots of humor throughout. I enjoy how Alex continues to use his divining ability in creative ways. The story ties up in a good place and I am curious to see where this series goes next. Although there are some elements of the story that span from book to book, the books in this series have been very self-contained.. It’d be nice to have a more interesting and solid plot that spans multiple books in this series.

This is definitely an urban fantasy book; there isn’t much romance in here at all. There are some hints that there may be romances in the future but the story is pretty solid urban fantasy.

Overall this is a fun urban fantasy read. I enjoyed the characters, the world, and the story. The Alex Verus series in general has been fun to listen to; it’s pretty typical urban fantasy fare but well done. I plan on continuing the series. I would recommend to fans of The Dresden Files or the Iron Druid Chronicles.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge