Audiobook Review – Wings of Wrath (Magister, Book 2) by C.S. Friedman, Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Length: 16 hours and 8 minutes (448 pages)
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: May 15, 2012
ASIN: B0083EGAMC
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Magister series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Kamala, a peasant woman, has claimed the powerful sorcery of the Magisters as her own-the ability to draw on the power of the human soul without dying for it. But in her rise to power she finds herself hunted by the brotherhood, and flees to a land where spells are warped by a fatal curse. A land that even Magisters fear…”
This is the second book in Friedman’s Magister series. This has been an amazing fantasy series and is a very good classic fantasy read!
I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. In fact if I weren’t listening to this on audiobook I probably wouldn’t be continuing on with the series. Rodgers just does such an amazing job narrating the story.
Kamala is reeling after events in the first book and is trying to find a way to gain knowledge that she can use as leverage against the rest of the Magisters. She decides to journey towards the Wrath (a magical barrier that separates the North from the rest of the world) and try to learn its secrets. Many secrets are revealed about the Wrath and the Soul Eaters that dwell to the North.
This story switches POV a ton throughout the book and a lot more characters are added to the story. However, I never had trouble following it. Friedman is also not at all afraid of eliminating major characters as a course of the story and adding in new ones.
The Soul Eaters and their companions make the Magisters seem like heroes in this book. I continue to enjoy the good vs evil themes and all the magic and the way life-force is needed to make magic function. I am incredibly curious to see how things wrap up in the third book; this story has been very intriguing and very hard to predict.
Friedman’s writing style is very “classic” fantasy and reminds me a lot of books I read that came out in the 80’s and 90’s. I have been enjoying the nostalgic feel that reading this series gives me!
Overall this has been an incredible fantasy series. I love the complex world, interesting magic system, entangled plot, and the unpredictability of it all. The characters are well done and the world building is epic. I would highly recommend to those who enjoy epic fantasy with a classic feel to it.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
