Details:
- author: Jen Williams
- full title: Talonsister
- narrator: Jot Davies
- genre: fantasy
- topics: #highfantasy, #epicfantasy, #griffins, #druins, #magick
- publisher: Bolinda Audio
- publish date: 01 Dec 2023
- timing: 21:58:00
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙.5
- narration: 💙💙💙💙💙
 |
| Goodreads |
Excerpt from the Book:
They flew back with the wailing bundle clutched carefully between T’vor’s powerful talons. On the way Flayn spotted a small herd of mountain goats creeping cautiously up the sheer side of Silver Death Peak, and without slowing them down he snapped up a couple of the rangy animals, breaking their necks quickly and efficiently, so that they would have something to eat that night at least. The Silver Death was one of several peaks that punctuated the hazy border between griffin territory – known to them as Yelvynia – and the many scattered settlements of the ground-stuck humans. These lands were strictly forbidden to those prey animals; any foolish enough to venture near the mountains and get caught were killed without trial or discourse, and their stripped, severed heads were left on the southernmost foothills as a warning. Humans, it seemed, did not learn lessons quickly or well, since the southern foothills were awash with ancient skulls, turned white and yellow with the freezing winters and bleaching sun.My Thoughts:
Talonsister is a slow-paced and quite complex high fantasy novel with many characters and subplots. The setting and story are inspired by the UK and its history.Leven is a retired herald who served eight years in the Imperium’s army. She has no memory of before she joined the army. Now, after the serving, she has strange visions of some foreign place. She is travelling with Cillian, the druin. Accompanied by the envoy of the Imperium, Kaeto, bone-crafter Gynid Tyleigh is searching for the new Titan bones. Ynis is a 16-year-old girl raised by griffins who lives surrounded by them in the north. They are isolated, so she never saw another human. She lives as griffins do and flies with her talon-sister, T’rook.
I needed really a lot of time to get invested in the story, and in the first half, I didn’t know how to feel about the story. The last quarter of the story was more engaging and faster-paced.
I liked the extraordinary narration by Jot Davies, who did an amazing job of bringing to life so many human and nonhuman characters.
About the Author:
About the Narrator:
Jot Davies is a television and voice actor who recorded dozens of audiobooks, including Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma and multiple works by Charles Cumming and Paul Strathern. In reviewing his narration of A Foreign Country, AudioFile magazine praises, “Davies’s narration ushers you in” and his “pacing fits the narrative,” calling his voice “a steady presence through the disparate events from the beginning to the satisfying conclusion.” Outside of narration, his acting credits include television shows Casualty, New Tricks and Hotel Babylon and the video game Haze.
