I was a little unsure when I first started this, as it is the first book by Aaron Hodges. But I quickly discovered that this is a very engaging and fascinating read. I found myself quickly connecting with the main characters and getting invested in their success (or failure) rather easily. The story itself is not necessarily too original (super-powerful bad guy trying to take over the world…with magic). There isn’t a “promised one”, but there is one on whom which the rescue of the world depends…if they can just find her. You have the experienced magic user, the experienced swordsman, a woman bounty hunter and some others in the group. There is a hunt for them and the girl they hope to save, as well as possible betrayal lurking on the horizon.

The two main characters are Eric, who can wield the power of a storm, and Gabriel, who is non-magical. The latter mysteriously disappears near the end of the story (the implication being that he could have possibly died…but I’ve read the sequel trilogy, so…[spoilers]). I’m not sure that ‘disappearance’ was the best narrative choice, at least right now. But I’m rolling with it for the time being. Hodges does a solid job weaving his stories together and I’m curious to see how he resolves that particular tension.

That said, this is the first book in a trilogy. Most of the lines of conflict/tension seem to be resolved (except for the question of what happened to Gabriel noted above), though in the epilogue there is a bit of a cliff-hanger. I’m really curious to see how Hodges’ is going to resolve that particular plot point.

Hodges’ use of magic has a sort of sense about it, and you can tell there are rules (at least of sort) governing the magic. The characters themselves feel decently fleshed out to me. I’ve always felt Hodges’ does a good job of providing motivations for each character, and he doesn’t shy away logical actions. If it would make sense for “the bad guy” to stab someone in the back, he gets his stab on.

There is a little bit of romance mixed in with the story. I would almost be tempted to classify this as some YA fiction, except the world-building seems a little more thorough than what that genre usually proffers up and the tragedy some of the characters deal with is a bit much for that genre as well.

David Stifel did a solid job with the narration. Even with speeding up the recording a bit, his diction was great and I didn’t have any problem understanding him.

[Note: I did receive a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review]