Listening to Kevin Pierce narrate a story is like having a great soup with honey biscuits in front of a hot fire after a full day of hard work in the cold…warming, satisfying and all the little tasty bits are fun in the finding. Combining Pierce’s narration with a great Mad Mick story is just plain fun. Having Mick meet up with Jim Powell’s family is finding one of those especially tasty bits, exciting and spicy!! Add in the villain getting his…bonus!!
Now for a bit of critique…. I wish Ragus would be more like what he was in the first story…not sniffing behind Barb, but I just don’t like Shannon. She has her “moments” but mostly she’s a distraction that’s whittling courageous Ragus into a hotheaded, entirely less thought-full young man. Neither seems to be progressing well with their martial arts training and Ragus seems to have lost all sense of proportion and observational skills he utilized in the 1st book. It’s like he’s no longer the strong, caring man he was introduced as. Shannon is sneaky, dishonest, drinks too much and using her grief over the loss of her father as a ready made excuse to never take real responsibility for the actions she prods Ragus into, actions that often end up putting everyone in harm’s way. Shannon sincerely needs a wake up call so she can stop gaming. In a society like this, gaming would seem to be the way an abused, self-centered female in a camp full of other abused females would use to get her way. She’s stopped learning anything medical, complains about work and is full-on mean-spirited to Ragus. I’d hate to see her killed off because Ragus’ character would take a seriously deleterious backstep but she needs a reality check that hits her personally right between the eyes. Hope this happens soon. Otherwise, great read!!