Arianna Kelt and the Wizards of Skyhall

By: J. R. King

Narrated by: Ron Knowles

Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

A debut novel from a teen author! Teen author J.R. King completed his debut novel at 12. He spent a year and a half rewriting and revising. Listen to the book and see for yourself why publishers all around the world are so excited about this book.

J.R. King's 12-year-old antihero turned hero, Arianna Kelt, is a reformed thief and wizard seer. Now you wouldn't think being a wizard seer would be such a big deal, but it is a big deal to the Wizards of Skyhall. For you see, those particular wizards are sworn to protect the citizens of Earth from all the things they shouldn't know about, namely wizards, warlocks, and all the creatures of the magical realms that no humans should know exist.

Certainly Arianna would like to blame all her troubles on donuts, the vile, corrupting food that has caused her problems more than once, but she couldn't. Well, not quite. The truth was she got nabbed sneaking a piece of cherry cobbler, and just when she thought her luck was running out, she saw the wizard, and of course, seeing the wizard got her into a whole new barrel of problems.

Full of humor, action, and adventure, you'll be rolling on the floor with laughter, sitting on the edge of your seat, and turning pages so fast the Law Gnomes will be out to get you too. Enter Skyhall and become a wizard if you dare!

Listen to the sequel: Arianna Kelt and the Renegades of Time.

©2006 J.R. King (P)2006 Reagent Press

boring

Even though I really love children's books I didn't like this one. The main characters, even Arianne herself, are flat and nondescript. How can you expect a 12 year old to be able to describe complicated feelings and so Arianna never really came to life for me.And I have to agree with Frances: This is such a terrible read. The narrator tells the hole story with the same ironic voice, that just doesn't work with this book.The author has some good ideas but I feel he should better have waited a few years and given himself and his story more time to mature.

I tried to like this book

I really wanted to like this book--good idea, exciting that it was written by a 12 year old boy--but I really didn't. I think it could have been better if he developed the characters more, especially the title character, and made the book more about her. Instead it was what you might expect from a 12 year old boy: battles, battles and more battles. My mind would wander often, and I had no desire to rewind to hear what I'd missed. The worst thing about this book was the TERRIBLE narrator. It was like he was reading to three year olds. It felt like every sentence ended with an exclamation mark!!!! And he mispronounced several words badly. I think JR took on too much in his first book. This final battle type of scenario should be saved for future books after you actually care about the characters. The parts of the book I wanted to hear the most about--Ariana and the school and her talents comprised only a few chapters. She wasn't even really in the book that much. Nevertheless, he had some very creative ideas and I think he definitely could go far.

I can believe it was written by a 12-year-old...

As an adult reader of young adult fantasy fiction, I got this book in the hopes of finding another Christopher Paolini - a young author with a surprisingly mature voice. However, the combination of really bad dialog and a really annoying reader made me stop listening about 2 hours in. I'll read most anything, and I rarely abandon an audiobook, but this one was too painful. I am sure that the author will improve, and I am impressed by the achievement, but I will have to pass until they've had some creative writing lessons.

Terrible Narrator

The book itself may be wonderful. I can't tell. I listen to dozens of books a year, and can normally get past a bad narrator. But this narrator is just awful. It's like he is cold reading the material & uses an "excited grampa" voice for everything. There are no pauses, no actual emotion, just sort of a hurried, breathless, "oh this is so exciting" way of speaking used for everything. I can't even finish listening to this book (first time ever). It is truly horrible narration.

Very well written for such a young writer

Well if you plan on watching the movie then you should read the book first. It captivates you the moment you sit down to read. It was full of surprises and I kept gasping and people would asked what happened and I just couldnt help telling them the whole story. Getting the book was great. If anyone would enjoy this book, it would probably be fantasy lovers.

it was cool

Arianna Kelt and the Wizards of Skyhall was a very very good book because it was exciting and packed with action. I liked how King gave all them details about the wizards. I loved Digerence the gnome. I think if you like fantasy or adventure or magical kind of stories you will like it because it is very very good.

Wonderfully inventive!!

Our family just loved this! The story is brilliantly written by an incredibly talented young author and well read by a talented narrator. We enjoyed this more than all the kids books we've listened to previously and liked it much better than Artemis Fowl and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

An excellent choice for anyone who loves Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter and such!

Looking for next Harry Potter... Look no further

I agree anyone ga ga for Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl or Eragon who hasn't read this is missing out. Everyone in the family was enchanted by this book. It is an incredibly fun, engaging listen from an extremely talented but underappreciated young author. This is pure magic!

Go read this book!

What does it feel like to save this world? If you want to know read this book. I gave it a five star rating because it was one of the best books I have ever read. The book was about an orphan girl who is a thief and then a wizard in training. It has humor, action and magic. I liked the ideas put into the story.

I loved how it gave you enough detail so you could get a good picture in your head. There is nothing boring about this book. I literally couldn't put it down. JR King has a way of making you really care about the characters. You can never tell what happens next. Go read this book!

A lighthearted and witty tale

Great especially for teens, but also something adults would enjoy, this story written by a very talented 12 year old author is something everyone would enjoy.
It's a little more lighthearted then your typical fantasy read, and full of wit, sarcasm, and action.
The story, while not too complicated, is very entertaining, and the audio version of it is great as well.