The Mapmaker's Apprentice

Glass and Steele, Book 2

By: C. J. Archer

Narrated by: Marian Hussey

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

When an apprentice from the Mapmakers' Guild goes missing, Matt and India are employed to find him. Going undercover as a married couple, they discover that not everyone at the guild is what they seem, and the lad's unearthly maps caused jealousy, suspicion and fear.

With one of the apprentice's magic maps in their possession, India and Matt must use their wits and India's fledgling, untried magic to find him. But the more they investigate, the more sinister plots they uncover, including a link between the Mapmakers' and Watchmakers' Guilds, and an ancient magical treasure buried beneath the streets of London.

As the net of suspicion widens and enemies draw closer, it's not just the apprentice's life that's in danger, but Matt's too. Someone will go to great lengths to prevent him discovering the name of the man who can fix the watch keeping him alive. Great lengths indeed.

©2017 C.J. Archer (P)2017 C.J. Archer

Moving on to ebooks due to narration.

I was so excited, after book 1, to continue this series, but I'm so aggravated by the narration that I think I'll buy the rest of the series on ebook and return the audio.

As usual, Marian Hussey is an acquired taste, even when she only does a one off, but in a series? The cadence of her voice as she trips up and down the scale with each syllable, ending at nearly every period with a breathy 'hah' sound, makes me nervous; I find I can't focus on what she's saying because of it. Rewinding over and over again to figure out what's going on is not what I'm looking for in an audio experience. Further, her accents are all over the map. The MC, Matt, was read very well by the previous narrator, as Emma Powell conveyed him as a sophisticated law man type around whom the other, rougher western American characters collected. Matt is meant to be the calm, controlled center in the chaos. In Hussey's hands, he sounds a bit like a sarcastic con man/city slicker type, and for some inexplicable reason she gave him a southern accent -- which doesn't fit.

Still, the biggest disappointment is in the way Hussey reads the material. She simply does not convey the time and setting of the book, nor does her goofy performance serve the tension of the material. In fact, one reviewer said the book was juvenile, which it is not, but Hussey makes it sound like it is.

This story is a mystery, but she reads it like a comedy of manners, and while it's set in the Victorian era, you'd never know it by Hussey's delivery of character dialogue, which sounds weirdly contemporary. (For a minute, I thought maybe we'd time traveled to the future.)

While Emma Powell had a little trouble reading Matt with a masculine sounding voice in book one, she was consistent and I got used to it. I can't get used to Marian Hussey because she reads like a nervous parakeet. Despite having an English accent, she's all wrong for this series and I'm baffled as to why the publishers would switch to someone else when the first book sold so well.

NOT RECOMMENDED AFTER BOOK ONE, DUE TO NARRATOR CHANGE, (but you can make up your own mind. Fortunately, Audible lets you return books).

Why change the reader?

The readers performance was fine but it was hard to recognize the new rendition of the characters. The voices from book 1 and book 2 for cyclops, willie and Matt were dramatically different

it was ok.

story was ok, but I did not care for the narrator. she made it sound very juvenile. I struggled to get through it.

the book was good, but the narration was...

I like the writing and the storyline, but the narration was distracting. This narrator was not great at Matt's American accent. It was as if she forgot he was supposed to be American. Also, she had this kind of breathless way of reading. so she was okay, but really that good.

A great follow up to book 1!

The excitement continues in the second installment of this historical fiction. Magically objects and people with the propensity to wield it is the theme in this book.

If you read the first book you know that Matt, our mysterious bad boy, is a wounded good bad boy. Those are the most delicious to fall in love with as India will discover.

Every intelligent independent female follows their own course of action. The usual consequences are she needs to be rescued from these dangerous situations. For Matt and India, Matt gets an opportunity to voice his admonishments in physical closeness to India which violates the Victorian rules on propriety.

The tension increases as Matt illness progress, his imminent departure and now a mystery to solve. Of course, his household is no longer a place of solace with his aunt in residence. Her presence is not only stressful to Matt but to his American cousins as well.

The mystery is a learning experience for the reader and India. We find other people can imbued magic into objects and we discover more about the process. Astoundingly magic is more rampant as the best kept secret than we thought from the first book.

To be an ill man, Matt gets into more physical altercations than an ill man should be able to survive. With his protective circle, there is more bickering about his care and more people going off on their own, so he does not have to. No one stops to think these situations call for Matt to come to their rescuer.

There are still so many questions about the magic, when Matt and India will pledge their affections and what is in American for our heros. C. J. Archer has written a series for us Victorian Sci-Fi & Fantasy that I enjoy.

Loved it!

I loved this historical fantastical mystery. I enjoyed the characters and the story, from beginning to end. I will definitely be reading more from this author. Good stuff. The narration was top notch too.

Difficult listen....

Loved 1st narrator & story. This one is like nails on a chalkboard when she attempts a western American accent - making all but the heroine sound like a bunch of uneducated hicks. I really wish that they had stuck with the original narrator.

Slow for the sake of dragging out another book....

I enjoyed the first book and was excited to get started on part two. only made it to chapter 7. I just can't listen to any more. The aunt is the most irritating character, and the voice given her by the narrator does not help. It is so grating. The idea here is good, could even be great, but instead is just silly.

A ride to nowhere.

Definitely not as good as the first or even a logical continuation. It's a sequel with the same cast but off the rails and into a different tangent, which is surprising given the desperate circumstances of Matt, whose life is waning away. Also, the electric chemistry between Matt and India continues to tease the reader, without even any acknowledgement on their part. Seems like the author is playing the reader/listener by filling up empty pages with sidelines that don't further the plot so that more and more sequels can be generated.

Great Romance meets Sherlock Holmes Story

The story is enjoyable. It’s a sweet romance with some Sherlock Holmes type investigation. The characters are lovable. However, the narrator of the first book did a much better job with the characters. Marian, not so much.