Faery Swap

By: Susan Kaye Quinn

Narrated by: Mark Mullaney

Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Warrior faery princes can be very stubborn. Especially when they possess your body. Fourteen-year-old Finn just wants to keep his little sister out of Child Protective Services - an epic challenge with their parentally-missing-in-action dad moving them to England, near the famous Stonehenge rocks. Warrior faery Prince Zaneyr just wants to escape his father's reckless plan to repair the Rift - a catastrophe that ripped the faery realm from Earth 4,000 years ago and set it adrift in an alternate, timeless dimension. When Zaneyr tricks Finn into swapping places, Finn becomes a bodiless soul stuck in the Otherworld, and Zaneyr uses Finn's body to fight off his father's seekers on Earth. Between them, they have two souls and only one body... and both worlds to save before the dimensional window between them slams shut.

Faery Swap is an action- and druid-magic-filled portal fantasy, told by both a runaway faery prince and the boy he's tricked into taking his place.

This Prince and the Pauper meets Warrior Faeries tale is suitable for all ages.

©2013 Susan Kaye Quinn (P)2014 Susan Kaye Quinn

A Faery, Sprite and Spriggen Adventure

I enjoyed this book. It was interesting as a new genre to follow. The characters were great. The family dynamic was interesting as well.

Fantastic

This is a fantastic story with interesting characters. I love the narrators distinct voices - it is very easy to follow which character is speaking. The world the Author has created is very engaging & I Iook forward to more.

A fun little Faery adventure

Finn has a problem. Three years ago, his mother was killed in a car crash, and since then, his father has been "parentally missing in action." This has made Finn responsible for taking good enough care of his little sister, Erin, that she doesn't get taken away by Child Protective Services.

Since Finn is even now only fourteen, this has been a heavy burden, but he loves his sister and has to do it to hold together what family he still has. Now his father has moved them from sunny California to less-sunny England, and Finn has to be the new kid in school and learn a whole new culture, while continuing to care for his sister.

So it's a bit inconvenient when a faery named Zaneyr steals his body and sends his soul into the Otherworld.

In fairness to Zaneyr, he thinks he's doing the only thing he can: escaping his father's mad, dangerous plan to re-fuse the Otherworld and Earth together again, so that the faery will have real lives again. Too bad so many human souls, now only trapped in the Otherworld, would be completely destroyed in the process!

Finn just wants to get home to Erin, and has no idea how hard that is. Zaneyr has not fully though through what his own plan to stop his father will really do, starting with the fact that he'll be stranding yet another human soul in the Otherworld. He's also assuming that his father won't go ahead and try to complete the Fusion without Zaneyr. There's also something really important that both Finn and Zaneyr don't know about Finn's father.

Finn, Zaneyr, and their allies and opponents keep making big mistakes while trying to single-handedly fixing the major problem Zaneyr's father created a year ago in the Otherwold, a century ago in Finn's world. It's a fun book, with some interesting twists and turns.

I bought this audiobook.

Entertaining for ALL age groups!

What made the experience of listening to Faery Swap the most enjoyable?

Mark Mullaney did a wonderful job narrating this story; he managed to give each character a unique voice and he made it feel like I was listening to it happening in real life. I never felt like a character's voice was copied from another one.

Who was your favorite character and why?

If I had to choose, I liked Finn the best; he had a great sense of humor and I felt like this character was extremely realistic.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I would hate to give anything away, but there were some pretty emotional moments between Finn (the main character) and his father. For a book written for teens, this book had a surprising amount of emotional depth.

Any additional comments?

Faery Swap, even though it was written for the young-adult audience, was very enjoyable for me (late twenties). The father/son dynamic was very relatable and there was plenty of action to keep the story exciting. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes books in the fantasy/adventure genre.

Magic & Physics Collide!

Finn and his sister are new to England, their father recently having moved the family to near Stonehenge. With his mother newly killed in a car accident, his father has been mostly absence, throwing himself into his work. It’s up to Finn to get his sister to and from school and make sure she’s fed. But Finn’s life is about to get a bit tougher, because Faery Prince Zaneyr needs a human body. Zaneyr’s father, king of the Faery realm, has a crazy plan to reunite Earth and Faery. But many worry that will simply kill many humans and potentially destroy both worlds. So Zaneyr plans to flee the Faery realm and take up permanent residence in the human world.

This was a great listen. I quickly became attached to Finn and then his little sister. The story started off pretty light with just a bit of bullying and a still-grieving father. Once Zaneyr takes Finn’s body, he has to figure out what the human world is all about…and that leads to some funny misunderstandings. While Zaneyr struggles with concepts like enforced schooling and gets sucked into handheld games, Finn is struggling to understand the Faery realm as a disembodied spirit. He runs into a few helpful people…..or perhaps they just want to use Finn for their own means. One such is Pix, who wants to keep Finn around to assist him with his poetic aspirations. Pix was a very amusing side character!

And then things get a little more serious as we learn more about the Faery King’s plans and the potential for destroying lives, if not worlds. Zaneyr’s concern comes through loud and clear at this point and you really feel for the (what feels like) impossible situation he finds himself in. We also learn more about Finn’s father and his latest work with physics, which ties directly into the possibility of the two worlds crashing into one another.

There’s a couple times that Zaneyr and Finn face off and they were some of the most intense scenes in the book. I was a bit torn as to who to route for! The mix of humor, fantasy, action, and intensity was perfect. Definitely a worthy read!

Narration: Mark Mullaney was a great pick for this narration. He did a perfect American-transplanted-to-England Finn voice. Same for his little sister. He also had a handful of British accents to pull off. Then his faery voices, especially for Zaneyr, were great, having a bit of a lilt to them. His voice for Pix was both amusing and menacing.

A Fascinating story

This was a unique story. I'm not a big fan of the genre, but this story grabbed my attention and kept it throughout the book. I liked the stories and how they intertwined and the twists in the story. The narrator was great. I liked the voices he added to the story and the accents he used. I recommend to anyone that likes fantasy.

This book is sure to grab a kid attention...

This is a great middle-reader that's sure to grab any kids attention and keep 'em reading/listening all the way to to the end... I've saw somewhere (probably the blurb), that this been likened to The Prince and the Pauper and Warrior Faeries... and yeah, that kinda works, only the Faery Prince didn't even give poor Fynn a choice. And, before Fynn knew it he was whisked right outta this world and into an alternate reality, where trees talk and Faeries are real! You're gonna need to get the book in order to find out what happens next!!! I did have one complaint... even though maelstrom is a great word, the author's over use of said-word lessens it's impact, and it can become downright annoying...
Mark Mullaney was pretty good, the accent was perfect but personally I thought that he rushed the lines a bit!

Incredible story

Sprigens and faeries and sprites oh my!!! During the summer solstice the boundary between earth and the Faery realm. It’s a magical time when the faeries can enter the human realm to learn more about the humans and gather new math facts. Sounds perfect right? WRONG! They take over a humans body, sending their Anum into the faery realm... where it stays trapped, forever. All they need to do is trick you into helping them. But wait, whose that strange looking boy staring at Finn? Maybe if I find his lost coin he will just go away.... GOTCHA!!!

I personally loved this story and I think you will too!

My Grandma always said no good deed goes unpunished.

A faery stole Finn's body and all he can think about is who will take care of his little sister?

He finds himself stuck in a place where physical sensations are lacking, and the other people there are mere shells of who they once were. Getting back home seems impossible and he learns some surprising things about himself along the way.

I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Great story.

I got a copy of this audiobook by the author for review.
The story was complex and the magical genre combines its elements in a unique way, the world building throughout the story was great. With good characters are smart and witty, so you get a complete sense of their lives and their thoughts, a lot of twists and turns. Best of all, the story is actually resolved in the one book. It's an easy, engaging and a great narration that will leave you wanting for her next book.