Ink Mage

A Fire Beneath the Skin, Book 1

By: Victor Gischler

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham

In the first installment of the A Fire Beneath the Skin trilogy, the city of Klaar has never fallen. No enemy has ever made it across the Long Bridge or penetrated the city's mighty walls. Even when a powerful invading army shows up at the gates, the duke and his daughter, Rina Veraiin, are certain that it poses little threat.

But they are cruelly betrayed from within and, in a horrific spasm of violence, the city is brought to its knees.

With the help of her bodyguard, Kork, the battle-trained young Rina narrowly escapes the slaughter and makes her way to the lair of an ancient sorcerer - the Ink Mage - who gifts her with a strange, beautiful set of magical tattoos.

Now a duchess in exile, Rina sets out on a quest to reclaim what is rightfully hers, aided by a motley assortment of followers who will help her in her cause - some for noble reasons and others for their own dark purposes.

With the enemy's agents nipping at her heels, Rina must learn to harness her new and startling magical powers if she is to assert her rightful place as ruler of Klaar.

©2014 Victor Gischler (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Much better then I thought.

What did you love best about Ink Mage?

It struck me like an old Zelda game, where you ran around collecting power (in this case, tattoos). Which was a lot of fun and the world seems interesting, even if you only scratch the surface of it.

What did you like best about this story?

The ink mage magic system.

Have you listened to any of Fiona Hardingham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not, but she did a good job. She never pulled me out of the story.

Any additional comments?

Book felt rushed in the end. The author could have (and IMO should have) kept going. He wraps up with a final battle that could have happened far in the future and been much more interesting. Given that I see why the second book has negative reviews. This one was worth it on its own though.

it's over?

that was the most abrupt ending to a book one read in some time. send like the author just got tired and says on. to much build up to be just dumped of the edge like that. let me wondering waist was the point? honestly I was almost a little angry. b except for that I enjoyed the story. the ending cost it at least one star for sure.

Hah! Narrator Made the Story!

The start was probably reasonable. There were some awkward spots, but the narrator made it. Ever heavy, tense, then @$$t, Beasley... Hah! I was not impressed with the silliness of pubescent "love story" and the youthful Morizan. Thank goodness for the humor and the balance provided by the narrator's cadence.

great book

love the characters and story. it is a bit raunchy but the story is solid.

meh

Decent story, but fairly derivative. No real cliff-hanger moments, or sudden mind blowing plot twists. A very straight forward story. Entertaining, but not epic.