Category: Magonia

Magonia #2
Aerie revisits our favorite character’s from Magonia and sets them once more on the path to saving the world. It’s hard to go back to normal after what our character’s went through in Magonia, but you come to find they are doing just that…well trying to anyway. Aza and Jason have jumped head first into their relationship, but Aza’s wanderlust and Jason’s paranoia of being left alone are a constant chasm between them. While somewhat disappointed, I’m not at all surprised by the extreme lengths we see Jason go through to “protect” Aza, even when he regrets them in the end.

Jason goes through quite the journey in this book, but its Eli that was really the stand-out for me. We don’t delve too much into her character in Magonia, but in Aerie we get a little glimpse into what Eli went through when she lost her sister, and what she’s prepared to do now to keep her. I was pleasantly surprised by and came to appreciate her new-found gusto. We learn a lot more about Zul’s past and how she became the destructive and hateful creature that she is, which sheds a great light on Aza’s history. Our ending is bittersweet, yet satisfying, as one chapter of Aza’s life closes and another is ready to begin.

Overall, Aerie is a story about love and loss; family both new and old. It’s about finding your place and learning your truth. It is beautifully written and a pleasure to read, with unique and exciting mythology. I look forward to more from this author.

Magonia #1

What a strange, but moving story. What is ultimately a fantasy tale starts out as a story of love and loss so profound that it made me tear up a little (and I can count on one hand the number of books that have done that to me). The fantasy elements of the novel are unique and different, about a whole world of beings that live in the sky. While exploring this new world from Aza’s point of view, we deal with the emotional turmoil of her “death” from Jason’s point of view. And I have to say, that despite the strange and beautiful world the Aza introduces to us, I was most drawn in by Jason’s journey: of love, loss, desperation, and discovery.

It takes a little bit of time to get used to Aza’s rambling style of narration, though it allows us to get a great snapshot of her history and character in just a few short chapters. Though the fantasy potion of the story was new and different, I didn’t feel like it was developed as well as it could have been. Our view of this new world was limited to the happenings of one airship, but there are mentions of huge sky cities to explore. Hopefully the next novel in the series will broaden its scope a bit.

The audio performance of this novel is phenomenal! The two narrators, Therese Plumber and Michael Crouch, alternate reading chapters from Aza and Jason’s POV respectively. There is so much heart and feeling put into the narration, that I really believed in their characters. I’m not sure that I would have enjoyed the book as much if I’d read it on my own.