View from Valhalla

Title: Griffin’s Daughter
Author: Leslie Ann Moore
Genre: Fantasy
Released: 29 September 2009 – 15 October 2009
Located: Podibooks, iTunes
Formats Available: Podcast and Dead Tree (available by Ridan Press)
Rating: R for violence and sexual situations

I’ve been a reader my entire remembered life. Once the world of words became alive to me, the mundane world could never be the same. However, I never really worried about who published whatever it was I was reading at the moment. I have shelves full of books (well, actually, at the moment they’re in boxes waiting to be unpacked) and with very few examples I have no idea who published them. This changed once I began listening to podcasts. Not only am I aware of the big publishers that have included some of my favorite podiobook authors in their stables, but I’ve come to appreciate smaller publishers I might not have discovered if I were not a podiofiction fan. Until recently, I have never searched out a publisher in order to peruse what books they had available.

That changed after having read Quarter Share (by Nathan Lowell) and The Riyria Revelations (by Michael J. Sullivan), which both happen to be published by Ridan Publishing.

After combing through the virtual shelves on Ridan’s website, I decided to go with a traditional sword and sorcery fantasy, Griffin’s Daughter by Leslie Ann Moore.

But wait! This isn’t a book review! Nope. After having read the first half, my life became incredibly busy, and I lost reading time. This was, and is, very hard on me. I really wanted to finish this book, so I chanced a look on Podiobooks.com, and guess what? It was there!

On to the review.

Synopsis: A young girl lives as a social outcast due to her mixed human and elven blood. To escape an arranged marriage, Jelena flees into the unknown on a quest to find her elven father. Her journey takes her on an unexpected adventure of magic, danger, and most startling of all — true love.

Griffin’s Daughter is the first book in the award winning Griffin’s Daughter Trilogy. This epic tale tells of a young girl trying to find love and acceptance in a world of magic and adventure (Stolen from the publishers website).

Production: The production of Griffin’s Daughter is very poor. Very. The opening is too loud. The reading has an uncomfortable amount of electronic hum. The editing is choppy and occasionally crosses the borders from noticeable to annoying. Random artifacts make listening even more annoying.

Grade: D- / F

Cast: Griffin’s Daughter is read by it’s author Leslie Ann Moore. The reading is straightforward. There is no vocalization or intonation changes between characters and the reading traverses between too fast and reasonable.

Grade: C

Story: Ahh.. the story. You see, I would probably have given up on Griffin’s Daughter if I hadn’t all ready read the first half of the book. I listened to the parts that I had all ready read, and I can tell you, my inner reader was preferable to me. The story is really very decent for a romance novel disguised as fantasy. (I wonder if it were a harlequin paperback if the elf would have bulging pecs.) It isn’t high literature, but it is a nice story. It is also the first of a trilogy and I am looking forward to purchasing the next two in the series.

Grade: Solid B

Verdict: So, can I recommend this story? Yes, because I’m recommending the story. The production and reading can be distracting to the point of pain occasionally, but even as a good workout is worth the effort, so is this story. Although I’ve graded this production rather harshly, I’ve heard much worse. The problem is, I believe that at this point there really isn’t any reason for a podcast to be truly poorly produced. If any story I’ve recently listened to deserves to be remastered, Griffin’s Daughter is it.

Disclosure: Since I came about listening to Griffin’s Daughter as I indicated above (more or less), I can honestly say I’d never previously heard of Ms. Moore. I don’t know if she is on Twitter or Facebook. I’ve never talked with her or her representatives. Nothing was offered. Nothing was accepted.