Journey Across the Hidden Islands

By: Sarah Beth Durst

Narrated by: Michi Barall

The traditional Emperor's Journey is meant to be uneventful. But as the princesses Seika and Ji-Lin - twin sisters - travel to pay respects to their kingdom's dragon guardian, unexpected monsters appear, and tremors shake the earth. The Hidden Islands face unprecedented threats, and the old rituals are failing. With only their strength, ingenuity, and a flying lion to rely on, can the sisters find a new way to keep their people safe?

©2017 Sarah Beth Durst (P)2017 Recorded Books

engaging story of sisters

This is a charming story, and has a few surprises along the way as two royal sisters must take a journey to reach a dragon and renew a bargain with her to protect their country of many islands. The sisters learn and grow and discover much about themselves, and have a delightful flying lion companion. Unfortunately, sometimes the characterization seems rather forced and there is a bit too much repetition about the girls' character traits and what they learn. Also there is some awkwardness in how they switch viewpoints about what is the right decision to solve specific situations, and sometimes the narrative shows them being less kind or concerned about others' welfare than they should be in order to make a somewhat labored point. Still, all in all, it is fairly gracefully written and features an interesting fantasy world. I also like the fact that there are no ;human villains to fight, no real villains at all, rather reasons for differing points of view and consequences for actions. However, the narrator's performance, while tolerable, is not extraordinary. She does not distinguish well between voices of characters, her pacing tends to drag and her emphasis is sometimes odd. Also, she ignores the dialogue tags. It is annoying when the book states that a character speaks shrilly or whispers and the narrator's voice just stays the same. Still, this is overall a good fantasy book for kids, who might really enjoy it better reading it for themselves and imagining the voices and scenes rather than listening.

Very good story

This story is very good and spans all ages. I very much enjoyed the story and the story teller.