The Words of Kings and Prophets

Gael Song, Book 2

By: Shauna Lawless

Narrated by: Aoife MacMahon, Aidan Kelly, Clara Harte

The sequel to the critically acclaimed The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, The Words of Kings and Prophets is the powerful historical fantasy audiobook by Shauna Lawless.

Ireland, 1000 AD. Gormflaith is unhappily married to Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, and although a queen she struggles with her limited position. As an immortal Fomorian with the secret gift of magic, Gormflaith has a burning desire: to find and destroy the hidden fortress of her sworn enemies, the Descendants, who seek to kill her kind at all costs. She begins to use her magical powers, and discovers she is more skilled than she ever realised... but can she control what she will become?

Meanwhile Fódla, the Descendants' healer, mourns her banished sister but clings to life as the guardian of her young nephew. She seeks a place of safety for them both, but he has secrets of his own that could threaten everything—and Fódla must do all in her power to keep him hidden away from those who would use him for evil.

When a mysterious man comes to King Brian's court, his presence could spell disaster or deliverance for both Gormflaith and Fódla—and for Ireland herself. For he is Tomas, an ambitious immortal with few scruples—and he will do anything to see his plans become reality.

Soon, mortals and immortals alike are drawn towards a bitter conflict that could decide the future of Ireland and all her people.

©2023 Shauna Lawless (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd

Intruiging plot wielding with fantasy & history.

This is a fun listen to make fantastical historical fiction. The characters are engaging & the narration by each reader makes the story excellent to listen to.

Even better than book one!

The story continues to follow Fodla and Gormlaigh with the addition of a third perspective Colmon. It has the great character interactions but adds more magic and more interesting politics and drama. Like the first book there is some battles but mostly plot. I really enjoyed the even more fantastical and magical story.

The audiobook has three voices. Aoife continues to be Folda. She does great. There is a new female voice for Gormlaigh. She is so-so. Seems new to voice recording and her equipment had static and didn’t match the voice levels of the other two speakers. Also a lot of mistakes that weren’t edited out. The third narrator is a male for Colmon and he did great. Two out of three ain’t bad.

That new female narrator. 👎

If I didn't LOVE this story so much, I would have stopped listening very early on. The "Gormflaith" narrator is really, really... not good. But I powered through the strong dislike and am glad I did. I can't wait for the next one!

amazing storyline

I loved the character depth and the writing style. the narration was amazing. highly recommend

The imagines of the battle scenes were played out nicely.

I like all the character voices and the inclusion of two narrators. However, the shouting done by the female narrator is a little lack luster. But I don’t get pushed out of the story.