The Invisible Ring

A Black Jewels Novel

By: Anne Bishop

Narrated by: John Sharian

Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A prequel set in the "dark and sensual world" (11th Hour) of the national best-selling Black Jewels Trilogy.

Jared is a Red-Jeweled Warlord bound as a pleasure slave by the Ring of Obedience. After suffering nine years of torment as a slave, he murdered his owner and escaped - only to be caught and sold into slavery once again. The notorious queen who has purchased him, known as the Gray Lady, may not be what she seems. Soon, Jared faces a difficult choice: his freedom, or his honor.

©2008 Anne Bishop (P)2008 Penguin

Critic reviews

“Plenty of adventure, romance, dazzling wizardly pyrotechnics, and [a] unique and fascinating hierarchical magic system...darkly macabre with spine-tingling emotional intensity, mesmerizing magic, lush sensuality, and exciting action, all set in a thoroughly detailed, invented world of cultures in conflict... The Invisible Ring will serve as an enticement, whetting the appetite to explore more of the realms in the Black Jewels trilogy. It and its predecessors are genuine gems of fantasy much to be prized.” (SF Site)

“[An] entertaining otherworlds fantasy adventure with battles and dangers and chases. Fresh and interesting.” (Chronicle)

“A weird, but highly diverting and oddly heartwarming mix.” (Locus)

a fun off shoot story

more consistently paced that the first black jewel book but not as intense as the second two. This was a good break from the main storyline without having to leave the fantasy world or lore of the series. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

reader is obnoxious

The story ties in perfectly with the rest of the Dark Jewels series. Talon is a character I was pleasantly surprised to get more backstory on. The reader however is incredibly obnoxious with his attempts at voices. Would have been better if he'd read it monotoned.

The Invisible Ring. Black Jewels Book 4

MY HUSBAND AND I LOVED IT. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT WE ENJOY😄

A great sife-story in the Dark Jewels saga

This was excellently constructed and executed. A mad dash story that had enough twists to keep me guessing until the end.

Still good story but not what I expected

Not what I was expecting in the 4th book. Doesn't follow the first books in the series other being in the same universe. And the narration is spotty. Should have better editing. It was very distracting.

Loved it!!

I look forward to reading the next book in the Black Jewel series. I fell in love with this series years ago when I first read the trilogy.

very interesting prequel

a little bit jarring to go back in time after getting so caught up in the previous books. looking forward to the rest of the series

Another tale in the amazing Black Jewels universe

This is just another example of how much I love any stories set in this world. The characters were interesting and I loved the dynamics between Jared and Daemon.

Book 4 is Wrong

Beware....this is NOT book 4 on the series. This book is more 2 or 3 in the series if it even belongs at all. I was very disappointed in this book knowing that some of the characters in this story died or are no longer slaves from book 3. I couldn't get drawn into this story at all and returned it with a DNF label.

Not a classic but an interesting back story

Based on the couple of reviews already written by Tango and Carol I skipped this book originally and listened to the remaining books in this series.

Its reading order is book 4 - immediately after the original trilogy but I am glad I skipped it and went straight to book 5.

The Shadow Queen - which is book 7 refers back to events involving Jarod and Lia, the principal characters of this book and I think I found it more interesting to come back and listen to this book afterwards as I had a bit more interest in the characters then.

So if like me you enjoyed the rest of the series I think its worth listening to this one, though it is easily the weakest book of the 9
The points made by Tango are all valid but I don't think its quite as bad as made out in that review, some of the dialogue and behaviour of the characters is cringeworthy. Still I finished it and enjoyed the climax - even though it was all fairly predictable.

By far the best character in the book is Dorothea who is just as evil as we would expect.
Daemon makes brief appearances but we don't learn anything new about him and there are passing mentions to Lucifar and Surreal but other than that no other characters from the other books are even mentioned

The performance by John Sharian is all you would expect so if you liked his narration for the other books then you will be happy with his performance here.

My summary - if you enjoyed the whole series and want extra background its worth a credit, but its really not in the same class. Committed fans only.