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    The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories
    The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories
    The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories

    Written by Rae Carson

    Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda and Luis Moreno

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    ""Rae Carson has proved she's a master and has shaken up the YA genre.""—USAToday.com

    Three novellas set within the world of Rae Carson's epic New York Times?bestselling Girl of Fire and Thorns series are available in one volume! The Shadow Cats, The Shattered Mountain, and The King's Guard each center around a character vital to Elisa, the heroine of The Girl of Fire and Thorns. It's a must-have for every fan of the stunning fantasy trilogy.

    Before Hector became commander of the Royal Guard and Elisa's true love, he was a young new recruit. In The King's Guard, he must prove himself—and he discovers a secret that he must keep forever.

    In The Shadow Cats, discover how Elisa and her older sister's rivalry looks from Alodia's point of view, and find out why Alodia agrees to marry her sister off to King Alejandro.

    In The Shattered Mountain, find out what happened to Mara before she becomes Elisa's best friend and handmaiden. When her village is destroyed, she must lead the few young survivors to the safety of a hidden rebel camp.

    Don’t miss The Empire of Dreams, Rae Carson’s action-packed return to the world of The Girl of Fire and Thorns!

     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 26, 2014
    ISBN9780062345578
    The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories
    Author

    Rae Carson

    Rae Carson is the author of two bestselling and award-winning trilogies, as well as the acclaimed stand-alone novels Any Sign of Life and The Empire of Dreams. Her debut, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, was named a William C. Morris Award finalist and an Andre Norton Award finalist. Walk on Earth a Stranger was longlisted for the 2015 National Book Award and won the Western Writers of America Spur Award. Her books tend to contain adventure, magic, and smart girls who make (mostly) smart choices. Originally from California, Rae Carson now lives in Ohio with her husband. www.raecarson.com

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    Reviews for The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories

    4/5

    38 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Alodia's story! I have been dying for this for a long time. I'm hedging this one toward a four, but I think that maybe it should be a 3.5. Yet if I have to choose 3 or 4, for Carson I will only round up.

      I loved the friendship. I love the view of our spoiler regular!heroine from her sisters eyes, and how guarded she is by her NurseMaid. I wanted so much more of Alodia's thoughts on her sister's wilfully ignorant upbringing, but I like that we saw all the steel and smarts that we've been hearing about Alodia from her sister's pov for two books.

      I'm admittedly a little disappointed that so far in this whole series there's not a single man who can handle power or rulership wisely. I don't want to read it as a gender bias, but I'm starting to get that way. Who knows how I'll feel given another six months or year to the next book. Definitely advise reading this with it's two sister novels!
    • 4/5
      My Rating: Good ReadThis review will be short, sweet, and to the point. With no spoilers!The Shadow Cats is a 54 page prequel to Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns, which debuted last year. I wish I could find the specific word count though, because the story, despite the electronic page count, feels shorter than 54 pages. No matter. It's not a tale that's absolutely necessary to the understanding of The Girl of Fire and Thorns; rather, it's an icing story. You know, as in icing on the cake? If you've already read Carson's debut, The Shadow Cats is a nice little prequel that explores the world through the eyes of Elisa's sister Alodia, and we learn a little more about the tension between the sisters, and how Alodia really views Elisa and her gift.The full review may be found at my blog. NO SPOILERS, and I've linked to it below. As always, comments and discussion are welcome.REVIEW: Rae Carson's THE SHADOW CATSHappy Reading!
    • 5/5
      I adored "A Girl of Fire and Thorns". Its sequel may be the most single most anticipated book for me during this year. So I was pretty excited to read this short story about Elisa's older sister Alodia. Alodia is supposed to lead her people and at this point in the timeline Elisa's just the chubby younger sister who happens to have a Godstone (which foretells her greatness). It was nice seeing Alodia's side of things. She is a strong heroine who takes matters in her own hands when a young girl is presumed taken and/or eaten by a giant cat of some type. This is a short (very short) story and maybe $2.99 is a little high of an asking price, but it is a full story and I think it definitely does add something to the series as a whole. If you loved the first book, this one is worth picking up. I enjoyed every page of "The Shadow Cats". (Also this is a great refresher for the new book!)
    • 3/5
      This is a short read, but in my opinion didn't actually add much to the story world. It's discussed as supposedly giving insight into the potential that Alodia sees in Elisa before The Girl of Fire and Thorns takes place, but the most insightful aspect of that for me was reading the summary of this supposedly occurring insight: in other words, I didn't really feel that insight taking place in this short story.
    • 4/5
      Three stories that are background to the Girl of Fire and Thorns stories, these allow you to see some of the main characters slightly differently. The first story sees Elisa through Alodia's eyes when they go to help with a crisis; the second is The Shattered Mountain we learn how Mara escaped her village and how she survived and in The King's Guard we meet Hector as a young trainee guardsman who is entrusted with a secret mission that also shows his relationship with King Alejandro.While the stories are set in the past they do make more sense having read the series, I don't think they would be good for someone not familiar with the series.
    • 3/5
      For more reviews, gifs, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions.As of this writing, I was chatting with Debby (Snuggly Oranges) about this series very recently. That made me reflect on how much my attitude on this series has changed. Though I read the first book twice, I still can’t say I liked it, and, even now that I know how good the series gets, I still highly doubt I’d like the first book. Yet, here I am now, enough of a fan to read accompanying novellas that aren’t essential to the overall story, something I rarely bother to do.The short stories themselves remind me mostly of all the things that I ended up loving about the Fire and Thorns series. I love how brutal Carson can be to her characters. Pretty much every story is one of some level of despair. The story about Mara is deeply sad. Hector’s story has a scene that will probably haunt me forever it was so disgusting.I also think that Carson’s genius is inherent in the way she can make you reevaluate a character, just like she took me from loathing Elisa to respecting her. That’s not an easy thing to do. I love that there’s a story from Alodia’s point of view. Elisa spends a lot of time hating on Alodia, her all too perfect sister. It’s nice that she gets a chance to speak for herself, and I also like getting to see Elisa through her eyes.Mara’s story, “The Shattered Mountain”, ended up being my favorite one. Mara isn’t a character I really remembered too much about from the series. Yeah, I remember her romance and that she was part of the group, but that’s about it. I recall her as being somewhat prickly. If I’m right about that, then I can see why. She’s been through so much tough shit, because of family and the war. I would like to give her massive hugs.Hector’s story was probably the most fascinating in terms of relating to the plot of the overall series. You learn things both about Alejandro’s previous marriage and about how Hector ended up being made the head guard at such a young age. Sure, I would have preferred some extra adult Hector time, since I can’t swoon over fifteen-year-old Hector, but it was good.The stories also reminded me how badly I loathe the words “rear” and “belly,” of which Carson is overfond. You know how most people feel about the word “moist”? That’s how I’ve come to feel about those two words. Partly, it’s because they feel like words someone might say to a child and partly because I can’t imagine men really using them to describe their bodies. Sure, the feel isn’t modern, but also it’s a fantasy and there has to be some other word for it. If I ever read part of this series again, I’m taking a shot every time I hit one of those words and reporting back how drunk I get, because that will be more fun than wincing every time.The rest of my problems all stem from the audiobook, which is a shame because I loved the audiobooks for the series. First off, they used the same narrators from the rest of the series. Using the same Hector narrator makes perfect sense, but I’m not sure why Jennifer Ikeda is reading for Alodia and Mara. I like her narration, but I associate her voice with Elisa. Yes, those two POVs are third person, but I still don’t like that they don’t get their own voices. I had to keep reminding myself, especially with Alodia, that I wasn’t listening to an Elisa story.More problematic is Hector’s story. For some reason, the production on “The King’s Guard” was terrible. If it had been the first story, I would have DNFed the audiobook immediately, but, since it was last, I was stuck. It’s not Luis Moreno’s fault. It’s like they forgot to edit his section. His breaths have been left in, from deep gasps to little pants. It’s deeply unpleasant to listen to. Every so often, I could even here some background noises. I’m hoping that I somehow got an early version from Harper, but I couldn’t verify that since the Audible sample only has Jennifer Ikeda’s narration.Rarely, in my audiobook reviews, am I going to tell you to go with the print over the audio (assuming you’re an audiobook fan). I try not to listen to the audiobook version if I feel like it’s negatively impacting my experience. However, this one snuck up on me, and I’ve got to say I don’t personally recommend this format, unless someone can tell me Hector’s section is fine in the purchased version.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book I've read by Rae Carson, and I'm now eager for more! The three stories in this book are preludes of three main characters from Carson's 'Fire and Thorns' series.