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Brother Thief (Song of the Aura, Book One)
 
 

Brother Thief (Song of the Aura, Book One) [Kindle Edition]

Gregory J. Downs
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 5, 2011
The city of Ymeer is crawling with all manner of lowlifes and rogues. Among these, Gribly the thief is considered to be a rising force of destiny: he always wins, always gets what he wants, and never, ever gets caught.

Most people think it's skill, and some think it's just dumb luck... but everyone is wrong. Gribly has a talent that no one knows about- not even the old gypsy who raised him. It's because of this talent that he's so good at burglary, and he makes sure no one knows his secret. Should it ever become known, he knows, his life would be imperiled...

The Dunelord, ruler of Ymeer, will brook no equals. Gribly's talent makes him an equal, and that makes him a threat. This boy can control the power of sand... but even in a city built from it, that may not be enough.

Into the scene stumbles a mysterious young messenger named Lauro. When Gribly finds him dying from exhaustion outside the city gates, Lauro claims he bears a message from Larion, King of Vastion in the south, to the Dunelord. Helping Lauro could be Gribly's way out of trouble... but do messengers carry royal swords? Do they control the power of the winds?

Both lads soon realize the other has something to hide, but neither one knows the titanic role they will play in the world-shaking events that will soon grip Ymeer... and the entire continent of Vast.

Become a legend... or die trying.

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Product Details

  • File Size: 641 KB
  • Print Length: 165 pages
  • Publisher: John Downs; 4 edition (September 5, 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005LHMPIW
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Lending: Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,709 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Impressive Fantasy December 11, 2011
By Mike
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
SUMMARY: 4 stars **** Impressive Fantasy
I strongly recommend this series for those who enjoy traditional fantasy genre although buyers should be aware that this is planned to be a 9 book series. This is an example of the quality and the promise that can be found in the independent publishing model. Gregory Downs is a young author who shows great promise. I would not be surprised to see that he writes many more quality works.

Gregory Downs delivers an innovative fantasy world where Gribly the Thief and Prince Lauro set out on a quest to find the mystical Aura. On their journey they meet pirates, nymphs and demons with non-stop adventure. Magic in the book is "striding" which reminds me of "bending" from Nickelodeon's "Avatar: The Last Air Bender" series.
FYI- I have written this review on the first 3 books in the "Song of the Aura" series. I am going to post the same review for each of the three first books since they are part of the same series.

PLOT: 3 stars *** Slow to develop
Minor plot ***SPOILERS*** in this section: Brother Thief starts very quickly with lots of action. Minor plots are quickly setup as two of the major characters, Gribly the Thief and Prince Lauro, connect early on to begin their quest. Action continues at a fast pace throughout the first three novels. Unfortunately, clarity on significance of action is lacking until midpoint of the third book, Grym Prophet. About half way through the second book, Winter Warrior, absence of context for action became distracting to the overall story.
Gregory Downs does a good job in setting up climatic battles for each book to bring closure to current book and then setting up teaser for the next book. Minor exception was need to clarify concepts behind defeat of the villain at the end of Winter Warrior which was confusing to me. There was no groundwork set for a major concept which was revealed to accomplish this victory and it could have been more clearly told.

CHARACTERIZATION: 4 stars **** Strong characters
Gregory Downs builds strong, believable characters. Dialog is realistic. Story centers around 3 main characters - Gribly the Thief, Prince Lauro and Elia. Gregory Downs takes time to build up each character's personality and motives through dialog and varying points of view throughout the books. Some tension related to main characters motivations and backgrounds are left untold until late in book three, Grym Prophet. This tension creates some mystery which helps draw the reader's interest. Author did a good job of balancing this tension versus timing to better understand the characters.

TECHNICAL: 5 stars ***** Well written.
Each book has a well thought out ending which balances bringing good closure with building plot tensions for the next book.
Editing was well done. No annoying grammar or spelling errors (actually I noticed one - loose instead of lose early in Winter Warrior - but I will round to zero).
Novels have excellent character (point of view) transitions. This is an area which I have noticed some issues in the independent publishing market. Gregory Downs has managed this difficult to acquire skill very well.

PRICING ASSESSMENT: 3 stars *** Good value
Pricing Assessment rating is exclusive of the merits of the work which is reviewed in other sections. I recognize the merits of adjusting value for the quality of product but could not objectively accomplish that goal so pricing assessment is being rated on content length.
Gregory Downs work is being setup as a trilogy of trilogies. Meaning that there will be 9 books in total with each grouping of three being its' own mini trilogy. Each individual book is short and I would characterize as either a long novella or a short novel. If this were from a traditional publishing model, my expectation would be that the Song of the Aura would have been issued as a 3 book trilogy (combining each mini trilogy into an individual book) but no more than 5 books (making assumptions that remaining books are comparable in length). I understand that the independent publishing model allows authors to use alternate strategies to keep individual book price points lower or for artistic needs so I am OK with this model.
Book Lengths (as measured by number of Kindle locations):
Brother Thief = 3,197 locations (3,292 incl. author notes and preview)
Winter Warrior = 3,475 locations (3,590 incl. author notes and preview)
Grym Prophet = 3,592 locations (3,701 incl. author notes and preview)
As a reference point for long books, typical books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series ranged from 15,000 to 20,000 plus Kindle locations. Standard length novels seem to run in the 4,500 to 7,000 plus Kindle location range.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Great November 8, 2011
By jam123
Format:Kindle Edition
At first glance it's your basic young adult male hero prophecy type fantasy. Good vs evil. Nothing wrong with that though! My biggest complaint is that it is too short. Interesting chacters, lots of action, plot keeps moving... I enjoyed it. Well worth the price.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Not finished December 3, 2011
By Dezroe
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I read the synopsis of this book it intruged me so I downloaded it and started to read it. 3 hours later I was shocked that I had finished the book. It felt as if the book was just getting started, characters were just introduced, you had only just started to care about the main character but then it was over. I had been reading everywhere that this was an epic fantasy novel but after reading the authors notes at the end of the book I realized that it has nine parts! it looks as if each "book" is about the same length so far (4 have been released) but due to the shortness of each of the books, I will refrain from finishing it until they are all published, maybe even until they merge the books and make it a trilogy. This way I wouldn't feel cheated out of knowing what happens next (it feels like an arcade game that makes you keep paying to play). I realize its only 0.99$ but I bought an unfinished book that has a lot of potential but ends before the conclusion has even been reached, let alone the middle.
Its a good beginning with a lot of potential but needs to be finished before I continue to read.
The religion in the book does need a little work though. It is obviously Christianity even if it isn't expressed as such. I personally prefer such things to have a little more of a veil as this is a fantasy world, not our own but I guess with the author stating that he is a devout Christian in his personal notes does indicate that there will probably be a lot more parellels to christianity throughout the series.
I would honestly say though, if they wish to release books in these small segments, a little more effort into world building and character development should have been done before release. Again, there is great potential here but it feels more like a first rough draft rather than a finished work (ie, who is the cleric? why does he want the dunelord overthrown? what has the dunelord done to merit overthrowing? who is the old gypsy? why does the main character love her? make us care about the characters you have and the ones you kill!
I gave it three stars for potential. Stand alone it would have been only 2.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Elemental Fun
I just finished reading Brother Thief and I am debating between just buying the next one or buying the complete series that is now offered. Read more
Published 2 months ago by M.Yarbrough
A bit slow and shaky for me, but a good start
So I mostly bought this book because it was only 99 cents, but after reading the premise online and then reading the actual book, I think I might have expected too much. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kayla
Robuster
Half of this book is out standing,told with flare and passion,the other half is blah.The outstanding part- the first half of the book while Gribly was in the city wrecking havoc on... Read more
Published 2 months ago by robuster
brother theif
this book was a big dissapointment to me. the plot sounds promising-and it definetly could be- but the way it is written and choices of words do not suck u in to this story. Read more
Published 2 months ago by kaitie
What a book
Knowing him personally he keeps th books short on purpose and thats why the price is so low. he is not that old not even in college yet and he is already writing all these great... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Brandon Witt
The Song of the Aura has begun
Brother Thief by Gregory Downs start of in the city of Ymeer deep in the heart of the Blast Desert. The main character is a thief named Gribly who is currently trying to steal a... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Scott
Nice Quick Read, A Little Shallow for Experienced Readers
As with most young, budding authors in the genre the book is a quick read, (entertaining, not labored), which introduces a likable set of characters, an interesting plot, and draws... Read more
Published 4 months ago by James Taylor Dawson
Fast & Good, terse worldbuilding warning
Good, and I'll buy the next book too. I like the characters introduced so far, and I feel everyone else will too! Read more
Published 5 months ago by defygravity
Well Developed Stoyline
I enjoyed getting to know the main players in this 1st book. The plot moves along quickly and before you know it you're at the end. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Glen D. Elliott
An impressive novel
Mr. Downs has created an engaging work that effectively weaves elements of Avatar - The Last Airbender (the amazing TV series, not the horrible feature film) into a prophetic... Read more
Published 6 months ago by The Barrister
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More About the Author

Gregory J. Downs is an author of nearly a dozen ebooks, mostly known through the Kindle and Nook circles. He writes Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything on the edges of both. Check out his current website at www.gregoryjdowns.blogspot.com and his previous website at www.epicbloggjd.blogspot.com.

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