Amadan na Briona

This short (4 hour) novella was a free download from Audible, so what did I have to lose? Apparently it is a "prequel" to the author's fantasy series, which I have not read.

Kaylin is a 13-year-old girl living in a rather generic fantasy kingdom that has a variety of non-humans: immortals, lion-men, hawk-men, dragons, a few other creatures. Kaylin herself is your basic standard-issue Spunky Street Rat with Issues - and Very Special Powers, of course. After a failed attempt to assassinate a noble, for inexplicable reasons the Hawk Lord decides to make her the mascot of the generic medieval fantasy multi-racial magic cops, where she is taken under their wing and endears herself to everyone with her spunk... and her Very Special Powers, of course. The plot involves children being abducted and used by Very Bad People for Very Bad Things.

The story moved along and it was a decent listen, but eminently forgettable. The prose was annoyingly repetitive (many, many instances of "blah blah blah, was the [insert adjective here] response") and Kaylin never really came alive for me, as the author couldn't decide whether she's a hardbitten waif who grew up on the mean streets or a soft-hearted child and Hero-in-training. Likewise, you'd expect a story involving children being sacrificed would have a touch of grimdark, but the author is afraid to do more than tip-toe up to the line there.

So, meh. As long as it's free, it's worth a download and a listen if you like medieval fantasy, but it did not succeed in its presumed goal of making me want to read the series.