Narrated by Gary Furlong

I’ve been snapping up and enjoying the audiobooks in Hailey Turner’s military/sci-fi Metahumans series and was pleased to discover that last year, the author had begun a new Urban Fantasy series called Soulbound, set in and around a recognisably familiar New York City and featuring characters with magical and supernatural abilities. I added book one, A Ferry of Bones and Gold, to my TBR mountain but surprise, surprise, haven’t got to it yet, so I was delighted to see it come out in audiobook format with Gary Furlong – a narrator I enjoy listening to – at the helm.

Patrick Collins, a mage working for the
Supernatural Operations Agency (which seems to be a kind of supernatural FBI), isn’t
pleased when he gets a call from his boss cancelling his vacation and sending
him instead to New York City, where a spate of ritualistic killings (the bodies
are mutilated and have astrological symbols carved into their eyelids) seems to
be ramping up as the Summer Solstice approaches. A former combat mage-turned-supernatural
law enforcement agent, Patrick is assigned to investigate the most recent
murders and immediately senses the presence of dark, demonic magic pointing to
the involvement of the Dominion Sect, a cult set on stealing the godhood from
one of the ancient gods and then transferring it to their leader. Hints are
dropped from early on that Patrick is more than a mere mage and that he is
somehow connected to the gods; he owes them a debt contracted when he was just
a child, and now it seems they’re calling it in. As the story progresses and
Patrick becomes more and more involved with the search for the killer, he
uncovers a conspiracy that reaches much farther than anyone has previously suspected,
finding a group of unlikely but determined allies along the way.

As A
Ferry of Bones and Gold is the first in a series, there’s a fair bit of
set-up to accomplish, and I admit it did take me a while to really get into the
story. Unlike the Metahumans books,
where there’s an established team of military operatives, here, the author is
starting from scratch so to speak, introducing listeners to the main character
and then having him encounter the various individuals he will work with during
the course of the story and in future novels. The story is quite heavily
peppered with references to Greek and Norse mythology; Hermes, Zeus and Hades
(to name but a few) all make appearances, and while the worldbuilding is mostly
solid, I found myself feeling a bit lost on occasion – especially in the first
quarter of the story – as there was a lot of background to assimilate and not
all of it seemed entirely relevant. I eventually started to hit pause while I
let whatever I’d just learned sink in properly, and sometimes I had to backtrack,
which interrupted the flow of the story somewhat. Fortunately, once things
really got going, that wasn’t such an issue, but it wasn’t until the second
half, when we started to learn more about Patrick (information I felt should
have been given earlier as it would have helped to make his character easier to
relate to) and the plot kicked up a gear, that I felt as though the book really
hit its stride.

In terms of romance, one of those unlikely allies Patrick teams up with is British werewolf Jonothon (Jono) de Vere, who was exiled from Britain by his pack alphas and has only been allowed to remain in New York on condition that he doesn’t attempt to form a pack of his own. Besides this being really unusual for a werewolf, Jono is – or was – a member of a godpack (and I’m sorry, but although I listened really hard, I never quite understood what that was; best I could glean, it’s a pack connected directly to a god, and in Jono’s case, he’s connected to the Norse god, Fenrir). The sparks fly between Jono and Patrick from the moment they meet and they share a strong mutual attraction, but with so much else going on, there’s not a great deal of time for romantic development here. There’s no question that a deeper connection is building between them – one which is cemented by the end of the story – and the book ends on a very strong HFN for them.

I was pleased to see Gary Furlong’s name
attached to this project because he’s one of my go-to narrators and his name on
an audiobook will always get my attention. I admit it took me about half an
hour to get used to his American accent – not because it’s bad (to my English
ears, it sounds pretty good!), but because I know he’s not American and in
every audiobook (bar one) I’ve listened to of his, he narrates in RP English,
Scottish or Irish accents. But I soon stopped noticing it and started to enjoy
his performance, which is very good indeed. There are a lot of characters in
this story, and he manages to assign them all distinct vocal characterisations
so that even in scenes with half-a-dozen or more speaking roles, it’s easy to
tell there are a number of people taking part in the conversation. I couldn’t
always identify the secondary cast just from their voices, but I think that was
more down to the sheer number of them and my memory than to Mr. Furlong’s
performance – and the important thing is that the leads and handful of key supporting
characters are easy to identify. Jono is British, so there’s no difficulty
picking him out from the crowd, and I liked Mr. Furlong’s interpretation of
Patrick; he captures his world-weary, laid-back, slightly snarky attitude well,
and also skilfully conveys that there’s definitely more to him than initially
meets the eye. Or the ear ;) His slightly husky voice is attractive and easy to
listen to, and on the whole his narration is well paced, and appropriately
expressive. My one real criticism is that he could perhaps have been a little
more animated in the action scenes, but overall, it’s an excellent performance.

I’m not widely read in UF/PNR, so my saying
that I’ve never come across anything quite like A Ferry of Bones and Gold may not be saying very much (!), but I’m
saying it anyway. The story is imaginative and exciting, the characters are
engaging and I particularly liked the way Patrick’s ‘team’ started to mesh
together and the sense of belonging and camaraderie developing between them. The
book is pretty busy; we’ve got Greek Gods, vampires, werewolves, mages,
witches, fates, seers, gargoyles and other immortals and supernatural beings, and
each of them is given context and background so there’s a lot to take in – but ultimately,
I was swept up in the story and eager to find out what was going to happen
next. In spite of my criticisms, I enjoyed both story and narration and I’ll
definitely be picking up the next book in the series.

Note:
Apparently there is a glossary in the print version which I would certainly
have found useful when listening – it would be great if this could be made
available with the audiobook version as well.