If you have the sort of job where you can listen to an audio book while you work or at least the sort of commute or exercise program where you can, I have a recommendation for you.

If you are a fan of young adult fantasy (Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, etc) then perhaps its time that you discovered Max Quick. If you haven’t heard of this series, it’s not surprising as its independently published and, though available in print, not usually sitting on the shelf in bookstores. However, the entire audiobook of the first book is available for free online and the second book is being released chapter by chapter online in another free podcast as you read this.

Mark Jeffrey, the author, and I know each other from Lulu and I read an early draft of his first book and really liked it. I am not going to say that it’s perfect in every way, but there is definitely a lot to like in the book. Well, after reading it, I wrote a review on Amazon which was the featured review for a while and Mark sent me a copy of the second book before it was released to preview it. It is now available in print for those that enjoy a printed book and I have been listening to the free podcast while I am working. The sequel is almost twice as long as the original and, from the reviews, much better so I am really excited to get through the whole thing since I liked the first book to start with. Mark also does the reading himself which adds a whole different element to the story.

He starts the podcast of the second book off with a recap of the first book, so if you want to jump right in with the second book, you can. I read the original book so long ago, I really appreciated the recap because I was sitting there like "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that!" the whole time. The only thing is that the first book is a little complicated so hearing it all jammed into a recap is slightly intimidating.

Anyway, yes, this is a shameless plug for a friend but, it’s also something that I would be recommending even if I didn’t know Mark because I really liked the first book and am liking the second book so far as well and I know a lot of you are Harry Potter nuts and I think that this will be right up your alley. That and it’s free, so how can you go wrong? Your next long car ride you can do a little light reading instead of just wasting time staring into space.

Max Quick Book 1: The Pocket and the Pendant
Free Podcast * Printed Book

Max Quick Book 2: The Two Travelers
Free Podcast * Printed Book

PS: Don’t know how to subscribe to a podcast? Take your favorite music listening program (like Winamp or Windows Media Player for example) and there is an option on all modern music players for podcast. Go to the section and then select "Add" and give the player the link above. You can select whether you want the player to hold back episodes, if, for example, you only want a new chapter each day, or if you prefer to get the whole thing at once, that is also an option. Once that is all set up, just go ahead and play the file like any other MP3 or digital music file. You can also import it into an iPod (hence the name) or any other music player or even burn to CD if that is your thing.

Tags: max quick, Mark Jeffrey, The Pocket and the Pendant, The Two Travelers, audiobook, podcast, harry potter, fantasy

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