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| 1453216618
| 9781453216613
| B07B6BZS25
| 3.93
| 3,517
| Nov 12, 1986
| Mar 29, 2011
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liked it
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For me, this book started off really slow. I was interested in the world presented, but it took me a long time to warm up to either the characters or
For me, this book started off really slow. I was interested in the world presented, but it took me a long time to warm up to either the characters or the story. After a while, though, my interest picked up quite a bit. The story is set in an alternate world where magic still exists, although its influence is starting to fade. Many people aren’t sure if magic is even real, and technology is become more prevalent. A programmer from our world is kidnapped and taken to this alternate world where she gets caught up in events there. It’s too difficult to explain what those events are without spoiling the story, so I’m not even going to try. The book starts off focusing on a character who wasn’t terribly interesting to me. The focus eventually shifted over to a couple other characters who I found more interesting. The story was published in the 80’s and it does have a slightly dated feel, particularly in its occasional discussions of real-world technology, but not unpleasantly so. I did think it failed to be as twisty as the author seemed to want it to be, maybe just because it relied on tropes that have become familiar to me and so it was easier for me to predict certain things. (view spoiler)[Plus I found it impossible to buy into the idea that Antryg Windrose was the real villain when a four-book series is named after him. (hide spoiler)] The ending is a complete cliffhanger. Although most of the main questions are answered, nothing is resolved, and our main characters are in jeopardy. I liked this book well enough by the end that I’m going to continue on and read the next book, so I can find out what happens. ...more |
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Sep 24, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1476708851
| 9781476708850
| B0088P0JJQ
| 3.61
| 183
| Nov 20, 2012
| Nov 20, 2012
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liked it
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First, the disclaimer: This is essentially a romance anthology, and I’m not a fan of romance novels. I’m also not that crazy for the short story forma
First, the disclaimer: This is essentially a romance anthology, and I’m not a fan of romance novels. I’m also not that crazy for the short story format, although sometimes they make a nice change of pace in small doses. So why on Earth did I read this? I read it for the Robin Hobb story which is set in the series I’m currently reading. Since there are only five stories in the anthology, I’m just going to write a brief review for each of them. The Marrying Maid by Jo Beverley This one wasâ€� bizarre. For reasons explained (eventually) in the story, Rob must marry and have sex with a pre-determined woman before his 25th birthday or he and his entire family will die. At the beginning of the story, he finally finds the correct woman, Martha, when his time is almost out. Even if I was a fan of romance stories, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this one. The desperation of Rob and the reluctance of Martha made the story uncomfortable, and not at all romantic. 2 stars. Blue Boots by Robin Hobb This was the story that I read the anthology for. It’s set in the Six Duchies from her Elderlings series, but familiarity with the series isn’t needed to understand the story. Somebody unfamiliar with it probably wouldn’t even realize it was set in a larger series. It’s a fairly straight-forward romance, with some of what I would consider to be typical romance tropes. The romance took place between characters who barely knew each other, so I never really bought into it. It’s written well enough, so I might have enjoyed this more if I was a romance reader. I think Hobb is great at writing characters, and that showed in this story. However, it really »å¾±»å²Ô’t add any new depth to the Six Duchies setting for me. 3 stars. You, and You Alone by Jacqueline Carey This was the story that made me sit and stare at my Kindle for a minute after I finished it. I think I liked it, but it was tragic. The reader knows it’s going to be tragic from the very beginning, so that wasn’t surprising, but I actually got a little invested in the relationship in this one. I think what really helped this one feel more real was that the story takes place over several years and we see their ups and downs. There’s also a little more to this story than just romance; there’s a tiny hint of political intrigue as well. I haven’t yet read Carey’s Kushiel series, but it’s been on my to-read list for a while so I enjoyed getting a taste of her writing. I’m pretty sure this was set in that series, because I recognized some proper names from the book titles. I occasionally had the feeling that this story had a lot more meaning and relevance to a bigger picture than what I was grasping due to being unfamiliar with the setting. I’ll have to re-read this once I do finally read the series. Oh, and my read of The Iliad earlier this year paid off because there were a few references to it. :) 3.5 stars. Under/Above the Water by Tanith Lee This story »å¾±»å²Ô’t do anything for me at all. I’m not entirely sure why, but I »å¾±»å²Ô’t buy into the story and I »å¾±»å²Ô’t feel any connection to the characters. I can’t even think of more to say than that, which in itself probably speaks best for the lack of impression this made on me. 2 stars. Demon Lover by Cecelia Holland In the first paragraph of this story, a demon is essentially trying to rape the main character. So my initial reaction was, “Oooookay…â€� But actually, once it got started, the story captured my interest. The romance »å¾±»å²Ô’t have a lot of substance nor did it have much appeal but, by this point in the anthology, I wasn’t really expecting it to. I think short stories are probably not the best vehicle for believable romances. Not for what I as a reader would consider believable, anyway. I might have been interested in a longer version of this story with more focus on the other aspects of the setting aside from the romance. 3 stars. So those star ratings average out to 2.7, which mathematically-speaking should be rounded down to 2.5. However, I’m going to round it up to 3 based on two things: 1) the strength of the Carey story which I did debate giving 4 stars and 2) an acknowledgement that I really wasn’t the right audience for this anthology, and I knew that going in but chose to read it anyway. Merged review: First, the disclaimer: This is essentially a romance anthology, and I’m not a fan of romance novels. I’m also not that crazy for the short story format, although sometimes they make a nice change of pace in small doses. So why on Earth did I read this? I read it for the Robin Hobb story which is set in the series I’m currently reading. Since there are only five stories in the anthology, I’m just going to write a brief review for each of them. The Marrying Maid by Jo Beverley This one wasâ€� bizarre. For reasons explained (eventually) in the story, Rob must marry and have sex with a pre-determined woman before his 25th birthday or he and his entire family will die. At the beginning of the story, he finally finds the correct woman, Martha, when his time is almost out. Even if I was a fan of romance stories, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this one. The desperation of Rob and the reluctance of Martha made the story uncomfortable, and not at all romantic. 2 stars. Blue Boots by Robin Hobb This was the story that I read the anthology for. It’s set in the Six Duchies from her Elderlings series, but familiarity with the series isn’t needed to understand the story. Somebody unfamiliar with it probably wouldn’t even realize it was set in a larger series. It’s a fairly straight-forward romance, with some of what I would consider to be typical romance tropes. The romance took place between characters who barely knew each other, so I never really bought into it. It’s written well enough, so I might have enjoyed this more if I was a romance reader. I think Hobb is great at writing characters, and that showed in this story. However, it really »å¾±»å²Ô’t add any new depth to the Six Duchies setting for me. 3 stars. You, and You Alone by Jacqueline Carey This was the story that made me sit and stare at my Kindle for a minute after I finished it. I think I liked it, but it was tragic. The reader knows it’s going to be tragic from the very beginning, so that wasn’t surprising, but I actually got a little invested in the relationship in this one. I think what really helped this one feel more real was that the story takes place over several years and we see their ups and downs. There’s also a little more to this story than just romance; there’s a tiny hint of political intrigue as well. I haven’t yet read Carey’s Kushiel series, but it’s been on my to-read list for a while so I enjoyed getting a taste of her writing. I’m pretty sure this was set in that series, because I recognized some proper names from the book titles. I occasionally had the feeling that this story had a lot more meaning and relevance to a bigger picture than what I was grasping due to being unfamiliar with the setting. I’ll have to re-read this once I do finally read the series. Oh, and my read of The Iliad earlier this year paid off because there were a few references to it. :) 3.5 stars. Under/Above the Water by Tanith Lee This story »å¾±»å²Ô’t do anything for me at all. I’m not entirely sure why, but I »å¾±»å²Ô’t buy into the story and I »å¾±»å²Ô’t feel any connection to the characters. I can’t even think of more to say than that, which in itself probably speaks best for the lack of impression this made on me. 2 stars. Demon Lover by Cecelia Holland In the first paragraph of this story, a demon is essentially trying to rape the main character. So my initial reaction was, “Oooookay…â€� But actually, once it got started, the story captured my interest. The romance »å¾±»å²Ô’t have a lot of substance nor did it have much appeal but, by this point in the anthology, I wasn’t really expecting it to. I think short stories are probably not the best vehicle for believable romances. Not for what I as a reader would consider believable, anyway. I might have been interested in a longer version of this story with more focus on the other aspects of the setting aside from the romance. 3 stars. So those star ratings average out to 2.7, which mathematically-speaking should be rounded down to 2.5. However, I’m going to round it up to 3 based on two things: 1) the strength of the Carey story which I did debate giving 4 stars and 2) an acknowledgement that I really wasn’t the right audience for this anthology, and I knew that going in but chose to read it anyway. ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Sep 30, 2018
not set
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Oct 03, 2018
not set
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Sep 24, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1944700447
| 9781944700447
| B07775VCP7
| 3.69
| 1,223
| Oct 24, 2017
| Oct 24, 2017
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liked it
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The end of this book reaaaally annoyed me. For some reason I’d thought it was a standalone story. That was probably a bad assumption based on not seei
The end of this book reaaaally annoyed me. For some reason I’d thought it was a standalone story. That was probably a bad assumption based on not seeing any series info associated with the book and this book having a publication date of over 6 years ago. I have no idea whether or not there will ever be any sequels, but this is not a complete story. The premise was kind of fun. There are a couple main POV characters, but we start off with Indelbed, a young boy living in poverty with an alcoholic father. He soon learns that his life isn’t what it appears to have been. Djinn are real, and his mother was one, and his father is an emissary to the djinn. Indelbed gets imprisoned by a djinn and tries to escape. Meanwhile, his cousin and aunt, who have also just learned of the existence of the djinn, take a crash course on djinn politics. For some reason the story really »å¾±»å²Ô’t hold my attention well, even though I kept feeling like it was the sort of thing I should have enjoyed more. The writing was fine, the setting was fleshed out pretty well, I liked the characters ok, and I was interested in the story on the surface of things, I just never felt compelled to read more to find out what would happen next. It also started to go downhill for me closer to the end. I’m not convinced the main villain’s motivations made that much sense and I was very, very unhappy with the direction one of the characters took toward the end. I was going to give this 3 stars until I read the abrupt and unsatisfying ending. That pushed it down to 2.5 stars and I was tempted to go even lower, but I’ll round up to 3 on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ based on my enjoyment level for the rest of the story. ...more |
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1
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Nov 30, 2023
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Jan 06, 2024
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Nov 30, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B09GGXL8D9
| 3.62
| 50,451
| Aug 02, 2022
| Aug 02, 2022
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 25, 2023
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not set
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Nov 25, 2023
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Audible Audio
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| B011MYPIY0
| 4.05
| 59,547
| Jun 1970
| Jun 2021
|
liked it
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I went into this book with pretty low expectations. I’d disliked the author’s Lord of Light quite a lot. I did think A Night in the Lonesome October w
I went into this book with pretty low expectations. I’d disliked the author’s Lord of Light quite a lot. I did think A Night in the Lonesome October was cute, but nothing special. I think my reaction to this book leaned more toward the latter, but I liked it better than I feared I would and it’s less than 200 pages so it was a quick read. The setting was initially more modern than I expected, set I guess around the time the book was published in 1970. We’re introduced to the main character, Corwin, as he wakes up in a hospital with no memories of who he is or how he got there, and it seems he’s being kept against his will. Through a combination of pretending to know more than he does and convenient intuition, he manages to get away and find allies. The actual plot doesn’t take off until a good ways into the book, so I don’t want to spoil it. I never felt any great investment in Corwin or any of the other characters, but I remained moderately interested in him throughout the book and the plot held my attention pretty well. The amnesia trope got a little frustrating to me in the beginning because I had trouble buying into all of Corwin’s convenient intuitions. In retrospect it might be believable, but it »å¾±»å²Ô’t feel that way at the time I was reading those parts. I was curious about what was going on though, so that helped to hold my attention, and then the story became more interesting to me further on, although it did have some slow spots. This story isn’t very satisfying by itself. It doesn’t end on a true cliffhanger, but the main plot is definitely not resolved and there are a lot of open questions. I might have given in to the temptation to keep reading if I’d had it in the omnibus format, but I just had this as a single volume and I don’t feel a burning desire to read more of the series so I don’t plan to seek it out. I’m rating it at 3.5 stars and rounding down to 3 on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 24, 2023
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Nov 30, 2023
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Nov 24, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B0DTCNKBGC
| 3.99
| 25,978
| Feb 02, 2021
| Feb 02, 2021
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liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: I wouldn’t turn my nose u
This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: I wouldn’t turn my nose up at it if I were trapped in a room with nothing to read except books from this series, but I probably wouldn’t actively seek it out whilst I’m still being allowed to roam free. Audio Narration The narrator is Raphael Corkhill. For the most I thought his narration was fine, and he was pleasant to listen to, but I did have a couple issues. I’ve often complained about narrators who over-dramatize the voices for characters of the opposite sex, but his reading of female characters was so under-dramatized that I often couldn’t tell if a character was female or not until the text made it clear which character was speaking. The distinction between a male versus a female voice is one of the things that helps an audiobook listener distinguish between characters, so this was sometimes a problem for me. I think the other issue I had was just a result of the narrator attempting to do what the text said. There are a couple characters who are portrayed as speaking with a slight accent that becomes more pronounced when the characters are under some stress or feeling a sense of urgency. The narrator did this, but sometimes I had trouble recognizing the characters at those times. The text does mention character names often enough that I was usually able to keep straight who was talking, though. It just sometimes wasn’t until after the dialogue that it became clear who had said it. Story The SF&F group has once again tricked me into reading a romance novel. :) (Ok, I admit I did it to myself, because I avoid reading any info about a book before I start it. I prefer to jump in blindly and be surprised, even if the surprise isn’t always pleasant.) This book is at least 50% romance, probably more. The science fiction aspect was purely setting with very little substance. The main premise is that war between various planets is avoided through treaties and arranged marriages. Prince Kiem, a man with a history of getting himself into trouble, is unexpectedly commanded by the emperor (his grandmother) to marry a man from another planet, Jainan, whose husband from Kiem’s family recently died in a shuttle accident. He’s not happy, but the marriage is critical for avoiding war, so he goes along with it. Angsty romantic tropes ensue, along with some fairly generic political intrigue. This is one of those books that relies on characters constantly misunderstanding each other and being incapable of talking things out with each other. In this case, I kind of bought into it under the circumstances, but it’s a trope that unfailingly annoys me. I did enjoy Prince Kiem. I don’t think he was a particularly unique character, but I definitely have a soft spot for the rogue-ish characters with a good heart, and he fits that niche nicely. I kind of liked Jainan, but his internal thoughts were quite frustrating at times. There was background to explain why he was the way he was, but it was still frustrating for me as a reader. The political intrigue aspects of the story seemed under-developed. I think it was more of a vehicle for the romance than a story in and of itself, although the action did pick up in the second half. Some of the key underlying elements that were supposedly driving the plot, such as the concepts of the auditors and the remnants, were never fleshed out well. In spite of all my complaints, both the story and the characters held my attention better than I would have expected them to. This story wasn’t really up my alley, but I never felt bored or restless while listening to it. If the second book had stayed with the same characters and explored their lives (view spoiler)[after all the angsty romance stuff was resolved in this book (hide spoiler)], I might have been a little more tempted to try the second book, but I took a peek at the description and it looks like it’s another romance featuring different characters, so I think I’ve had my fill of that for now! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 09, 2023
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Nov 23, 2023
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Nov 23, 2023
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Audible Audio
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| 4.09
| 186,920
| May 07, 2000
| Nov 30, 2000
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liked it
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I finished this book late at night on the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday and man was I ever thankful to be done! I »å¾±»å²Ô’t know anything about the actual I finished this book late at night on the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday and man was I ever thankful to be done! I »å¾±»å²Ô’t know anything about the actual story before I decided to read this, but I’d heard enough about the book itself to be intrigued. I knew it needed to be read in a physical format because it has some unique formatting. There’s colored ink throughout the story, multiple fonts, and there are sequences where the words are written in different directions â€� upside down, sideways, diagonal, sometimes in all of the directions on the same page. My cat jumped off my lap in disgust a couple of times because he found it annoying that I kept rotating this enormous book over his head. I was expecting a “thinkyâ€� book, and that was what I decided I was in the mood for, so I tackled this book with enthusiasm. However, it turned out not to be the kind of “thinkyâ€� I was hoping for. I was hoping for an intricate plot, and I was prepared to dive in and do my best to keep a complicated storyline straight in my head, but the plot itself was actually pretty straight forward, even though it sort of has two plots. The “thinkyâ€� aspects of this book are more about finding symbolism in odd references and odd formatting choices, and reading a lot of scholarly-sounding notes about a wide variety of topics from the physics of echoes to the art of taking pictures, and a whole lot of things in-between. None of that is the kind of thing I usually get into, and it didn't do much for me this time either. It’s quite an unusual book, though. The premise is that an elderly man named Zampanò dies and leaves behind an unpublished book he was working on. He was analyzing a documentary that showed footage about a family that had moved into a strange house that was larger on the inside than the outside. The only thing is, the documentary he was analyzing »å¾±»å²Ô’t exist â€� not even within the context of this fictional story, although Zampanò only ever talks about it as if it were a real entity. Throughout the book, Zampanò recounts portions of the imaginary documentary and he analyzes it with the help of a variety of references to other imaginary analyses that other people have supposedly done of the documentary. He includes a lot of footnotes. A young man named Truant ends up with this manuscript in his possession and starts reading it, and gets wrapped up in it. It seems to be somehow taking over his life. He adds his own footnotes, including footnotes to Zampanò’s footnotes, and some of them are several pages long and slowly reveal a story of his own, although Truant is at least as unreliable of a narrator as Zampanò is. And then there’s an editor who comes along behind Truant and adds some footnotes of his or her own, although a much smaller quantity of them. So in the end we have footnotes for footnotes for footnotes about fake analyses done on a fake documentary about a house that may or may not exist. I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all sometimes. The core story about the house was actually pretty entertaining, if not very satisfying. It’s really only a small portion of the book though, because most of the book is spent analyzing the story rather than telling the story. It’s supposed to be scary I think, but as I’ve said in other reviews, I’m not a good barometer for that. I never found it scary, and I think all the “scholarlyâ€� analysis and footnotes created too much distance from the story for me to really get wrapped up in it. The other story unfolding in Truant’s footnotes held my attention also, but it was pretty weird. Actually, there was one part I found creepy. It was in one of the appendices, (view spoiler)[the letters from Truant’s mother that she wrote to him from the mental institute she was in. Watching her sanity unravel more and more did give me the creeps, and I thought it was done quite well (hide spoiler)]. As far as the unique formatting goes, keeping in mind that I suck at recognizing or interpreting symbolism, I think I vaguely understood the purpose of some of the different formatting while not being all that impressed by it or feeling like it enhanced the story enough to justify its presence. I would imagine it added quite a lot to the printing cost. The only thing I liked about it was that I was able to zoom through large chunks of the book and feel like I was making great progress, because there are a couple of large sections consisting of pages with more blank space than words. Those were also the sections that pissed my cat off as he did not appreciate a fifty pound book rotating over his head. Ok, maybe not fifty pounds, but it felt pretty heavy, especially since I’m used to reading primarily on the Kindle! I’m rating this at 2.5 stars based on my enjoyment level, but rounding up to 3 for its creativity and uniqueness. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 07, 2023
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Nov 23, 2023
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Nov 07, 2023
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Paperback
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| B075348V7X
| 3.96
| 20,881
| Sep 18, 2017
| Oct 03, 2017
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liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, sort of. Technically it isn’t a series. It’s the only book written in this setting (as far a
This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, sort of. Technically it isn’t a series. It’s the only book written in this setting (as far as I know) and stands alone sort of, although the end leaves a lot of new questions. I had read in a Q&A from back in 2017 that the author had both a sequel and a prequel in mind that might get written at some point in the future, so I decided to approach it as an incomplete series. Audio Narration The narrator is Cherise Boothe. I really liked the way she read this, and I liked the accents she used for the characters which were very distinctive from her standard narration voice. I »å¾±»å²Ô’t have any complaints, and found her easy to listen to. In fact, this was the first audiobook in a while where I paid attention easily instead of constantly losing focus, and this was despite that I wasn’t really very absorbed by the story, nor was my mind empty of things to distract itself with, so I think this was a case where the narration style improved a book for me. Story This is a science fiction story set on a multi-generational spaceship. At the time the story starts, the ship has been traveling for many generations with no sign of its promised destination. The overseer of the ship is seen as second to god, and it’s a dystopian type society in that there are an elite few on the upper decks who have all of the freedom and privileges while the masses on the lower decks are treated more like slaves than anything else. The main character, Aster, lives on the lower decks. This book has somewhat unique characters in my experience, and I enjoyed that aspect of it and felt like they were pretty nuanced and believable. I was never all that attached to them, but I did think they were interesting to read about. The dystopian aspect of the story, with all the damaged people and the horrible things done to them, felt like the same things I’ve read too many times before and I think that’s the main reason I »å¾±»å²Ô’t enjoy the book more. I was more interested in the slightly mysterious aspect of the plot, which I’m not sure how to describe without spoilers because it builds up a little slowly. I »å¾±»å²Ô’t always feel like the story or the worldbuilding was as fully fleshed out as it could have been. Sometimes I wished for more backstory so I could better understand how the journey started, what the society was like in the beginning, and how it became what it was at the time of the story. And then I thought the end was a little abrupt and unclear. I would have enjoyed seeing at least a short epilogue to give the reader an idea of what happened next. There definitely would be room for both a sequel and a prequel, although I'm not sure if I would read them. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 24, 2022
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Apr 04, 2022
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Nov 05, 2023
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Audible Audio
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| B018UG5G5E
| 4.30
| 247,519
| Jun 09, 2009
| Dec 03, 2015
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really liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: Yes. Audio Narration The na This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: Yes. Audio Narration The narrator is Alyssa Bresnahan. I thought she did very well. I don’t have any complaints about any of her choices, and I thought she was one of the good kinds of narrators who somehow manage to fade into the background so that my focus remains fully on the words of the story and not on the person reading them. Story This is one of Brandon Sanderson’s older books, published in 2009. There are a few POV characters, but most of the story focuses on two princesses, Siri and Vivenna. (The book was published before either Siri or Alexa had become household names for voice assistant software, but a warped side of me thinks it’s a great pity that Vivenna »å¾±»å²Ô’t happen to be named Alexa instead.) Their father has to fulfill a long-ago agreement to give a daughter to the God King of a neighboring country to avoid a war, but everyone believes a war is inevitable anyway. One daughter is sent to meet the agreement and hopefully stave off war for a little longer, and the other daughter sneaks off to try to save her from her horrible fate but gets caught up in a bigger mess than she expected. As one would expect from Sanderson, the story has a detailed and mostly interesting magical system. This one involves breath and colors which allow inanimate objects or even dead people to be animated and fulfill commands. Each person is born with one breath, and it’s impossible to steal the breath from another person, but breaths can be given willingly. This causes breaths to become a commodity of sorts. Some people have accumulated more breaths than others and therefore have greater power, influence, and skills. I enjoyed this quite a bit. The story held my interest well. At times it seemed to run the risk of becoming a pretty standard story, and I often thought I knew where things were going, but it never quite went where I expected it to with maybe a couple exceptions. (view spoiler)[I did predict that Lightsong would heal the God King. (hide spoiler)] There were some ambiguous characters and people whose motivations and goals weren’t quite what the reader is led to believe they are, which helped make the story feel more twisty. There was a lot of humor sprinkled throughout, which I enjoyed too. I liked the main characters, although I never developed any major investment in any of them. It probably isn’t the book to choose if you’re looking for some strong female characters, although Siri and Vivenna did have their moments. At times I grew impatient with them, especially Vivenna. My other very mild complaint is that sometimes I felt like the magic system was cobbled together and in danger of falling apart if I breathed too hard, but it never went too far off the rails and mostly made sense. This book tells a complete story, although there’s clearly room for more stories to be told and I know the author has said he plans to return to this at some point. I’d enjoy revisiting this in print, along with any other sequels that get written. ...more |
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1
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Oct 03, 2023
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Oct 29, 2023
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Oct 29, 2023
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Audible Audio
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| B0927D3CHF
| 4.07
| 8,171
| Apr 19, 2022
| Apr 19, 2022
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liked it
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This book is very short at under 200 pages, but it took me forever to read it. It wasn’t bad, and there were things I liked, but for some reason it ju
This book is very short at under 200 pages, but it took me forever to read it. It wasn’t bad, and there were things I liked, but for some reason it just »å¾±»å²Ô’t hold my interest at all. I think I was most interested during the beginning, when I had absolutely no idea what this story was about. We’re introduced to a young girl with no name, who lives with her somewhat crazy mother in a cave in the middle of nowhere. She ventures further from her home in her explorations, she can communicate with animals, she observes people from hiding and sometimes does them small favors, and she seems to have special abilities. Something is calling to her, and she eventually leaves her home to search out her destiny. I was pretty far into the story before I realized what it was based on. I doubt most people would consider it a spoiler, but this book is so short anyway that I’m reluctant to reveal it and possibly ruin a surprise for someone. (view spoiler)[It wasn’t until the point where Nimuë was first mentioned that I realized this story was based on Arthurian legend. As soon as I saw that name, some of the other character names flashed back through my head and I was like, “Ohâ€� duh.â€� My knowledge of Arthurian legend isn’t great, and it wasn’t until I skimmed the author’s notes at the end that I learned who the main character, Peretur, was supposed to be. (hide spoiler)] This is a non-traditional retelling ofâ€� the thing in my spoiler tags. I suspect a lot of it went over my head anyway, but I did find the author’s choices that I recognized to be interesting. I was relieved that the thing I most associate with these retellings and thoroughly dread ((view spoiler)[the love triangle between Arthur, Gwen, and Lance (hide spoiler)]) played very little role in the story and wasn’t a source of drama. I liked the main character and was moderately interested as more of her back story was revealed, and there was nothing about the story that I found unpleasant to read, but for some reason there just wasn’t anything that gripped me or helped propel me toward the end. I’m rating this at 2.5 stars and rounding up to 3 for Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. ...more |
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1
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Sep 22, 2023
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Nov 07, 2023
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Sep 22, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B08NWDDBTZ
| unknown
| 3.47
| 5,046
| Jan 05, 2021
| Jan 05, 2021
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it was ok
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. Technically, I guess this isn’t a seri
This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. Technically, I guess this isn’t a series. This book stands alone fine, but there’s another book published in the same world and I wasn’t sure if she might plan to write more. Anyway, the verdict is: nope. Audio Narration The narrator is Maria Liatis. I don’t think she was a terrible narrator, but her reading style »å¾±»å²Ô’t work well for me and I »å¾±»å²Ô’t think she was a good fit for this story. I might not have had any complaints if I’d listened to her narrate a different kind of story. There are a lot of female characters, and I »å¾±»å²Ô’t think the narrator had a sufficient range to distinguish between them. Except for one woman with an English accent, and one woman who spoke with over-the-top manic cheerfulness, the voices all sounded pretty much the same to me. Additionally, I »å¾±»å²Ô’t really feel like her voice was well suited for a cast of characters that consisted mostly of mercenaries. The characters all sounded kind of like sweet, cheerful young women. I would have expected a little more grit in there, at least for a few of the characters, but the grit was completely absent. One of the other issues I had was probably more the fault of the text than the narrator, but I think she could have mitigated the issue if she’d made different reading choices. The author uses the word “howeverâ€� a lot. At times it gets borderline incessant and I’ve started to get twitchy about hearing that word now. Fortunately, people don’t use it a lot in real life speech, at least not in my experience, so hopefully I won’t start grimacing at random people. The narrator sometimes reminded me of a text-to-speech program, because you could practically hear the comma following the word “howeverâ€� every time she said it, much like how text-to-speech programs pause unnaturally long when they encounter a comma in the text. There was usually a slight emphasis on the word, and then a pause, which really made it impossible to miss the fact that the author had used the word yet again. If she’d read that word faster, or with less emphasis, it might not have stuck out to me as badly. I’m really curious about how many times the word actually existed in the text, and if it was as bad as it seemed to me or if it was the narration style that made it seem worse than it really was. Story When the story starts off, we’re briefly introduced to an alien race on a human-occupied planet who call themselves the emissaries. They can mimic humans, allowing them to blend in, but their natural communication method is via scent. Few humans are aware that they’re on the planet, and the emissaries want to keep it that way, but the humans who do know about them are exploiting them for their own selfish reasons. I was quite interested in the very beginning. The aliens seemed interesting, although I wondered how their bodies managed to manufacture so many different scents to be used for communication, and the premise seemed to be one I’d enjoy. And then the story immediately abandoned the emissaries and went off to introduce us to a bunch of seemingly-random, cardboard, human mercenaries. I completely lost the flow of the story at this point, and I was never quite sure if it was because it was written in a confusing manner or if it was just because I was having trouble giving the audiobook sufficient attention, or if it was because the characters all sounded the same to me â€� both literally in terms of the narrator and figuratively in terms of the tone of the text. It was probably some combination of all three things. I never felt any attachment to any of the characters. There’s a lot of banter between the mercenaries, which is normally the sort of thing I love, but it did absolutely nothing for me here. I felt like the author was trying too hard at times, but it might just be that I was so disinterested that the banter was amazing and I was incapable of feeling it. The story did get more interesting in the second half when we finally got back to the emissariesâ€� storyline, but it wasn’t enough to really pull me back in and we still focused mainly on the mercenaries. I’m rating this at 2.5 stars and rounding down to 2 on Godreads. Also, I might need to buy a stress ball or something, because I think the next time I hear the word “howeverâ€� I’m going to break something if I don’t have a healthier option at hand. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 15, 2023
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Oct 2023
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Sep 15, 2023
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Audible Audio
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| B07YK1K1YK
| 3.67
| 405,602
| Jun 30, 2020
| Jun 30, 2020
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liked it
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Mexican Gothic is a standalone fantasy novel. It has a lot of horror elements, so it might be more accurate to call it horror. I personally »å¾±»å²Ô’t fin
Mexican Gothic is a standalone fantasy novel. It has a lot of horror elements, so it might be more accurate to call it horror. I personally »å¾±»å²Ô’t find it scary, but I can’t even think of a horror book that scared me as an adult, so I’m a really bad barometer for that. The story is set in the 1950’s in Mexico and centers around the main character, a young woman NoemÃ. Her father receives a disturbing letter from NoemÃ’s recently-wed cousin, Catalina, who seems to think her husband is poisoning her. She claims she’s trapped in her home, and she writes other more incoherent things that calls her sanity into question. Catalina specifically asks for Noemà to come save her. When NoemÃ’s father contacts the family to try to find out what’s going on, they claim she’s been ill. NoemÃ’s father asks her to go stay with Catalina and her husband and his family to find out for sure what’s going on. This was a fast, easy read that held my attention, but I »å¾±»å²Ô’t always think it was terribly logical and the charactersâ€� motivations often »å¾±»å²Ô’t make sense to me. As an example from the beginning of the book, Noemi’s father is at least considering the possibility that something is really wrong, and he seems to have some distrust for Catalina's husband. He »å¾±»å²Ô’t seem like a negligent father, so I »å¾±»å²Ô’t think it made sense for him to send his daughter to stay with a family they barely knew in a situation where there had been claims of danger. Although Noemà is pretty independent and self-sufficient, I’ll reiterate that this was set in the 1950’s. These are some other issues I had that are more spoiler-ish, so I’ll put them behind tags: (view spoiler)[I also found it quite selfish of Catalina to ask Noemà to come help her, when she had to have known that Noemà wasn’t likely to be able to do anything and would just end up trapped too. Catalina »å¾±»å²Ô’t even seem to feel any remorse at getting Noemà into this mess. It’s not far from the end of the book when Noemà expresses regret for not just fetching Catalina and taking her away when she read the letter, but Catalina says that they wouldn’t have let her, which is true enough, and then she says that it was enough that Noemà came because her presence made her better. Soooo selfish! Another issue I had was that, when Noemà arrived, she barely spent any time with her cousin. The family did make it difficult, but it felt like Noemà made very little effort. It felt unrealistic to me, like the author just »å¾±»å²Ô’tâ€� have much story to tell that involved Catalina despite using her as the premise for NoemÃ’s presence in the house. At the very least, I thought Noemà should have requested daily visits, maybe asked for a specific time of day when it would be suitable for her to visit and then faithfully showed up on that schedule. If the family wouldn't permit this then it needed to be reported back to her father. Noemà »å¾±»å²Ô’t seem to take any initiative, she just showed up now and then and asked if she could see her, and was more often than not disappointed when she couldn’t. I also never really understood exactly why they ate babies, other than because the author wanted to include something especially horrific in her story. They said the children were born infected with the fungus, so eating their flesh meant ingesting the fungus. So why was that better than just eating the fungus directly? There was some mumbo jumbo about the inter-connectivity with the priests and Agnes and each other, but even if you buy into that, it »å¾±»å²Ô’t seem like the babies fit into it since they »å¾±»å²Ô’t have any knowledge or experience. (hide spoiler)] Soâ€� I definitely had some complaints. Despite that, this was written in an entertaining way and I did like Noemà pretty well despite not always understanding her choices. I’m rating this at 3 stars based on my mixed feelings. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 09, 2023
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Sep 22, 2023
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Sep 09, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B0DLT39J8Q
| unknown
| 4.09
| 2,033
| Oct 11, 2022
| Oct 11, 2022
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really liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: Yes, probably, although I
This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: Yes, probably, although I’m undecided on whether I’ll stick to audio or do it in print. Audio Narration The narrator is Rory Alexander. I liked his narration. He was easy to listen to, with a pleasant English accent and good distinction between characters, not that there were many characters he had to narrate in the first place. There are several characters, but only three that get much page time. Story The story focuses on Sean, one of two survivors from his home of Kystrom, who apparently has a tendency to get himself in trouble. He ends up in prison, and is coerced into going with a team of other convicts to an enormous derelict ship about to be destroyed by a supernova. His objective is to retrieve data believed to be on it that holds clues to immortality. Naturally this data is in high demand, so there’s some competition and things quickly go awry. I »å¾±»å²Ô’t find this creepy, but there’s a lot of creeping around, sometimes in the dark, trying to avoid getting attacked by enemies, so it might seem creepy for some. This is a simple, straight-forward story. There are some mysteries about what happened on the ship, and about the motives of the different factions, but I thought things were telegraphed pretty obviously and I predicted most key plot twists well before they happened. I can’t necessarily think of anything else I’ve read that was very similar to this, and yet it felt familiar anyway. It had a lot of familiar tropes, I guess. They were things I enjoyed though, and I think my tolerance for simpler stories is higher in the audiobook format. I liked the characters and would like to spend more time with them. I’m a sucker for the trope where (view spoiler)[people with conflicting beliefs and motives are forced to work together and then they begin to develop respect for each other and start to look at things differently (hide spoiler)], so I think that contributed to my enjoyment. The main plot of this book is resolved by the end, but there are several open threads left hanging and a “huh?â€� moment near the end that was clearly intended to try to hook people into reading the next book. I’ll wait until the series is complete before revisiting it. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 02, 2023
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Sep 12, 2023
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Sep 02, 2023
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Audible Audio
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| B0BNQH593J
| 4.11
| 3,995
| Sep 01, 2022
| Sep 01, 2022
|
really liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: Yes, probably. Audio Narra This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: Yes, probably. Audio Narration The narrator is Aoife McMahon. She spoke with a lovely, mild Irish accent that worked perfectly for the story and I enjoyed listening to her. The book alternates between two female POV characters. For the first couple of chapters, I was confused because the Irish names were difficult for me to understand, and all my American ears could hear from the narrator was “Irish accentâ€�. At first I was confused as to whether the characters were the same or not. Then I realized the locations, dates, and character names were in the chapter titles, which I could see from the Audible player I was running on my computer, and the story started making much more sense with that visual information to rely on. I also started picking up the nuances of the voices the narrator was using for each character. Before long, I was easily hearing them as two obviously distinct characters. Aside from that initial difficulty, I »å¾±»å²Ô’t have any trouble with her narration at all, and I easily kept the various characters straight. Story This is a fantasy story set in Ireland in the time of the Vikings when Christianity was starting to take over the old religions. In this setting, there are two factions of supernatural people, both of whom have lifetimes that are far longer than that of normal mortal humans and some magical abilities, but they can pass as humans and live among them without being detected. One of those factions has been nearly destroyed by the other and there are only two of them left. We alternate between the POVs of one character from each faction, Gormflaith and Fódla. Gormflaith is from the faction that has been nearly killed off. She’s very manipulative and opportunistic, trying to help her mortal son gain power and improve her own lot in life. Fódla is more compassionate, but she’s been taught to fear human men. She’s sent on a mission to spy on one of the more powerful kings. I don’t know that this story necessarily has a strong plot, it’s mostly just a bunch of human factions vying for power, but I liked it anyway. Gormflaith was a difficult character to like, but her manipulative maneuvering held my interest and I kind of felt sorry for her at times. I liked Fódla quite a lot and I enjoyed her chapters the best. I liked that there aren’t clear-cut good vs evil sides, although there are definitely individuals with purer motives than others. There’s a pretty strong theme of women being powerless and at the mercy of men’s whims, but I »å¾±»å²Ô’t think it was as heavy-handed as what I’ve sometimes encountered in other books and it fit the setting well enough. There isn’t any sort of closure to this book. It doesn’t end on a major cliff hanger, but it felt to me like a slow and meandering story that was cut off when a certain number of pages was reached. Maybe if/when I read the rest of the series, the reason for stopping where it did will seem more obvious to me. I did enjoy this though, enough that I intend to seek it out and read it in print someday when the series is complete. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 19, 2023
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Aug 31, 2023
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Aug 19, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B014JT71SQ
| 4.05
| 23,564
| Sep 15, 2015
| Sep 15, 2015
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it was ok
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: NO! Audio Narration The nar This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: NO! Audio Narration The narrator is Christine Marshall. I »å¾±»å²Ô’t really care for her narration. Something indefinable just »å¾±»å²Ô’t work for me. Part of it might be that I disliked Baru, so maybe that influenced my feelings for the voice that was narrating her, but I felt the same way even in the beginning when I was still interested in her. I definitely had some trouble telling who was talking at times, as well as telling if Baru was speaking out loud or internally. The narrator could have done better at distinguishing voices, but I also blame this issue to some extent on the text itself for not having more cues that would work well in an audio format. I have by this point listened to many narrators who »å¾±»å²Ô’t do the greatest job at distinguishing between character voices, and it can be a non-issue if the text itself makes it clear. Story When Baru’s a child, her people are conquered by an empire with advanced technology and a rigid belief system. Baru’s intelligence captures the attention of the empire and she’s sent to one of their schools. She excels there, but she never forgets her roots, and hopes to gain power within the empire so that she can eventually bring about their downfall. When she finishes school, the empire sends her to be the “Imperial Accountantâ€� in a position where her two predecessors were both murdered. In the beginning, I thought I was going to like this. Baru seemed like an interesting and nuanced character, and the story was heavily political which is something I often enjoy. However, all the plotting and the politics somehow began to grow tedious and I started spacing out on it. Additionally, I grew to dislike Baru more and more. With neither the main character nor the story holding my interest, this became a chore to listen to. Baru is portrayed as a savant, at least in terms of finances and political strategy. However, I wasn’t convinced that she always made logical decisions. In any case, she often seemed incapable of considering multiple perspectives or accounting for the possible actions and reactions of the people around her. She’s very single-minded, wanting to achieve her goals at all costs, no matter how much damage her actions cause. I was sick to death of her by the end. The following is a big spoiler for the ending. (view spoiler)[I thought the title at least somewhat spoiled the twist(?) at the end, when Baru betrays her fellow traitors. If the title had just referred to her being a traitor to the empire, it would have seemed way too obvious. I knew it was definitely possible that there was nothing more to it than the obvious explanation, but I’d also considered that it might have a double meaning, so I wasn’t surprised by her choices. Besides, it seemed like the scummy sort of thing she’d do. I also very much disliked the connivance to keep this “twistâ€� from the reader even though we were in Baru’s head. It »å¾±»å²Ô’t feel genuine to me that she’d simply blocked it from her mind until the moment came because she was so horrified by it. Having Baru question herself about it afterward and bemoan it at length »å¾±»å²Ô’t make it feel more genuine for me (hide spoiler)]. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 30, 2023
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Aug 19, 2023
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Jul 30, 2023
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Audiobook
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| B005DB7O0U
| 3.81
| 11,935
| Sep 1981
| Sep 2022
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it was ok
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It took me forever to get through this book. It has sleep dust embedded throughout its pages, and apparently they’ve invented a release mechanism that
It took me forever to get through this book. It has sleep dust embedded throughout its pages, and apparently they’ve invented a release mechanism that works even with e-books. Seriously, I don’t think there was a single session where I sat down to read this book during the day and »å¾±»å²Ô’t fall asleep at some point before standing back up, and I rarely take mid-day naps. Likewise, when I read it before bed, I usually ended up going to sleep earlier than I normally would. Soâ€� I guess that’s the main thing I got out of this book. I’m now very well rested? The story revolves around a large and very convoluted family, most of whom live in or around a large and very convoluted house in the middle of nowhere. There's some overlap with the fairy realm there, so that some family members are able to see them, although others can’t, and most lose the ability as they get older. My Kindle edition had a family tree â€� at the very end of the book, with no reference to it in the table of contents that might have clued me in to its existence. By the time I saw it, it was too late to do me much good. The most critical people were pretty easy to keep track of though, and since I was reading on the Kindle I was able to search and find prior references if I forgot who someone was, so I did ok without the tree. In the earlier parts of the book, it jumps back and forth in the timeline quite a bit and introduces a large number of characters, but this wasn’t the part I disliked. It felt a little confusing at times, but I was able to follow it and the setting seemed really interesting, so I’d looked forward to learning where everything was going. The further I got into the book, the less I liked it. The timeline got more linear and the character focus narrowed, but the story became more nebulous. It became more metaphorical and less logical, and there were long sequences where the author wrote about things happening to characters, except that apparently those things weren’t actually happening, or at least not in the way the characters thought they were, to the point that sometimes I was confused about what was “realâ€� in the context of the book and what wasn’t. And then you have (view spoiler)[people becoming fish, birds, and trees (hide spoiler)]? It probably »å¾±»å²Ô’t help that, by this point, I was in a perpetually sleepy haze myself whenever I read the book. Reading this made me feel like what I imagine it would feel like to be on drugs, and I’ve never enjoyed books that give me that sensation. The writing style is more literary I guess, with some odd ways of phrasing things that occasionally required me to re-read a sentence. I wouldn’t call this a funny book, but there were times it made me burst out in surprised laughter because something unexpectedly struck me funny, even toward the end when I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. Sometimes I wasn’t even sure if the things that made me laugh were supposed to be funny. It’s possible I might have been delirious. The ending was as unsatisfying as I expected it to be by the time I finally reached it. This book I think is more about style and atmosphere, but the story itself lacked enough substance for me to sink my teeth into. I’m rating this at 2.5 stars and rounding down to 2 because I think I would have preferred less sleep. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 23, 2023
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Sep 09, 2023
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Jul 23, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B082YGDV5P
| unknown
| 4.01
| 25,221
| Sep 22, 2020
| Sep 22, 2020
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liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: probably not. Audio Narrat This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: probably not. Audio Narration The narrator is Alex McKenna. Her narration was easy enough to follow, but her character voices were too cartoonish for my tastes. Since this is a superhero/villain type story, that might have been an intentional choice and/or a choice that others would appreciate. It’s not a style I like, though. Aside from that, I don’t have any particular complaints. Story This is kind of a subverted superhero story. In that respect, it reminded me of the graphic novel Watchmen which is the only other story along those lines I can remember encountering. The setting is an alternate version of earth where there are both superheroes and supervillains with special powers. The story focuses on Anna, a “henchâ€�. A hench is a normal person who chooses to do the grunt work for supervillains. These henches are often hired out through temp agencies. Anna is basically a data analyst. She starts crunching numbers and finds that superheroes do an enormous amount of damage both to property and people in the process of their “heroicâ€� actions. I enjoyed the first half more than the second half, although the second half has more action. I mostly liked reading about Anna, but I »å¾±»å²Ô’t always like her choices and I often found her to be hypocritical. To a large extent this is a revenge story, and I’m not usually a big fan of those. I couldn’t always get behind her decisions or her motivations, and even less so for some of the other character. It was pretty melodramatic at times, and some things »å¾±»å²Ô’t make a lot of sense, but I guess that’s a superhero story for you. One of the more mundane aspects I had trouble with was the idea that Anna (view spoiler)[was placed in charge when Leviathan was kidnapped, even though she really shouldn’t have had the experience or the expertise to be a logical choice by that point (hide spoiler)]. There was at least one part of this book that was super gory. Honestly it was so over the top that I couldn’t take it seriously or even really be horrified by it, but it went on and on and on. For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t like gore in their reading material. The main story comes to a conclusion, but there are several threads left unanswered and the end of the story is a pretty clear lead into the next book. The writing was ok and the story held my interest, but I »å¾±»å²Ô’t enjoy this enough to want to continue the series. I might have appreciated this more if I were a bigger fan of the superhero subgenre. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 22, 2023
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Jul 29, 2023
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Jul 22, 2023
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Audible Audio
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| B08QGL9BZD
| 4.10
| 115,186
| Apr 26, 2022
| Apr 26, 2022
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really liked it
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Nettle & Bone is a standalone fantasy novel by T. Kingfisher. The story centers around Marra, the third daughter to the queen of a small kingdom that�
Nettle & Bone is a standalone fantasy novel by T. Kingfisher. The story centers around Marra, the third daughter to the queen of a small kingdom that’s threatened by kingdoms to the north and south. There is some backstory from Marra’s younger years, but she’s around 30 years old for most of the story. To avoid giving too much of the story away, I’ll just say that one of Marra’s older sisters is in danger, and Marra herself is powerless to help, so she seeks out help from a woman whom she hears has powerful magic. Most of the story is about Marra securing that woman’s help, and their quest to solve Marra’s problem. I enjoyed this a lot. The story is simple but entertaining, and it »å¾±»å²Ô’t feel derivative of anything I‘ve read before. Where it really shone for me was with the characters. The cranky old dust wife with her demonic hen was a favorite, but the bumbling old fairy godmother Agnes was a lot of fun too. I liked all the main characters, really. They made me laugh. The world-building was interesting too, and there were hints of other things going on that could inspire other interesting stories, either with different characters or the same ones. I was sorry there weren’t any more books set in the world. I particularly would have liked to learn more about the “blistered landâ€�. There seemed like a lot of setup surrounding that, but then Marra moved on and nothing came of it. The book »å¾±»å²Ô’t provoke any deep thoughts or any rambling complaints, but it was a fun story that I’m glad I read. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 04, 2023
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Jul 22, 2023
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Jul 04, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B0DLSTNHCM
| unknown
| 4.02
| 20,760
| 2007
| Nov 13, 2018
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liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: ???! Audio Narration The na This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: ???! Audio Narration The narrator is Jessica Ball. I thought her narration worked really well for this story, although it might have grated on me in a different story if she’d used the same tone. She spoke in a light, almost overly cheerful type of tone that somehow enhanced the darkness of the story. I think the only complaint I had with the audio format had nothing to do with the narrator, but probably with the editing. There needed to be longer pauses between section breaks. It was jarring at times the way the story flowed from one section to another. Sometimes the only way I knew there had been a section break was because the story unexpectedly shifted in time. Story I can’t explain much about this story without revealing too much and spoiling the fun of discovery. Things are happening to the main character that she doesn’t understand and we learn more about what’s going on along with her. The story is told from the perspective of Sasha, a girl in her mid to late teens at the start of the book. It starts off with her on vacation with her mother at a beach. She encounters a creepy man who seems to be stalking her. When she fails to evade him, he demands that she accomplish a strange and seemingly pointless task. If she refuses to comply, Sasha knows something terrible will happen. Things get stranger from there. In some ways this story was really very repetitive. It’s most obvious at the beginning, when Sasha is completing tasks, yet I »å¾±»å²Ô’t get bored with it because I was very curious to see where things were going. Later, (view spoiler)[at the school (hide spoiler)], it also got quite repetitive in the sense that Sasha tended to follow the same patterns in the way she dealt with what was going on. That started to wear on me a little. But overall the story held my interest well and kept me curious to learn more. Things fell apart for me toward the end. A big premise of the story is that it’s impossible for the people who know what’s going on to explain anything of substance to the people like Sasha who are still in the dark. This of course frees the authors to not have to explain anything substantial to the reader if they so choose, and I felt like this was what happened here. It was all quite nebulous and metaphorical, which is something I tend not to have a lot of patience with. I like more solid plots, whether intricate or simple, and I like all the puzzle pieces to fit together by the end and form a clear picture in my head, regardless of whether the author explains to me what the picture is supposed to be or leaves me to infer it on my own. I was particularly unsatisfied by the abrupt and ambiguous ending. Maybe reading this in print would add greater clarity than what I got by listening to an audiobook, but I suspect in this case I would have had a similar reaction in print. There is another related book published, so maybe that answers some questions. This was originally published in Russian. The original series has four books, but only the first and fourth have been translated into English. However, if I understand correctly, I believe the second and third aren’t directly related to Sasha’s story and the fourth book, which is translated, continues it. I’m somewhat undecided on continuing this series in print someday, but I’m leaning toward no. It was interesting and held my interest, but it was ultimately unsatisfying. I suspect this is more a factor of the authorsâ€� writing style than it is a matter of the story simply not being complete yet. I’m rating it at 3.5 stars and rounding down to 3 on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. I was somewhat amused when I tried to listen to part of the audiobook during a road trip. I don’t do great with audiobooks while driving, so I only listened for maybe 30 minutes before I’d had enough and tried to switch back to music. And suddenly I felt as trapped as Sasha in my situation, because I could not get out of the audiobook. The car’s screen would claim I’d switched to FM, or whatever else I tried to switch to, and then the audiobook would keep playing. And playing. And playing. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the phone. It kept playing. And playing. And playing. I ultimately had to disconnect my phone from the car and let it sit for over a minute before I could reassert my own will about what I listened to in my car. ...more |
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Jul 04, 2023
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really liked it
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This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: probably. I could even se
This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: probably. I could even see myself continuing with it in audio. Audio Narration The narrator is Travis Baldree, who is also the author of the book. He’s apparently an experienced narrator, and his narration style worked well for me. I »å¾±»å²Ô’t really give much thought to his narration at all while I was listening to him, which for me is the best kind of narrator â€� the ones that fade into the background and allow me to just focus on the story. I have no complaints about any aspect of the narration. I was never confused about who was talking, and I never had trouble distinguishing between internal thoughts and dialogue. Maybe as a professional audiobook narrator, he was more aware of how to write his book so that the text would also help provide the necessary auditory clues for an audiobook listener. I have no idea since I wasn’t conscious of any of that while I listened, I was just focused on the story. Story The story is told from the first-person perspective of Viv, an orc who has been working as a sort of mercenary or adventurer. At the beginning of the story, she puts that life behind her and pursues a new career â€� that of a coffee shop owner in a city where its residents have never heard of coffee. This is a different sort of story, and maybe not a great choice for someone who’s in the mood for something high in action or who’s looking for an intricate plot, but I really enjoyed it. It’s definitely a character-driven book. There is a plot of course, and some action too, but it’s a relaxed and straight-forward story. There’s some romance, but it’s more subtle, at least in the first half. It doesn’t dominate the story and it »å¾±»å²Ô’t have any annoying romance tropes that got on my nerves. After about the first hour of listening, I was raising my eyebrows and asking myself if the entire book was going to be about building a coffee shop, but even by then I was already enjoying it pretty well. The characters are great. I liked Viv, but I also liked the secondary characters. Some of them had unique personalities and there were some whom I wanted to learn more about and spend more time with. I particularly liked Cal, and I really wanted to learn more about the chess guy whose name I can’t remember. I was surprised when the story ended about 60 minutes before the end of the audiobook. There was a short story at the end that’s set before the events of this book. I liked it, but not as much as the main book. I felt like the characters and motives needed to be fleshed out better to make it more enjoyable. This book stands alone perfectly well. There’s apparently a prequel due out later this year and I have no idea if more books are planned beyond that. I’d love to read more about Viv and the friends she made in this book, so a prequel isn’t as appealing to me, but I imagine I’d probably enjoy it anyway. ...more |
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liked it
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not set
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Sep 24, 2024
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| 3.61
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liked it
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Oct 03, 2018
not set
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Sep 24, 2024
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| 3.69
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Jan 06, 2024
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Nov 30, 2023
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| 3.62
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not set
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Nov 25, 2023
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| 4.05
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Nov 30, 2023
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Nov 24, 2023
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| 3.99
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liked it
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Nov 23, 2023
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Nov 23, 2023
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| 4.09
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liked it
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Nov 23, 2023
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Nov 07, 2023
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| 3.96
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liked it
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Apr 04, 2022
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Nov 05, 2023
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| 4.30
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really liked it
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Oct 29, 2023
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Oct 29, 2023
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| 4.07
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liked it
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Nov 07, 2023
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Sep 22, 2023
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| 3.47
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it was ok
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Oct 2023
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Sep 15, 2023
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| 3.67
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liked it
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Sep 22, 2023
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Sep 09, 2023
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| 4.09
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really liked it
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Sep 12, 2023
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Sep 02, 2023
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| 4.11
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really liked it
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Aug 31, 2023
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Aug 19, 2023
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| 4.05
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it was ok
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Aug 19, 2023
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Jul 30, 2023
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| 3.81
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it was ok
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Sep 09, 2023
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Jul 23, 2023
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| 4.01
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liked it
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Jul 29, 2023
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Jul 22, 2023
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| 4.10
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really liked it
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Jul 22, 2023
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Jul 04, 2023
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| 4.02
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liked it
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Jul 21, 2023
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Jul 04, 2023
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| 4.07
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really liked it
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Jul 04, 2023
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Jul 01, 2023
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