Morris

Slow start, don't really care what happens to hero

Revisado: 10-12-23

I really liked Resnick's other books, but this one spends the whole novel leaving everyone except a nebulous voice completely clueless on what is going on. Eddie Raven is largely ineffectual, and given that he's the guy we're supposed to care about, that's a major flaw. Also there's the "Master of Dreams" who is supposed to be his "arch-enemy", but we see him only briefly. And when we do see him, he's pretty ineffectual too. All in all, it's just a lackluster story.

The narrator does not help either. I remember one sentence which ended with "Raven said sardonically". The only way I knew the dialogue was supposed to be sardonic is because the author told me so. The narrator read that sentence like he was ordering lunch. His voice and delivery are pleasant without any annoying ticks or habits, though, so I did finish the book. He is good, but won't be elevated to list of the greats without some acting coaching.

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I enjoyed the series

Revisado: 02-19-23

I skipped the one soft porn scene and enjoyed the rest of the book. It ties up the loose ends of the series nicely. It’s not my all time favorite series, but a 4 out of 5 stars seems appropriate. I’ll be checking out the author’s other books after I peruse the comments for indications of more sex than story.

Kate Reading was awesome as always, although her Micah voice got on my nerves sometimes. Fortunately, Micah has limited dialogue. Otherwise, all the characters, including the men, were distinctive and consistent. Reading is the gold standard for readers as far as I am concerned. How many other readers can you listened to for over 100 hours straight?

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Good-ish book, finally getting to a conclusion

Revisado: 01-25-23

Ok, let's start off with bad: too much sex, too much talking about sex, too much thinking about sex, too much filler sex which does nothing to progress the story. I am not a prude either. I'm adult man with 8 kids, so I know how this stuff works. There was a point in this book, though, where I skipped about half a chapter because it devolved into romance erotic fiction. Not every interaction between Alisa and Leo needs to be sexual, and I swear I am sick of hearing about his wiener not working.

Abalardus is getting pretty old too, especially in the Me Too environment of today. His constantly raping Alisa's and Leo's minds when they both explicitly say no multiple times is cringy at best and criminal at worst.

Overall, the story was good if more than a bit formulaic. There were scenes pulled out of previous books and dressed just a bit differently. It reminded me of the old Dr. Who shows from the 70's which filmed the same rock quarry from different angles to pretend it was yet another rocky alien planet. I think I'd like for more character development over the course of 7 books.

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Good Story, not the best of the series

Revisado: 10-23-22

Other stories in the series had more tension and a more complex plot, but this was an enjoyable story with a bit more character development for the secondary characters. My one complaint is that it feels like Briggs is writing episodes for a television series and not really furthering the overall story. Maybe she’ll break out of the rut she’s dug herself into in the next book.

While I doubt Briggs will read this, I still would like to call out the fact that Mercy and Adam had sex 4 times in 2 days. We get it - werewolves are sex machines. It doesn’t add anything to the story, and since I’m listening to an audiobook, it’s kind of hard to skip past it without jumping too far.At this point, it feels overused anyway.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Not even Stephen Fry could save this

Revisado: 08-30-22

It is very rare that I don’t finish a book, but 3-4 chapters in, I didn’t care one bit about who Max Carrados was or why he was the main character. Stephen Fry is quite good. But even he couldn’t carry this mostly boring book.

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Worth a credit

Revisado: 08-30-22

It wasn’t the best story I have listened to, but it did make me want to listen to the last hour or so to find out how our heroes would beat the bad guy. Eoin Colfer does a great job at characterization, The 3 main characters are fully fleshed out, and I cared about what happened to them. That’s why the story gets 4 stars.

One star got deducted because the dialogue was way too similar to the Myth Inc books. If you substitute Oz for Vern and Skeeve for Squib, this book is basically Myth Inc goes to the bayou.

The narrator was just ok, though. There wasn’t a lot of difference between characters, and the accents sounded off to this native Southerner. It wasn’t as bad as the horrible accents you hear on tv. It’s just that if you’re able to tell where someone is from by their accent like I can, the narrator didn’t sound like anyone from Louisiana that I have known. That said, I can see why he has one several Audie awards.

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My Christmas Tradition

Revisado: 10-30-21

This is by far, hands down, my favorite performance of A Christmas Carol. I watch the George C. Scott movie on Christmas Eve every year, and I listen to Tim Curry read the unabridged story as I am driving around during the holidays. If you know Tim Curry only from Rocky Horror Picture Show, you will be amazed that the man reading this story is the same actor. This is not an over the top performance like RHPS but a nuanced portrayal of Scrooge's transformation in a single night. Dickens can be dull and obscure to audiences 200 years removed from the times he portrays, but Curry's reading brings life to the characters and makes them feel relevant. This is the standard by which all other renditions should be measured.

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Good companion to the book

Revisado: 09-15-21

This is a play, not a full, unabridged reading of the book by actors. As such, Card wrote a script which focused on Ender and stripped out several side plots. If you have not read the book, go read it first. This is not the place to begin Ender’s tale. If you have read the book, this is a fine way to bring the story alive.

I have one minor complaint: the music. It was mostly unnecessary and in places way too long because it interrupted the scene. I ended up skipping through most of it because it just wasn’t helping the story telling. In many ways, it distracted from the story quite significantly. That’s why I gave the performance 4 stars.

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Not as good as the first but worth a credit

Revisado: 06-08-21

The premise is more than a bit far fetched, even for a science fiction story, but what bugged me most was the characters not figuring out a basic logic problem when they’re supposed to be really good at solving puzzles. Saying more will ruin the plot. It was also an annoyance to have what was supposed to be an incredibly hard quest turn out to be fairly easy because of everyone had all the tools and information needed at their disposal. In murder mysteries, that’s called a “secret door”, and it ruins the story.

It sounds like I didn’t enjoy the book, but I did. It just wasn’t as good as the first book. It kept me interested as I listened straight through over the course of a weekend, and it made me laugh in several places. That’s why it gets 4 stars.

About the narrator, you have to know that I really dislike Wil Wheaton as an actor. I didn’t like him as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek Next Generation, and my opinion wasn’t improved by anything he’s done since. That said, he did a decent job in Ready Player One, and I couldn’t imagine listening to anyone else narrate this book. He’s not Luke Daniels, James Marsters, Scott Brick, Stephan Rudnicki, Michael Kramer, Stephen Fry, or Lorelei King, all of whom bring the book they’re reading to life. This is just Wheaton reading to you, and his voice and delivery are pleasant enough to listen to for 10-15 hours. So he gets 4 stars for narration because of that.

I have about 350 books in my library which I’ve read over the last 15 years or so, several, like the Dresden Files, I’ve listened to multiple times. The best recommendation I can give this book is that I will probably go back and listen to both books again in the future. There was enough going on that I’m sure a second reading will turn up stuff I missed the first time.

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Worth the credit

Revisado: 10-01-20

King’s performance is stellar as always. Her accents are quite believable, and it’s quite easy to tell who is talking. She is one of my favorite narrators.

The story felt both rushed and too slow. Rushed because all the action takes place in a week or so. Slow because at times there was nothing really happening. I’m really getting tired of authors writing soft porn. It has been a trend in Butcher’s Dresden series, and in this book it’s pretty much a gratuitous sex scene which makes every normal person feel inadequate compared to a werewolf and coyote with magical recuperative powers and raging libidos.

This book is largely a bridge between the quite tense action in the last book and where Mercy’s evolution seems to be heading. It is an enjoyable listen/read which at times can be hard to put down. I am glad, though, that I waited until the most recent book came out to read this one because it feels like things are getting more interesting for Mercy.

Overall: 5 stars because it kept my attention
Narrator: 5 stars because King is just that good
Story: 4 stars because I think it could have been improved in places.

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