superstardrifter

An engaging listen with a great narrator!

Revisado: 01-28-25 El oyente recibió este título gratis

The Dream Traveller is the story of Girvyn, who is a teenage boy living in a world of druids and magic. What he doesn't know quite yet is that he, like his uncle, is a Dream Traveller, a group of people who can visit people's dreams, and manipulate their own. But more than just being a Dream Traveller, Girvyn can open portals to the dream realm and pull things into reality. There is only one other Traveller who can do this, a (bad) man named Crane who is planning on merging his nightmare realm with the real world. 

It's up to Girvyn to help stop him!

This was a light and quick listen. It's labelled as dark fantasy, but I didn't find it especially dark, personally. There was a lot of action though, and it was easy to just put on and listen to for hours while doing other things, so as an audiobook, I thought it was good. 

I didn't really like Girvyn a lot, though he did grow on me a little bit. I thought he was annoying, but since he is a teenager, he was written well enough to be annoying. I did like Elaya and Hazel, so they kept me invested in the story. There was some political shenanigans intermixed with the coming of age story as well, so that was interesting.  

What kept me listening most of all is that this book was narrated by Peter Kenny. A fantastic narration as always. All the characters had interesting voices and accents. 

This one got a little too infodumpy for me at times, but all told I had a good time with it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a solid coming of age story, or stories with magic systems built of dream manipulation. I had 3.5/5 stars of a good time with The Dream Traveller: Dark Rising. I may continue the series down the line, if I get a chance!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Arthur's Storyyyyy

Revisado: 10-15-24

So, as you can probably guess, this is the sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea. This time we see the story from Arthur's point of view, and we get to hear a little more of his past.

But most of all, we get more of that sweet, sweet found family. This time we add one more child to the family, a Yeti named David.

So, I listened to this one all in one go, just as I did with Cerulean Sea, and boy howdy did I love it, just as much as its predecessor. David was such an adorable addition to the family, and the way he just fit right in as if he was just meant to be there (he was). The rest of the kids, especially my favorites Chauncey and Lucy, remain the most adorable magical children of dubious origins ever.

I could squee about this book all day. Just... just read the book. Listen to the book.

I don't normally get too emotional over books, but I have to tell you that Daniel Henning doesn't just read this book, he *performs* this book and there was one part in particular where the performance he gave had me in tears just from the emotion he gave it. Gods above and below. Ugly crying.

I also immediately got some swag from the books. A plushie Chauncey (with a bellhop cap and all!) and a t-shirt. I couldn't not.

Y'all. I could listen to stories about this family forever. Even if nothing that exciting happens to them. A trip to the music store is interesting enough. Righteoussssssss.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A great addition to the series!

Revisado: 04-30-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This is the continuing story of Gabe, Heather, and their friends (and ....friends?) as they fight against the evil End that is coming. The homeland of the elves is especially in danger, and Gabe and friends find themselves helping one of their biggest enemies. Without spoiling the first books in the series, it's up to Gabe and his friends to shenanigans their way into saving the day, and maybe also the universe?

I really enjoy Gabe's sense of humor, and how Heather returns it. Their adventures together, while they get particularly dark at times, are lightened up by their quick wit.

This is the sort of audiobook that you can start listening to and before you know it you're 8 hours in and have done all your weekend chores in one day. It's narrated by the author, and like the previous books, he does a fantastic job with it. I think he's getting better and better each volume he narrates. 

I recommend the Ethereal Earth series if you like a chonky urban fantasy that doesn't feel so chonky when you get going with it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Magical School with a little Spice!

Revisado: 11-15-23

A Deadly Education is the story of Galadriel or just El who is a magic user studying at the Scholomance. Scholomance is a lot like it sounds, a magic school somewhat like Hogwarts, except that it seems to be the only magical school in the world and so children from all over the world go to it. Very much unlike Hogwarts, as the title suggests it's quite dangerous there and many children don't make it to graduation.

El is an outcast at school. She doesn't have any friends, she's just making her own way when all of a sudden one of the most popular kids at school befriends her out of nowhere, and many shenanigans are had.

I listened to the audiobook, since I had it already to go, and I really enjoyed it. I finished it in just a day and a half. The narrator, Anisha Dadia did a fantastic job and she really brought El to life for me, so it was really easy to stay immersed and listening.

I'd recommend a deadly education to anyone that likes a good magical school story that isn't all sunshine and rainbows.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Interesting Retelling of History

Revisado: 11-15-23

Solomon's Crown is a historical retelling of the lives, or I suppose the romantic entanglement of Phillip II of France and Richard I of England. It takes place mostly during France's war with Henry II (Richard's father). Obviously a few liberties were made with this one but who knows? There could definitely have been some shenanigans happening behind the scenes.

This story is told both in Richard and Phillip's point of view, and it was interesting to see the story unfold from both perspectives.

I listened to the audiobook of this one. The narrators, Ben Allen and Steve West did a fantastic job at bringing the characters to life.

All told, if you like a good historical retelling, or a M/M romance that takes place along actual history, then you should definitely get Solomon's Crown!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Entertaining Low Stakes Fantasy

Revisado: 03-04-22

This was quite an enjoyable low stakes fantasy novel about an orc who opens a coffee shop, and the friends that she makes along the way. It's the perfect listen for a chilly day, with a cup of hot coffee to sip from as you listen.

I enjoyed it from start to finish, and in this case, the author was the perfect narrator for the story!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Entertaining Low Stakes Fantasy

Revisado: 03-04-22

This was quite an enjoyable low stakes fantasy novel about an orc who opens a coffee shop, and the friends that she makes along the way. It's the perfect listen for a chilly day, with a cup of hot coffee to sip from as you listen.

I enjoyed it from start to finish, and in this case, the author was the perfect narrator for the story!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great set of stories in the series!

Revisado: 02-13-22 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This is a group of stories from The Ethereal Earth series, and inside there are stories that fall between Hero Forged and Fate Lashed, and stories that fall between Fate Lashed and Blight Marked. So, read those first, if possible!

Many of the stories follow Gabe and Heather, who are the main protagonists throughout the series, however there are a bunch of stories that follow the Knight, Leopold, and the minotaur, Dante. I really enjoyed seeing some things from the point of view of Leopold, as I've always thought that he's an interesting character.

Josh Erikson narrates this little book of short stories, just as he has narrated all of the Ethereal Earth series, and he's consistently done a great job with it! His narration has only gotten better and better in my opinion as the series has gone on.

So, all told, if you've enjoyed the Ethereal Earth series, you'll very likely enjoy Short Changed! You should definitely give it a listen!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A Good Listen!

Revisado: 04-08-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This story follows two characters, Leo and Nea, who are teenagers both with traumatic pasts. Leo is an escaped slave who finds himself apprenticed to a Vagabond, the ‘protectors of the land’. They go off in search of a lost weapon. Nea is also an escaped slave, a girl who has disguised herself as a boy and ends up going on an adventure with Cain, the famous Captain of the Royal Guard. They’re looking for Leo, or at least the group of men who are hunting for him. Then the shenanigans really start, like they do.

I liked Leo a lot as a character, and he was easy to cheer for. Even more, I liked Seiyariu, the vagabond he travels with. Seiyariu is full of all kinds of secrets that I wanted to learn more about as the book went on, which was right up my alley. To a lesser extent, I liked Nea and Cain. Nea is quite prejudiced against women, and so it takes her a long time to warm up to Cain, but as they travel and Nea sees what Cain is capable of, she comes to idolize her, a little.

Nea talks to herself in her head a lot. Leo does too, but not nearly as much. Leo is the sort of character that asks questions to prompt worldbuilding answers, but I didn’t find this as noticeably irritating as Nea’s constant self-deprecating inner monologue. There is a reason that she is so self-deprecating, and it’s understandable in the context of the book, I just wish that it was presented differently. It doesn’t help that in the audiobook, an effect is added to these bits, which makes them super noticeable.

This one took me a while to really get into. It starts off rather slow, and the timeline between the two characters also seems to run at different rates in the beginning which took a little getting used to. The timeline of events seemed skewed between Nea and Leo, and it was a little confusing. However, the second half of the story, especially when Leo and Nea come together again, was much more immersive and flowed really well. I enjoyed the second half much more than the first. It gets pretty emotional nearer to the end, which had me a little misty-eyed after so many hours of bonding with the characters. Many of these characters have pasts full of abuse, sexual abuse, thoughts of/attempts at suicide, and other unpleasantness. The unpleasantness was fairly vague, but still, if these sorts of things are problematic for you, proceed with caution.

As an audiobook, I thought it was very well done. It is narrated by Vic Mignogna, which admittedly was part of the thing that intrigued me about it. I don’t always watch my anime dubbed, but FMA was one of the ones that I watched (and enjoyed) both dubbed and subbed, and so I was interested to see what this narration would be like. Admittedly, it does listen like ‘Edward Elric tells you a story’ from time to time, so that was alright. ^_^

All told, I liked this one and found it entertaining, if a little slow at times, in the beginning, but I thought that the last half made up for it. It was a good book for putting on and getting some work done. I’d recommend this one to people who like a coming of age story, or a master-and-apprentice story. 3.5/5 stars!~

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

An interesting mythological romp!

Revisado: 01-28-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This story follows, for the most part, a goddess who is trapped in a mortal dryad’s body. We’re not given her name, at first, but we are given hints as to who she is. I knew almost right away, but I’m a giant mythology nerd. I won’t spoil it for you, either way. ^_^

The goddess wakes up in Niflheim with no clear memory of what happened, but knows that she must have answered this dryad’s prayer and is now in her body. Gods who take on mortal forms like this are known as Wyrd, and given her… unique circumstances, it’s up to her to help defeat the man who has declared himself Niflheim’s ruler.

This was an interesting story that followed the goddess in the first person, which was rather interesting since she has another personality speaking in her head as well. It also includes several interludes in the third person from the POV of several of the other characters, which puts a lot of the story that the protagonist can’t really see together. It was a great way to see what was happening overall.

I liked the story, but at times I found it a little confusing, especially in the beginning. I had a hard time figuring out some of the characters’ motivations or their importance to the plot at times, but by the halfway mark I was pretty immersed. The world is an interesting one, as it mixes together (mostly) Norse and Greek mythology, with details like Hades and Hel being in the same world. There are three major races outside of the gods and the Wyrd (or, I think it’s possible for any of the three of them to become a Wyrd, I’m a little vague on that one), what are basically Dryads, Humans, and then a third race known as the Dharkan, which are a race of men who burn in the sun, seem to control ice, feed off the energy of other people, and are generally reviled in the world, being called Wraiths.

The goddess meets a Dharkan over the course of her adventure, and for some reason that neither of them really knows, they are drawn to each other. He helps her here and there, and I really enjoyed the mysteriousness of his character, and how the goddess (and her host) are so drawn to him. It was one of my favorite parts of this story.

The narrator, Sarah Kempton, did a fantastic job with this one. It was very easy to just turn this one on and listen to it for hours while doing things like working or painting. She has a lovely voice to listen to, to begin with, but really did great giving all the characters a different voice.

All told, I liked this one quite a lot, and hopefully, the following books in the series become audiobooks as well, because this one was very entertaining and I would like to listen to more!

This review is based on a review copy. Opinions are my own.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona