OYENTE

F Sparverius

  • 15
  • opiniones
  • 15
  • votos útiles
  • 15
  • calificaciones

Know your audience

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-04-25

This story and its characters are formulaic and flat. The adventures and attitude are well crafted for a target audience of (I guess) twenty-something males, gamers, people who live in their heads and don't need details, believability, context, narrative purpose, and other things that enrich good writing (but some readers would regard as boring distractions from the action of the single thread of this narrative). Speaking as a grown-up with broader real-life experience, I recognize that this book is not meant for me. That's fine; not everyone has to like the same things.

As a genre, it's as if the author asked, What if a novel could be like a video game? The protagonist goes through his life like a video game, killing and seeking advancement. There are convenient technologies that allow each character to get killed and rejoin the game. People who worry about video games will notice that for all the violence and wanton killing, there is no element of pain, remorse, conscience, feeling, strain, tiredness, indecision, fear, hunger, loss, beauty, personal interactions, details, or emotion. Just a cartoon on an infinite loop.

It was the narrator who kept me engaged as long as I lasted, but unfortunately still not very far into the first book.

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disappointed fan

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-23-25

I have enjoyed the story up to chronicle 11, but Book 12 is a disappointment. These stories are hard to create, so I am always willing to overlook inconsistencies, but there are just too many internal contradictions this time that I can barely follow narrative with WHY DO THAT? distracting my attention.

You can always tell when the author of a favorite series is under pressure to turn out more volumes. This one seems hastily constructed. There is more dialog than description or felt experiences. The "historical stuff" seems as good as always, but the specifics don't seem important to the story, which is kindof horrible for all the characters we care about.

Sorely hoping the next installment is back to the high standard. The narrator is wonderful, as always.

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unlikeable in a deliberate way

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-15-24

These mystery stories are interesting enough to stick with, at least in small doses, but it feels like the author must be trying to make his characters unlikeable. Far from "larger than life," admirable characters, the inhabitants of these books are not even realistic people with flaws and strengths. The stories are told from the perspective of a character who is a writer with the same name and similar background as the author, but portrays him as a distastefully selfish and craven individual. Speaking in his own voice on one of the tapes, the author sounded the same, dropping in names of his other works way more than necessary. It is puzzling why anyone would write characters of a mystery-solving series who lack attachments, goals, or priorities, and don't even try to have a positive impact on their world.

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worthwhile premise, mediocre execution

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-31-24

The speculative fiction about what a modern nation state would be like in the Great Lakes region without European colonization is fascinating and thoughtful. The narrator clearly spent time practicing the pronunciation of non-English words because they flow smoothly in the storytelling.

Setting up the modern Native American society as the context for a mystery novel allows an interesting view of restorative justice. Unfortunately, the actual mystery is obvious to the reader for most of the book and it was frustrating how long it took for the characters to figure it out.

Much of the novel is structured as a journey, both externally in the plot and internally in the main character. The story is not very strong; hardly anything happens. Yes, there are events and plot points, but almost the entire book is dialog or internal to the mind of the characters. I was not looking for an "action thriller" at all, far from it, but as I listened and visualized the story, it was almost always just people talking or thinking. No sections or descriptions of people doing things that would engage the reader a lot more. I never felt like I was experiencing the story through the speaker.

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Intriguing, but also annoying

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 07-24-24

The homage to Holmes and Watson is interesting, but what's confusing is: if an author is going to write a character with his own name and some true background, and tell the story in the first person, why on Earth would he make his character so whiny and unlikeable? I'm not thinking he should be a hero in his own eyes or anything, but a "real" person has more emotional range than one single, frustrated fixation. Can't he just be nice once in a while? Even to his own wife? is there anything in his life that gives him joy or satisfaction?

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worse than the first one

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-05-23

I tried book 2 to give this series a chance after how weak book 1 was, but I'm not going to finish it. As detective stories go, It might be about mediocre, but the storytelling is unbearable. The only descriptions are of the car and the gratuitous gore, no details about rooms, light, smells, clothing, mood, food, temperature....nothing to pull the reader into the story.

The narrator is amazing. Great pacing, voices, diction, even with such unimaginative use of language in the text.

No third try for me. I'm giving up on this series.

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mystery lite

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-03-23

This detective story was barely worth the listen. It was short for a novel, the detectives encountered the culprit early in the story so the reader knew for a long time whodunnit, and the characters were single minded in their purpose in the story, including exposition roles. "Because: crazy." is hardly an interesting motive for a villain. The narrative is streamlined, focusing on the question-answer mystery solution, with very few elements of scene-setting, character development, or side stories, though there were some brief examples.

The author uses an unimaginative writing style, with the same sentence structure over and over, making the listen very boring. 'Glancing over at the passenger seat, he picked up the package. Approaching the door, he went in. Looking around the room, he saw the desk.... ' No variety in the use of language to engage the ear or register as a memorable turn of phrase.

The Norfolk broads have the potential to be a strong story element, and the author must be familiar with that region, but they only come in for geography and location. Where is the sense of what it feels like to live there, the people, the pace, the weather, the culture, the visual appearance, the landscape, the history?

The narrator pretty much saved this book. The reading and voices were excellent: clear, distinctive, and with nice accents and perfect timing. The speaker did the best he could to make the repetitive sentences flow.

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not up to the same level as the previous books

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 07-11-23

This one is not Lovesey's best Peter Diamond. The storytelling is not engaging, with lots of useless dialog. The Peter Diamond character is not even present for most of the book.

The insights into chamber music are memorable, but the crimes and investigations are really weak.

The narrator is an unfortunate change after I have gotten used to Simon Prebble's voices for the characters.

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intriguing but shallow

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 06-02-22

I'm having one of those times when I get into a book and cannot for the life of me figure out what so many other people saw in it. I don't mean to rain on anyone else's parade if they enjoyed the book, but I just don't share the "great storytelling" and "quality writing" reactions.

The story is sort of okay-plus. Holds the attention, flows well. Yes, the animal cruelty was a terrible surprise and I had to skip some chapters, but even that is a cliche about the youth of a serial killer.

As for the quality of the writing, the perspective switches from first to third person often, usually within a paragraph. There are very few sensory descriptions and the emotions are shallow.

The concept is intriguing and the story passes the time, but this is not a book that becomes part of you.

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good story but fantastic performance

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-16-22

For me this was a good detective story - not great or even particularly memorable. I never doubted that I would finish it yet I could put it down and set it aside at any page. But the performance by Robert Glenister made for wonderful entertainment. It was like like what I imagine an old time radio show must have been like. The listener still gets to create the story in their imagination, but the voices, dialects, and expression of detail that the narrator put in really made it come to life.

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