Jake L.

A Slow Build to Underwhelming Finish

Revisado: 04-17-25

Cath Lauria has good bones framing Terror World—with thought-out and unique characters and scenes that nail the splatter horror built into Zombicide—but fumbles with delivering on the premise. The limited cast and the overarching mystery tying the plot together takes away from the potential in the Invader spin-off. The mutant Xenos are teased in the opening chapters but don’t make their appearance until the tail-end of Act 2, and Act 3 spends more time examining Invader’s concepts and playing with their repercussions than landing the monster horde adventure thriller Zombicide as an IP promises.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Waste of good prose

Revisado: 06-11-24

Get an actual narrator for audiobooks, or at the very least, get shorter titles to test the virtual voice on it. This thing felt like reading a textbook.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Altogether Decent Creature Feature, Needs Room to Breathe

Revisado: 07-17-23

Well-paced and well-acted, Catchters works on tried and true storytelling techniques but can’t shake off character writing that is, at best, rough around the edges.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Timothy Watson and Mike Brooks NAIL the Lion’s return

Revisado: 06-15-23

Much like how Gotrek wandered out of the Chaos Realms, the Lion’s return to the Imperium is appropriate, confusing, and heartbreaking. With Mike’s prose and Tim’s HUGE range, the plot wastes no time getting the Lord of the First up to speed and on to task, rediscovering as much about himself as he discovers about the dark millennium ten-thousand years after the Heresy and Caliban’s destruction—and we FINALLY put a capstone on that mystery that’s been plaguing 40K since 3rd Edition. Anybody that’s familiar with the Arks of Omen events won’t waste their time, either, as the book is set well before the climactic events in Book V, showing how the Lion returned to the Imperium and how he gathered the first of the Risen to join him. I can’t recommend this enough, even if you’re not an Astartes fan, the storytelling here is fantastic.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

One of the Weaker Books

Revisado: 05-09-23

A Savage Breed has all the No-holds-barred violence, unsettling horror, and pitch-black humor as the previous titles in DHP’s lineup. The scope, however, is much narrower, making it something more akin to a stage play than an epic. The first acts are tightly paced and waste no time getting to the story’s thrust, but then I get the impression Mr. Harrison rushed through the final climax; more than a few plot threads go unresolved or are abruptly cut off without any sense of closure, and the final battle is deceptively truncated. Altogether an enjoyable listen, but not nearly as impactful as the titles that came before it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Flashman 40K (Somewhat)

Revisado: 04-20-23

Sandy Mitchell Carrie’s one of the single greatest installments of British fiction into one of the most influential settings to ever come out of the Isles in the last sixty years. While the humor is more subdued compared to the scandalous escapades of Sir Harry Flashman’s uproarious memoirs, Ciaphas Cain’s tumultuous first adventure with the 597th Vahallans is as entertaining and engaging as the seminal piece of literature expertly tailored by George MacDonald Fraser.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Absolutely fantastic

Revisado: 01-26-23

Anspach and Chaney’s latest entry in the zany screwball action fest Wayward Galaxy series closes out plot threads laid out in the last episode with masterful grace and expert precision, all told by the dulcet mastermind R. C. Bray and his colorful collection of voices for the characters. Although, his Arnie impression needs a little work.

Regardless! I hotly anticipated book 6 when, not if, it comes around the corner.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Blitzed it in three days

Revisado: 10-01-22

This is the first title from Brian Graham Jones I’ve read, and if My Heart Is A Chainsaw is any indication, he’s well on his way at becoming a master storyteller. Despite wearing its influences on its sleeve and tipsy-turning plot, I breezed through the book in a few days without losing a beat once the tape started rolling.
Horror stories are a mixed bag on audio; much of what you feel during the thriller chase and death sequences stem from your quiet concentration required to read across one page to the next. Cara Gee gives a phenomenal performance thankfully, her delivery ranges from blunt to tentative to furious and mortified as the plot goes on.
A fantastic mystery-thriller for our coming Halloween season.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An Improvement By Inches

Revisado: 03-27-21

On a whim, I bought both this book and it’s prequel Fury From the Tomb from the recommended feed after finishing another horror western. I have to say, both titles are terribly disappointing.

For a horror story, there’s not a lot of actual horror or anything horrifying going on. Blood and guts and grizzly deaths are abundant—literally, in two cases—but there’s nothing I would peg as horrifying. The plot leads you in one direction for a good long while, with a handful of startling twists that did in fact throw me for a loop. The quality of storytelling is a remarkable jump from Fury’s scatter-shot transition between plot points.

However, just when the finish is in sight, the story yanks the reins and you dive headlong into something completely out of left field and stomps on the progress across the first and second acts. Which is the death-knell for a supposed creature-feature, not even the titular Beast’s reveal is underwhelming and the reveal is as predictable as the heartbreak it’s supposed to compel into the audience.

There is the silver lining in Nick Landrun, both here and with the first book. He breathes tragedy and innocence and charisma into all of the cast that is sullied by the book’s conclusion. Given the lackluster finish, it’s mind-boggling how a narrator of Nick’s caliber could be attached to such a blunder of a title.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Fantastic Build-Up, Sub-Par Payoff

Revisado: 03-26-21

It’s rare that I write a review for titles, the star ratings do a decent enough job communicating quality and the samples have a good feel for the overall performance. That being said: this book is a lot of incredibly interesting set up for very disappointing finish. It’s billed as a horror western but it’s hardly scarier than the Haunted Mansion. There’s lots of viscera and creepy imagery, but nothing outright terrifying.

Nick Landrun is the saving grace here, though, his narration is impeccable and he really tries his best to bring you into the scene but with the quality of the storytelling, he’s making a house of cards.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona