Adam Miller

Great Narrator, interesting world, bad characters

Revisado: 10-20-21

Before anything else, the narrator knocked it out of the park. I adored her performance. It made listening to a story I didn't love a lot better.

The author has crafted a truly interesting world and in terms of prose, knocks it out of the park recreating the feel of what a magical Jane Austen novel might read like. I'm actually little in awe at the skill on display here.

That's as far as my praise can go, however as I found the two main characters we followed to be just the worst and made it a challenge to finish.

Zacharias was mostly flat and as far as protagonists go, fairly weak. By which I mean he is acted upon far more than he acts in the story. He's fairly passive and I didn't truly get a sense of him until three quarters through the story.

Then there's Pernella. She drove me up the wall. There's a clear case of Author's Pet going on her. Throughout the story she goes and does whatever she pleases, imposing herself and endangering others and then gets rewarded for it. She never truly earned anything yet has the whole world handed to her. She honestly came across as a bit of a sociopath, acknowledging that she's being selfish or doing wrong, but not actually feeling bad or even empathy for those she's hurting.

All of which was a shame because there are great concepts and ideas here and some genuine funny humor mixed in... but these characters yeesh.

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Best Mistborn Era 2 novel so far.

Revisado: 06-15-21

I like them all but this one is the best. Sanderson finally takes time to develop Steris and she's an absolute delight.

Wayne continues to be the standout character and it was nice to see his further development.

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Better than Mistborn Era 1

Revisado: 05-23-21

I said it. While I do think the overall premise of Mistborn loses something by being made more modern, the central characters are more interesting than either Vin or Elend ever were and while not as epic in scope, the more westerny feel of this one was a lot of fun.

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A good story but far from great.

Revisado: 04-01-21

Interesting story, useless protagonist, promising world. Plot is a bit scattered. 3 out of Five.

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Better than The Autobiography of Santa Claus

Revisado: 12-18-20

While the first book was fine, this book was an improvement in every possible way.

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A joy from beginning to end!

Revisado: 02-06-20

One of the best narrated, produced, and enjoyable reads available! Lit my imagination on fire!

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Too short.

Revisado: 12-29-19

Fantastic premise. Well written, poor execution, too short to adequately explore ideas. Let down ending.

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Great performance dumb story

Revisado: 10-16-19

Uninspired. Nothing here you wouldn't get in an episode of dateline. Narrator nailed it though.

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An enjoyable book with a problematic protagonist

Revisado: 07-15-19

On the whole I liked this book, though there are certain aspects that didn't quite work for me. The world building is in depth and interesting. There were a few times I found the exposition laying out the magic system and the world to be a bit heavy handed and dragged the book down a bit. That said I generally enjoyed the bits where the protagonist explored his powers.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the supporting characters. Lyra and Kuseg (not sure on the name spelling as this is an audio book to me) were particularly interesting and I enjoyed Arek's terrible humor immensely.

The main issue with the book for me is the protagonist, Daylen. I get that he's supposed to be a former bad guy trying to be good, but I can't help but feel that Shad, the author, went a little too far in making him a monster in his former life and didn't do quite enough leg work to justify him as the protagonist through most the book. The simple fact is that Daylen commits too many brutal and barbaric acts in his new life for me to ever truly root for him. It doesn't matter that he feels bad about them or that he did them to terrible people. It just feels like there's a disconnect, if he is a despicable person who has seen the error of his ways and is seeking redemption, then he shouldn't be so quick to deal death to others. The first time it happened I understood as he is reverting to his old ways, but each time it happens after that it is harder and harder to empathize

All that said, I found there to be some legitimately touching moments between him and the supporting characters toward the end and found his over all fate and conclusion to the novel to be satisfying.

I would definitely like to see more from this world now that so much of it has been explained and the story can just get moving. I also have hope that I may like Daylen more in another installment.

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