Alex

Neat ideas, mediocre execution

Revisado: 04-05-23

The book starts off with some interesting premises and fun world building, but it comes at the expense of plot for the first half. Flashbacks and telling over showing mean very little present tense action occurs in the first half. But then when the plot does get going, it just has no natural momentum. People are in one room, then another room, then another room. Nothing naturally moving or building from one scene to the next. And then it just sort of stops. Info dump, one last pointless twist, and the end. It felt like the work of a first time novelist.

And the narrator made some bizarre voice choices in this one. She also has a habit of pronouncing the "g" at the end of a word like "k" and "d" like "t," which became more grating as it went on.

The whole thing just feels rushed. The book, the audiobook, they both need more work off the page.

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An essay masquerading as a novel

Revisado: 03-14-22

I really wanted to like this. I heard good things, it won some nice awards. I've been looking to diversify my reading list. I went in with high hopes. But about 2 hours in it became clear it was going to be a disappointment. This just isn't a novel. It was crowbarred into the structure of a novel, but that's not what the story is. This is an essay that the author didn't think people would read unless it was dressed up and disguised as a novel. It comes through in so many ways, from a teenager spouting wise and insightful observations about the world and her own community out of nowhere to the gratuitous lectures just scatted about the place. The plot is just an afterthought. An excuse to put the character into situations where she can deliver another paragraph of the essay. And it's a shame, because when the author seems to forget to be pedantic, there are some really great passages in here. It's not bad writing. It's very good. It's just that this story isn't meant to be this kind of story.

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Delightful in every way

Revisado: 01-23-20

This is sushi a joy to listen to. Stephen Fry approaches the material with real appreciation and respect, but also with playfulness and his characteristic cheekiness. He makes old stories fresh again, and he has one of the best reading voices around. It's a real treat.

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Short and quiet

Revisado: 11-21-19

A lot was made of this as Saunders' first novel, but it's more a novella cut up by a curation of quotes. There are very beautiful segments, and it's interesting. Hardly a novel. And so much of it is read too quietly to hear if your doing literally anything at all other than listening to it at full blast.

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Good story, bad narrator

Revisado: 09-15-19

This is one of those times when the narrator really takes away from the story. He has no presence, no sense of timing, no real quality to his voice at all. He sounds like a 15 year old doing voices for a DnD session, and every once in a while he decides a character in a fantasy novel is from Long Island. I nearly gave up on the book, but the story really picks up a few hours in. worth slogging through a bad narrator, but only just.

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The downside of audiobooks

Revisado: 12-02-15

The narrator tries for dramatic but ends up just doing a goofy Transylvanian. Ruins it.

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The weak link is the narrator.

Revisado: 03-23-15

Fitzgerald did an incredible amount of research for this. He puts it together well, he's as respectful and measured as he can be here. It is a great cultural history and examination. The only weak link is Smalley's narration. On his podcast he's effective and articulate. Reading a prepared work, he is at times stilted and clumsy. He outright pronounces a few words just plain wrong, and he continues to do so throughout the work. It can be a bit distracting.

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