Barely Audible

Outstanding

Revisado: 07-17-21

Only minor complaint is that this is only half the book, but on the merits of its own story, it's outstanding.

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A total lack of care

Revisado: 10-11-20

I'm starting to wonder if spending more time and effort on your cover than your story is just an entire genre now. I hate being mean in reviews, and I try to get indie titles as they're recommended to me, but this stretches that goodwill.

The actual plot is...whatever. Mostly inoffensive. Marin wants to become the first girl who graduates fighter person school, but also now she has magic and maybe she's in love. Like I said, it's whatever. Not exactly treading new ground. But the writing is what stands out as awful. It's a word salad, if that salad was a potato salad season by nothing but miracle whip. It is apparent from the first chapter that no editor ever touched this. The author pumped out a first draft, well, half a first draft, and said good enough and "published".

Fair play to the narrator too, but you can hear them stumble over sentences that needed to be edited. It's not their fault. The fault comes from whatever is going on here. It's under five hours, so it's not even novel length, and the authors library is just a massive collection of genre of the month stories.

And this is where I develop trust issues. If you're writing a million "books" without putting any care into them, why should we care? You get a handful of friends to give you some positive feedback and then it's right back to churning out half baked garbage to try and make quick buck after quick buck. But at least the cover is pretty. Something we have an entire phrase for.

I'm so done with this. I want to support independent authors, but I'd much rather have a story written with passion and care that was thought out and edited than just whoever can make the prettiest cover. Please try. If you're a YA, Reverse Harem, Sci Fi, Shifter, Paranormal Romance author who puts out 20 first drafts a year, maybe take a break and learn how to write one genre well, spend some of that cover art money on an editor, and focus on writing just a handful of good books instead.

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Thoughtful

Revisado: 10-05-20

This is an odd for me, in a way it reminded me at least on the surface as a less edgy Darksiders. Which is a good thing, I promise. It's definitely a lot more nuanced.

Where it's odd for me is how it approaches some basic philosophical questions, and ultimately if even the answers that are sought are even worth finding. Typically in reviews I try to be as spoiler free as possible, but for the sake of this I have to point one minor thing out. This is an apocalypse tale, and it's the biblical variety. Everyone but death has gone forth, and a lone archangel has a last ditch effort to find someone who understands mercy in order to stave off death. And they have 100 years to do it.

Now, I understand what the author was going for, and there's much more to the story than that. There's also questions of what it means to compromise and if our protagonist can be corrupted in the pursuit of doing the right thing. But even from a central conceit, there's a bigger question that can applied to our own lives: Is it all worth saving?

To be fair, in the story a lot of what has gone wrong with the world can be chalked up to the other horsemen of the apocalypse, but not entirely. They've certainly pushed things in a certain direction, but humanity still has free will. But consider the implications with me. If you managed to find just a single good person, does that make the case for the rest of humanity? And if not, what does that say for the one? At what point is hope just for the individual and not for everyone else?

Overall this was a thoughtfully paced, slower title that took it's time to explore the protagonists desires, and if you're looking for a small ray of hope in a very bleak time, this might be one to consider.

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OH SHI-

Revisado: 10-05-20

Bang up job. Heartbreaking. Heroic. If you're going to wind down a series, this is how you do it.

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More action oriented

Revisado: 06-18-20

This isn't exactly a departure, but definitely an evolution for the series. The full cast is interesting, just as it is to hear Whitton Frank perform what was a side character in the last book as the main character for an entire audiobook,

In this installment, an elf who trained the series main character is given the spotlight for a one off, which gives the series some much needed breathing room. Chalsarda is presented as a complex character full of pain and hurt, and someone who is not prepared to deal with her past even as it comes crashing down through her front door. The change is perspective also gives this book a change in tone, though the narrative is still undeniably part of the larger series. While there are spots of introspection, the pace moves at a breakneck speed and the sense of danger is present throughout, as Chalsarda and Ann contend with a trio of deadly bounty hunters, a familiar villain from the series lore, and a sadistic wizard.

The spotlight really belongs to the cast, however, whose unique voices make this feel like an old time radio drama in the best ways. The additional voice talent really made the characters shine and feel important.

A worthy addition to the series.

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A masterpiece

Revisado: 02-23-20

I'm not sure that my review really matters, but I will say this: This is the kind of writing that makes me want to be a better writer because I see what is possible.

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Holy (am I allowed to swear?) this narrator!

Revisado: 09-07-19

Richard K Morgan is one of my favorite sci-fi authors and this book is no exception. It might not be my favorite, but when you're this prolific and write as many solid titles as he has, not all of them can be at the top.

The real surprise here is Colin Mace. I'd put this guy at the top of my list if I needed to hire someone with this style of narration. He absolutely crushed it, fantastic work. My only complaint, minor as it may be, is that whoever edited the audio left in all the pops and breaths, but unless Colin edited his own work I'm not holding that against him. I actively looked for books he narrated after this, he's that good.

I hate to do this, but if not now, when? I have to put a caveat in here about Morgan's weakness. It's become a joke amongst some of my friends who also enjoy his work. I know at least a dozen people who agree with me on this, so here goes:

When it comes to dialogue, world building, plot, and just about everything else, Morgan gets top marks. When it comes to his sex scenes, I am this close to starting an online petition to stage a mass intervention. The only person I can think of who has written more cringey sex scenes is Morrissey, and he's right wing racist who once wrote the phrase "Bulbous salutation". I'm not alone in this, I know I'm not. I don't have anything constructive to add outside of that, it's just, well...

Mr. Morgan, a lot of your fans love you and your work, and we're all a little confused and concerned about your sex scenes. Please meditate on this at the very least. Thank you.

Otherwise, five stars all around!

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Jim Butcher's Spider-Man. What were you expecting?

Revisado: 09-07-19

It's exactly what you think it is, Jim Butcher had the chance to write Spider-Man and took it because of course he did. If you like Jim Butcher and Spider-Man, this one is easy.

I'd read the book a long time ago, and like a lot of people I'd been patiently waiting on an audiobook. While the story is great and makes clever use of the Marvel universe and Spider-Man's relationship to it, the narration was subpar. It wasn't awful, not by any stretch, but the voices often bled together and every woman sounded nearly the same. As a voice for Peter Parker, it was lacking. I'm not hung up on any one Petet Parker voice, I think everyone from Nicholas Hammond to Jake Johnson to Yuri Lowenthal and many others have been great and varied, but to me this was just a guy reading a Spider-Man story, it wasn't Spider-Man.

All that said, absolutely get this audiobook. The narration is a little flat, but not offensive and the story carries any of the other shortcomings by far.

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Wonderfully narrated

Revisado: 08-02-19

Griffin's Daughter doesn't necessarily do anything new with the genre of YA high fantasy, but I don't know that it needs to. It sets itself up as a trilogy from the outset, which gives the story a little bit of wiggle room in terms of the growth of the characters.

The story deals with some heavier themes for being in the YA genre (Such as the prospect of being sold as a concubine) but it handles them well, such as having the protagonist reject the idea and seek out her birth father.

I would have liked to see more character development and maybe the magic system worked on a bit more, but given that this is only the first book, I think there's time to see where everyone ends up and how they get there.

Whitton Frank does a remarkable job with the narration, effortlessly changing voices and keeping the reader engaged. Very quickly everyone feels unique and the weight of their words is felt. I could listen to Whitton narrate a dictionary.

Suggested for a younger crowd who are interested in adventure and romance, I'm looking forward to boole two.

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Outstanding

Revisado: 07-23-19

It's cosmic horror set in the old west, what's not to love? If I had any complaint at all, it's the town of Golgotha is filled with so many interesting characters and I would have liked more time exploring them, but that's what sequels are for, right?

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