Sean Bird

It’s fine

Revisado: 03-19-25

This was recommended to me as a fan of The Expanse and Mass Effect, and broadly speaking I get why that comparison exists.

However, unlike those franchises, the characters here behave in juvenile ways that seem more meant to generate tension than to be representative of a real human character. Rake, for instance is this experienced soldier but often behaves like a little girl when the plot needs her to. Also Kavalon ends up being this sort of Wesley Crusher type savant who you just know will luck his way through events.

Overall it’s a fun read with excellent reading, but it’s held back by characters and plot who don’t flow as well as the best of the genre.

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Enjoyable — Looking Forward to the Rest

Revisado: 04-07-22

I enjoyed this book but I suspect my tempered response will need to be revised after books 2 and 3. As always, Abraham’s writing is beautiful in many places. However Kithamar itself is a fairly standard fantasy city that could fit just as easily in Mistborn, Gentleman Bastards, etc…and the antagonist similarly echoes many other series—I have to wonder if I’ll feel differently after seeing these events from other perspectives. I did feel Alys’ emotional arc in particular was a very rewarding story.

What I did NOT enjoy was the reader. At best she does enunciate clearly, but she varies her voice patterns more of her own preference than in response to the content of the book itself. It’s like she had a deck of cards labeled with moods, and she drew them randomly as she read. And at her worst she opted for this nasally, annoyed inflection that was fine for moments where, say, Alys was disgusted by something, but this same disgusted tone was often just slipped into in the middle of a descriptive passage. I was often confused by her choices.

So while I think I’ll grow to love this book more after books 2 & 3 help me better appreciate the foreshadowing that is surely all over the place, I also dread the idea that I’ll have to sit through this mediocre reader again.

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Masterful Reading

Revisado: 05-14-20

While Roth's stream of consciousness style is not my favorite... the novel is powerful both as an immigrant perspective, and as a psychological exploration of young David's experiences growing up in a violent world. But what really made it for me was the masterful reading... handing numerous dialects and the sing-song rhythms of the Torah reading with unmatched skill. Apparently the author consulted with them to get the pronunciations correct and it shows.

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I love this book, but Gyllenhaal is sleepy

Revisado: 02-27-20

While I do not think good readers have to necessarily alter their voice overmuch to tell a story well, Gyllenhaal barely gives any emotion in his reading. During the climactic argument in ch. 7 between Gatsby and Tom, Gyllenhaal makes the combatants almost sound almost bored. I mean, how do you say, "he looks as if he had killed a man" (p. 134) in such an offhand fashion.

To his credit, he does read at a great pace--neither too slow nor too fast--and he enunciates very clearly, making it very easy to listen in the car. I simply wish he didn't read in such a monotone.

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Masterful Reading

Revisado: 04-10-18

Would you consider the audio edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Signature Performance by Elijah Wood to be better than the print version?

Wood's reading makes Jim go from being a little frustrating to decipher to a vivid and intelligent man with tremendous wisdom despite his lack of education.

Which character – as performed by Elijah Wood – was your favorite?

Jim--he is so wise (despite his lack of education), and so kind, and so selfless. And Wood's performance, particularly when Jim cries while missing his wife and children, is very moving and real.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

In the final chapters, Tom's voice sounds coldly out of touch and entitled--contrasted against Jim's compassionate voice in this sequence you feel even more angered and frustrated with the way the boys play with Jim rather than free him outright.

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