John

An emotional connection

Revisado: 04-23-22

I am so appreciative of the trigger warnings. They didn’t stop me from listening, I’m just glad for the opportunity to be prepared for difficult facts. While I can relate to much of Hannah’s story, as a white cis male, there’s much that I can only process intellectually. I also appreciate the non-American view of the world - my US-centric bubble needs deflation on occasion.

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esto le resultó útil a 20 personas

The life of the Harbinger of Death...

Revisado: 09-17-21

Usually stories about an incarnation of natural forces follow that incarnation. In this story, we're following the human employee of Death. It shows tragedy, pain, fear, love, joy, and hope.

The pacing is good, the chapters are bite-sized leading to easily listening in brief windows, or leading to a "just one more chapter" bingeing.

Narrator Peter Kenny gives life to the characters, with sufficient distinction in voices to be able to differentiate between them, and without them sounding like caricatures.

I highly recommend, with the caveat that this comes with a trigger warning. It includes contemplations of suicide, discussions of death, and some descriptions of traumatic experiences.

There are a number of what I find to be positive inclusions of LGBTQ representation throughout the novel, though the main character is not overtly LGBTQ.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Way too overproduced

Revisado: 08-23-21

The background music and sound effects make it nearly impossible to follow the story. I spent most of my time fearing the next distraction from the story. The voice acting is over-the-top.

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Not an audiobook, for sure.

Revisado: 02-20-20

Barely 15 minutes in, and the musical background is annoying and distracting from the speakers. Despite the cast of excellent actors, there's piss-poor production quality: too much attempt to make a TV show minus the video; the voices overlap far too much; ambient noises are far too distracting.

For someone looking for an audiobook, this is not enjoyable.

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Enjoyable but predictable

Revisado: 05-31-18

The overall plot is fairly predictable once you get to the major hook. It seems to have been obvious from its inception. The main character appeals to the modern day tech nerd/programmer. Narration was well done.

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Enjoyable fantasy growth & development story

Revisado: 10-11-17

The narration for this book was excellent, Nick Podehl did a good job presenting the characters, giving sufficient variation in the voices for clarity. Pacing is excellent.

The story is entertaining. The attention to the mechanics of magic in the world make it seem that the author may have spent a bit too much time playing Diablo or similar video games. He relies heavily on the trope of "main character was raised in seclusion so we learn about the world as he learns about the world."

Character development is entertaining, and not completely predicable. Most characters display a level of sarcastic wit, but there enough people playing the straight man.

I heartily approve of the unobtrusive way the author includes fluid sexuality for some characters without hitting us over the head with it.

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Horrible narration

Revisado: 08-16-17

I literally couldn't get a chapter into the book. I can't say if it's the editing or the narrator's performance, though I'd fault both. The length of gaps between every sentence make it the most unnatural reading I have ever heard from an Audible download. You might think that the narrator was taking a sip of tea between every sentence.

Do listen to the sample audio, and the his sentence breaks, and contemplate listening to those same breaks the entire book.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Fun sciency fiction

Revisado: 08-10-15

Character portrayals, both in witting and in presentation were excellent. The scientific explanations were just enough to lend credibility to the story without becoming boring.

The story contained enough drama to keep a listener engaged, and tension was kept up. Throughout, there's sufficient danger to not know for sure what the author will do to his characters.

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Fun story.

Revisado: 07-11-15

Excellent scifi, internally consistent story. A little heavy on the "scientists ignoring facts" though. Reader is weak in variation of voices, but has good cadence.

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Well done "man vs man" and "man vs other" story

Revisado: 11-30-14

The Dire Earth Cycle overall is a fairly well done version of the "man versus man" motif, using the setting of a post-apocalyptic Earth for exploring humanity's inhumanity to itself, human greed, and shortsightedness. Early on, the series has the feel of a zombie story, which it really isn't. Action sequences are well done.

This isn't a series you can pick up in the middle, and the time spent on the preceding novel is well worth the time. Character development takes time, but does not feel overly drawn out.

Simon's British accent is notable, but not distracting, which I consider a good thing. However, his ability to perform alternative accents is weak.

His reading pace is excellent. Pauses are presented perfectly for dramatic effect without being overdone. His overall speed of performance is just right.

Along with the weakness in accents, individual character voices are not often memorable. There is sufficient differentiation that you can tell when one character's dialog runs into another character's.

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