OYENTE

straykatstudio

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  • 3
  • votos útiles
  • 26
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Entertaining, but still NSFW or kids

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-26-25

The reader mispronounced "machination". But at least there wasn't loud squelchy swallowing sounds like the first book. Good reading, in general.

Very clever plot and characters. Solid C+/B- for writing style.

I'd read a third book.

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R-rated sci-fi erotica

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-23-25

Not safe for kids. They should really have maturity ratings on books to avoid soccer mom minivan embarrassment. I wasn't expecting Sci Fi erotica. It was quite explicit, in both language and in sexual content. It felt like a nerdy teenage boy wrote out his fan fiction fantasy (the overly-virtuous blandly-perfect strong handsome male characters who rescue the emotionally insecure slutty female is a dead giveaway that the author is likely male). The main hypersexualized female character keeps losing her clothing through most of the story and jumps at the chance to pleasure the first hyper-masculine nice guy she meets on their very first date.

I couldn't stand that they didn't delete out the narrator's swallowing sounds. It was very loud.

The story was derivative (Harley Quinn/The Boys/Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), but it was definitely entertaining and had compelling characters. It was addictive and just unpredictable enough (not very, but it had some very clever surprises) that I finished it and blew off responsibilities one afternoon to do so. So that's something. Solid 3/5, but too trashy and juvenile to be more. Solid character arc, though.

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So imaginative

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-25-25

The wide ranges of tragedy and beauty keep me hooked. At times it's so dark I can't stand it, but then it comes together.

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Huh?

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-01-25

I did not really follow what was going on. It seemed pretty complicated. Not bad, just confusing.
Kinda interesting, though.

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Thrilling, depressing, fascinating, and huh??

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-29-24

I can't stand stories that rely on rational people not communicating at all rationally just to allow for an hour of posturing fighting scenes, after which they're somehow allowed to give very simple and crucial information to each other. Sure, the book would be shorter and we'd miss out of learning about the cool weapons and skills everyone has, and we'd miss the artfully-described fight scenes, but it seems more believable that two characters who literally want the same thing would give each other better clues about that at some point. These are smart, capable grownups, after all. Why do they ALL act like children?

Also, (spoiler alert for the rest)...



...why would the main character who risks everything to save the world (all worlds) then go and endanger them all over again?
And without leaving even so much as a note??

Love and fear make people stupid and violent, seems to be the takeaway from this story. Except for the always-accomodating and fairly restrained supportive minority characters, of course. Which is weird. Maybe they have more practice staying composed under stress than the main-character white people who are clearly often the cause of such stress-training for said non-whites (that part was believable).

But seriously, leave a freakin' note, Abby. Like maybe about how to close the door after her. And about the threat remaining out there and how to prepare for it.

Ugh, these characters are so violent and annoying. How did none of them have better diplomacy and communication skills at this point in their careers?

And why does everyone loudly indulge in so much time-wasting emotional finger-pointing and judgement while in the middle of danger? Do people really do that? Actually, looking at politics and climate change and stuff, that's pretty accurate. That's a worse horror than all the monsters in the book. That people care more about covering their butts than about humanity's survival.

Ugh, this book wasn't fun. Fascinating, but... Now I need a comedy.

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Scary but gripping part 2

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-28-24

I might have nightmares tonight. This author is a master of horror.

Looking forward to book three. Well, and kind of dreading it, but that's partly the point of action/sci-fi/horror, so that's good, I guess.

I've never liked horror, but it does make you think about what kind of person you would be in different circumstances. How you would control your responses when the environment seems so out of control. This book makes me finally get the appeal of the horror genre.

The breathy occasional porn-voice narrator is still throwing me off, but she's usually pretty good except the weird villainess voice, I was less distracted by her voice this time.

One complaint: Guzman is pronounced Goozemahn. Not Guhz-man. Not like Guzzle. More like Goo. It's Spanish. I know literally 3 unrelated people with that last name. It's very common.

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Uncomfortable narration but interesting story

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-28-24

I almost stopped listening immediately. The narrator's voice was so uncomfortable. Like a porn star, or a husky 90's alternative band lead singer. When she narrates the main character she sounds good. Actually, she narrates other characters fine too, except maybe the villain lady. It's the actual narration voice that felt uncomfortable to me.

If you hang in there for a half hour, you get used to the breathy deep baby lady voice and can pay attention to the plot, which does eventually happen. It goes from a bit dull exposition to gripping action for the entire second half. I was hanging on every moment by then. I was ready to cancel my plans to find out what happened next.

It ends on quite the cliffhanger. I got sucked in and I would very much like to continue. It's a good story idea. Kinda horrific, but amazing. I have no idea how the story is going to resolve from the situation they left it in, but the author set it up for endless potential. I'm hooked.

I could totally see this becoming an awesome Hollywood B-movie or TV series. I would watch it. It has what it takes for that kind of action movie: clearly good vs clearly bad characters, athletic brilliant heroes who have impossibly amazing skills and are VERY ATTTRACTIVE (it was clarified many times) (at least for the white characters). Completely supportive and subordinate non-white sidekicks (they'd need to adjust the diversity around to avoid this cringy cliche). Mass destruction in exciting action scenes. This story is CGI waiting to happen.

I kinda liked it. It's got something there. Even the non-action scenes, like the villain getting drunk, made sense to the plot and character development, and I appreciated those moments of detail in that scene. The poignancy of careless self-destruction set up the next scene very well.

No one reacted perfectly to anything, which felt very human and relatable.

I don't know if I'd recommend reading it or not. Maybe if you're stuck in a car anyway, and it's free, and you can get through the first half hour. And if you like movies like The Core, or Rampage. Then yeah, for sure.

Warning after starting book 2 and looking up the author: The author is well-known for horror and is really good at describing and evoking it. Book 2 gets gory and scary. I have waking aphantasia, so it's okay now, but sleeping imagery. I'm a little worried I'll have nightmares, tbh. If you aren't into horror action, best not start or you'll get sucked in.

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Before Futurama...

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-25-24

Reading a 1959 book about the future says a lot about 1959. Women are still bossed around, emotionally weak, and objectivized like it's a civic duty; men still don't like to get help or directions, a man and woman should get married before living together, and they think atomic power is a big deal.
That said (and partly because of all that), this book is hilarious and fascinating, and the narrator captured the wit, absurdity, and power so well.

Futurama clearly borrowed a lot of themes from this book. Like, a LOT. Like the suicide booths. Even the Chinese colonizing Mars (and other things that I won't mention because the other things matter to the plot). It's fun to pick out what recent sci Fi story items were copied or inspired from this story: like a reverse easter-egg hunt.

A very enjoyable listen, I finished it in two days. Not so addictive that I put my life on hold or missed sleep to finish it, like other series. And not too heavy - I could multitask while listening. It was just a fun ride.

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Original yet timeless

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-24-24

I couldn't stop listening.

Amazing voice performances (of course). Cool sound effects and awesome music.

Sci fi's biggest strength is how it uses new technology and circumstances to more poignantly highlight eternal human nature. This nailed that.

The story felt so timeless: the unsuccessful everyman looking for a break, wrestling with his internal demons and shortcomings, and all the inevitable results from choices made. It felt like a movie from the 1940's, but with such an original and modern spin that makes it uniquely relevant both to our current times and to general human nature.

I don't want to give it away with anything more.
My only complaint (in as vague non-spoiler terms as I can make it) was the address at the end being so easily discoverable. Why would the characters make the choice to post it? Sure, it was necessary for the plot, but the implausability of that convenient detail kinda took me out of the story. A breadcrumb trail, maybe, I'd understand that, but not the end location offered up on a platter. I liked the tight writing, though.

I hope they make this into a movie and offer a good explanation of how the last destination address was identified (if they did, I might have missed it). And make it kinda noir-like and surreal, like old Hollywood. Or modern. It could get so many treatments. Comedy, horror, tragedy, surrealism, sci-fi, California slacker goofiness... It works on multiple levels.

Very satisfying story altogether. The whole unraveling and post-ending wrapup was just (chef's kiss) perfect.

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A perfect political satire for our silly extremist times

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-20-24

I loved this immediately, and kept loving it all the way to the end, which is past my bedtime because I enjoyed it so much that I listened to it all in one go. Couldn't "put it down."

Diego was such a great normal guy character. I loved his "okay." It's so often the perfect response to crazy, and the inflection and timing cracked me up.

If you're feeling stressed by the extremes of political and personal views these last 8 years (or 8000), and hyperbole and enmity as a substitute for real communication, this is kind of therapeutic. A fiction that reveals silly truths about the fictions we tell ourselves, and clears way for the connections and honesty that really matter.

Great reading, too. Nice accent work.

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