Paul W. Westermeyer

Excellent book, great listen!

Revisado: 02-17-25 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I've read this once before, NI enjoyed it then, but I've never been a huge fan of sci-fi, I prefer fantasy (Star Wars, btw, is fantasy in space, not sci-fi). The author reads the audiobook himself and he did an excellent job, IMO. I found the tale more engaging as an audiobook than in book format.

This is true sci-fi, hard sci-fi. There isn't really any magic, though there is some unexplained science (the "glamour" of one race, for example, and the FTL drives). But the focus of the tale is humanity dealing with the questions that arise from technological advancement. The world building is fairly solid, he's devised a plausible future universe.
That's important. His characters take actions that make sense and they have believable motivations that their actions are consistent with. One of the reasons I tend to dislike sci-fi, especially classic "hard" sci-fi like Asimov, Heinlein, or Star Trek, is that its writers understand science but not people. The stories are ultimately unbelievable because the people are unbelievable. Noah Chinn avoids that trap very well.

I really enjoy this and I am hoping he does the rest of the series as audiobooks. Considering my general dislike of sci-fi that is impressive!

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Great start to a great series

Revisado: 10-04-23

Finally! Thieves World has long deserved audiobook versions. I have just finished the first of the new Tantor audiobooks of the series, and I am extremely happy. They are very well done. Some differences in pronunciation from what i would have expected, but what i expected may not be "correct" and fantasy fans have to expect names and fantasy words to sound different from what they hear in their mind on occasion. 🙂 Most of us probably hear "Caronne", "Ranke", "Ilsig", or "S'Danzo" differently!
I am happy to say all 9 of the original tales appeared - I was a touch nervous that "The Secret of the Blue Star" ight have been left out. They did leave out the final essay, "The Making of Thieves' World" by Robert Lynn Asprin. That is too bad. But it is a minor issue.
_Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn_ has also been released, 2 weeks after the first volume, I hope they keep that schedule and release each volume 2 weeks apart, but the rest of the volumes are not yet available for preorder.
It's a good time to be a Thieves' World fan. Between this and the upcoming RPG it is nice to see the setting still getting interest. We saw some great stuff last time this happened, from 2002-2007 with the Irrune era and the Green Ronin RPG, I really hope things go at least that well this time. 🙂

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Extremely disappointing and political

Revisado: 01-02-23

This work was extremely bad. It is filled with unwarranted political attacks, teaches horrible lessons about Christmas, and is poorly written on top of all of that. I wish i had been warned about it. Only the second Audible book I have ever regretted purchasing.

Do not get or read this.

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Excellent Noir/Lovecraft pastiche

Revisado: 06-08-22

I wanted to try this series because I love Howard's Necromancer books so much. I'm not disappointed, it was an engaging and enjoyable read but it was very different from the Necromancer books, most notably missing their signature humor.
It's a fascinating but arch take on Lovecraft's works and legacy. As with most modern takes, it acknowledges his racism and Howard takes an arch dig at it with the Lovecraft of the title, a fictional descendent who is African-American and fully aware of how appalled Lovecraft would have been to discover his family's bloodline "corrupted" by African blood. Despite her disgust with Lovecraft's racism, she still enjoys his writings and is the book's expert on the Mythos.
The Carter of the title is a hard-boiled detective, the book is a self-aware genre mash-up of a noir detective story with a "Weird" tale. The book posits that Lovecraft's character, Carter was based on a real friend of the writer, and the book's carter is one of his descendants.
The chapter's are all plays on the titles of various Lovecraft short stories and the writer is excellent. Howard is great at characterization. I love the more ethical take on the Mythos, though the monsters stay monsters, unlike in Ruthanna Emrys' Innsmouth Legacy series, where the monsters become protagonists.
The book ends with a "twist" worthy of M. Night Shyamalan in both the good and the bad sense.
The best part of the work are the two main characters, who I liked spending time with - perhaps the least Lovecraft-like aspect of the work. :)
Some commenters complain the book is too overtly political and too obvious with an 'incel' villain. I don't agree with them but I have to acknowledge they have a slight point - Howard does lay the political commentary on a bit thick in parts. Since I agree with him, l however, I don't think it was overly excessive.
All in all an excellent example of how modern writers can work inspired by Lovecraft while avoiding the racism and classism that permeates his work so thoroughly.

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Ignorant Author

Revisado: 06-23-19

I suppose i should have googled this author before buying this book. I was shocked at how relatively ignorant the man was about the works he was reviewing, as well as his poor knowledge of RPG history.

Put simply, he's part of the 'old school' movement of folks regarding RPGs, he projects onto old school game products, and the Appendix N fantasy fiction, his own beliefs, needs, and egoisms, without regard to authorial intent or how people at the time actually played the games.

As other reviewers have mentioned, his reviews revolve around creating strawmen who somehow 'hate' classic sci-fi/fantasy (because it is too politically incorrect or features male protagonists) and then he encourages the reader to 'fight the power' and read the classics anyway. It's nonsense, none of these authors are 'condemned' by his mythical 'them' who are out to destroy fantasy and keep him from reading books about 'heroic' characters like himself.

And don't even get me started on his gaming philosophies, which are less objectionable morally but no less nonsensical.

I've long loved Appendix N in the 1e Dungeon's Master's Guide. In fact, when I wrote Knights of the Dinner Table's book review column I used Appendix N to choose most of the authors i reviewed for the column. I was hoping to learn something from this work, but there is no knowledge to be gained in this book, just frustrated ravings of someone who is desperately afraid the world has passed him by.

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I knew I would like this book, but I was surprised

Revisado: 01-15-16

If you could sum up The End of the Story in three words, what would they be?

I knew I would like this book, but I was surprised by how much I loved it. Highly recommended for all lovers of old school Weird Tales authors.

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Poor reader

Revisado: 02-19-14

Would you try another book from Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb and/or Marty Moran?

Yes, for Grubb and Novak, Maybe for Moran.

Would you be willing to try another one of Marty Moran’s performances?

Maybe, but only for a good story. He coughs and repeats himself suddenly in the middle of part 1. Very poor quality control. I wish they had used Kristin Kalbli, who read Grubb & Novak's Finder's Stone trilogy - she does a much better job then he does and is great as Alias (which she pronounces properly). He isn't horrific, just sub-par for this book. And the editing was poor.

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