Z. Richardson

Tries to Do Too Much

Revisado: 04-23-25

More farce than homage, but it's neither a compelling Austen-like nor particularly funny. More thriller than murder mystery, but the puzzle is lame, and the investigation of it worse. The early chapters showed some promise, but listening becomes a chore by the end. Honestly, it feels like nothing so much as a middling Bridgerton fanfiction.

Narrator's nice, so there's that. And the Mary joke was amusing until the book beat you over the head with it.

I'm not sure if I can get my credit back for this one because I picked it up in a 2-for-1 sale, but I'd like to.

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Fails to Deliver

Revisado: 04-11-25

Five books for a "payoff" that's more holding pattern than resolution. Of course there is another cycle planned, so we don't expect all of the loose threads to be tied up, but this doesn't even feel like a proper end to a book, let alone an arc. Most characters are denied natural and satisfying conclusions but get shoehorned into conclusions that feel like they tick the boxes on an outline from two decades ago (with a few hasty licks of paint applied to try to hide their age and bring them up to date).

Sanderson's writing by committee approach is also starting to show. He may "write every word," but it's clear that there are too many cooks in this kitchen as each plot gets more rote and systematic and the characters (even as they "develop") grow thinner, less dynamic, more one note with each entry. The more entwined the series becomes with the Cosmere, the less organic it feels. Worse, his teams of sensitivity and accuracy readers have polished all of the grit out of the characters and left only smooth-faced, LLC-approved wax dolls regurgitating dialogue that the free version of ChatGPT might have generated. Character interactions are both excessively pointed and utterly tepid, pushing the constipated plot along by force of will.

For all its moving parts, or maybe because of them, book 5 is so static, bloated, and unfocused, so stuffed with flavorless stuff that I think I'm done with the series and maybe the author.

Narrators are still good. *shrug*

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Jarring Anachronisms Aside, Pure Hilarity

Revisado: 02-20-22

I knew it was supposed to be a funny book, but I had no idea the hilarity would "keep" all these decades later. I literally chuckled and laughed aloud at several points.

There was one casual racial epithet that really took me out of the book for a minute, but other than that the satirical misadeventures of three fairly horrible hypocrites (and their dog) are pure fun all the way through.

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Sticks the Landing

Revisado: 12-20-21

So many fantasy series can't pay off their potential. So many have characters twist for no apparent reason or give 11th hour retcons to established systems and histories to get the ending the author wants. Often, these changes cheapen or even outright ruin the series in retrospect.

Verus doesn't do any of these things. Characters stay true up to the end. Solutions to problems fit within the established "lore". And yet, Risen manages to deliver an ending that is satisfying without being saccharine and pays off plot points without being completely predictable.

No doubt one of the big streaming services will pick it up and destroy it, but as things stand, as a book series, Verus delivers from first to last and sticks the landing.

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Just... Dumb

Revisado: 08-02-21

Growing up, this arc was legendary, not the least for the effect it had on the Spiderman comics and cartoons. I guess I built it up too much in my mind, because when I finally listened through it, I was shocked at how vapid the actual story was. It felt like someone had recorded their child playing with a basket of Marvel toys then hired a team of voice actors to bring it to life.

Secret Wars is probably more enjoyable in its original form--how could it be worse?--but illustrations can't completely redeem a story that bad.

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Interesting

Revisado: 04-08-21

I couldn't know whether the burgling techniques in the story are legit or mumbo jumbo, but they are pretty interesting and seem to check out. The story is interesting, featuring a skilled protagonist who is not, thank goodness, overpowered. Events are logical and yet surprising. The neding is a bit convenient, but it doesn't ruin the rest of the story for me.

A very interesting little novel.

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Sweet and a Little Bland

Revisado: 04-03-21

Starts off with a bit of action and an intriguing mystery, but the more that's explained, the less interesting things get. In the end, the stakes are so low that it's hard to feel anxious about tmhow things will turn out. Sweet, and thankfully not trashy, but not particularly compelling either.

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Massive Letdown

Revisado: 03-24-21

I guess the draw here is that it's "timely." The book name-drops Covid, Trump, and BLM, which is kind of interesting if only for the novelty of seeing recent and familiar history as the backdrop for someone else's personal drama. The problem is, as time passes, the gimmick will lose its edge, and all you'l be left with is the book.

I enjoyed previous Lincoln Lawyers, and loved the first twelve or so Bosch books. Bloodwork and the Raven were good too. Sure they started to drag or run together after a while, but how many times can a retired but not retired cop beat the odds with everyone against him without the plots starting to feel familiar? It's been a while, but even at their lowest point, I don't remember any of the other Connelly books being this tepid, by-the-numbers, or lifeless. I don't know if this one was rushed out to be "timely" or if the author is just losing his touch, but as a fan of previous works in the series, Law of Innocense a pretty big disappointment. The book is just flat and flatout uninteresting in spite of the high personal stakes for the protagonist. It's boring.

The reader is pretty awful too. He has 2.5 voices to work with--male, female, and extra gravel-y--and all of them sound like they live together in an ashtray. Any time there are more than two characters in a scene, it's pretty much impossible to tell who is supposed to be talking without dialogue tags. Sometimes it's tricky with just two. This lack of unique voices isn't as much of a problem you might think though, because the characters don't really have distinct personalities anyway. It's a cast of sock puppets, taking turns to deliver the necessary exposition so the book can meander its way to a perfunctory finish.

I honestly can't tell if the writing or the narration is more to blame, but either way, I'm about ready for a return. I had my misgivings at the outset, but I kept listening, thinking "It has to get better." Now though, with four hours left to go, I'm starting to think my commute would be better in silence. I just wish I could have the others back.

I hope it was worth it to whatever publisher counseled Connelly to bear down and push this one out, because I think this will be the last Connelly audiobook I buy.

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Forced Romance and Neuroses Abound

Revisado: 03-20-21

The author continues pushing to develop an improbable romance between the two protagonists. It's still not working because only one of them is likeable. It's like watching someone try to develop a convincing romance between a jellyfish and a bear.

The author tries to remedy this problem in Troubled Blood. Unfortunately, instead of making the jellyfish less unlikeable, "Galbraith" decided to make the bear act both stupid and irritable so the jellyfish would look less awful by comparison. The result is that the jellyfish is just as spineless and abrasive as ever, while the bear acts like a bit of a pig, until he doesn't. Yay?

This personal drama (exacerbated by the antics of the bear and jellyfish's former lovers--a psychotic cheetah and a sea cucumber, respectively) takes up way too much of the book and distracts from the mystery, which itself isn't all that great, being more of a muddle than a puzzle.

Also, there's a lot of astrology for some reason, which is both denigrated and then supported by characters in the book. I guess Galbraith was missing being able to write about magic and prophecy in this more grounded universe.

In the end, it's just okay. I'm kind of hoping the next one wraps things up so the author can move onto another series.

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Narrator's Great. Book's Just Okay.

Revisado: 01-28-21

I could listen to this narrator read from the phonebook, which is good, because this book is only slightly more compelling. The story continues the O'Sullivan Six Mysteries tradition of not really being a mystery at all. It just sort if meanders through a series of conversations in which everyone seems to be playing a really high stakes version of"Two Truths and a Lie." The main character blunders her way through these to eventually arrive at the truth, pausing occasionally to revel in contrived personal drama for variety's sake. It's not the worst mystery/romance I've sat through, but it's also just not great.

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