Ventsislav Gramatski

A great start to another series by Conn Iggulden!

Revisado: 12-28-22

I thoroughly enjoyed this, both the story and the narration. I've read the previous historical series by Mr. Iggulden - Emperor, Conqueror (an absolute favourite of mine) and Wars of the Roses, all of which have been excellent. This one does not disappoint either. Fast paced without feeling rushed, full of historical details without overwhelming even a reader unfamiliar with the subject, great characters and lots of drama.

A very solid narration as well, particular praise for the consistent pronunciation of names and locales.

I can thoroughly recommend it, and I am about to get the next book!

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Competent but sluggish sequel

Revisado: 01-20-22

I read Ancillary Justice back when it was released in 2014 and enjoyed it very much. I recently decided to finish the trilogy and got both it and this, Ancillary Sword, as audiobooks.

The performance of the narrator on both is great and while Ancillary Justice holds up just as well as I remember it was, Sword is a bit sluggish. Great initial chapters, competently written, expands upon the world we dived into in the original novel, it quickly pulls you in. Unfortunately, about a third in, it becomes a slog. The story barely moves forward and while I do not mind scifi novels devoid of action set pieces, I do mind numerous chapters where people just sit and talk without anything of consequence happening.

It suddenly picks up about three chapters before the end and wraps up nicely, setting up for a sequel but it also makes for a very, very rushed ending.

Also, I feel some of the social commentary was way too heavy handed, something that I didn't notice (or certainly didn't irritate me) in the first novel.

Still, Breq remains a main character you find yourself easily cheering for and the world has enough depth and width to keep it interesting. Definitely planning on finishing the third book and I do hope this was just the "slow middle part".

Still, be warned - it is a very slow middle part...

5/5 for narration
4.5/5 for writing style
3/5 for the story

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A truly excellent account of piracy!

Revisado: 08-29-21

Greatly enjoyed the book. The narrative flows easily enough despite the overwhelming amount of dates, protagonists, locales and ships. One would be best served to listen through it with a map and an annex at hand to truly comprehend the scale of the matter, both geographic and temporal. Even for a casual reader (listener) not interested in the wealth of historical facts, 'The Republic of Pirates' provides a clear picture that our modern understanding of pirates, born out of mass media culture, is very skewed and wrong. These men weren't (just) the 'yarr'-ing gold thirsty brigands of the seas but, often enough, men with principles of behaviour, and even grand ideas of equality and fairness.

Solid, clear narration despite several cases where the narrator seemed to misprounonce some word or names, more than compensated by the excellent in-character quotations.

Strongly recommended listen to anyone interested in general history, maritime subjects or (yarr!) pirates.

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Good short story accompanied by great narration!

Revisado: 07-22-21

I liked the story. Typical Scalzi, fast, energetic, easygoing. Great narration by Zachary Quinto.

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As much as history of the writing-of as a story

Revisado: 07-18-20

Be warned, about two-thirds of this edition of The Fall of Gondolin are dedicated to the writing of the story, narrating previously unpublished versions, fragments, and explanation how it call came to be. The final, extended and beautifully written (and narrated) version of the Fall of Gondolin is the first section of the book, about two hours.

What follows is different versions of that same tale, along with detailed explanations. This may not be everyone's cup of tea but if you are a fan of Tolkien's work, this is a great listen.

I personally found the extended sections somewhat detrimental to my overall enjoyment of listening but the first chapter containing the Fall of Gondolin itself is a beautiful, poignant tale that deserves a listen. You can definitely sense how this was the prototype for the Siege of Minas Tirith in "Return of the King".

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Fundamental truths and wrong conclusions

Revisado: 07-18-20

In trying to explain the crisis of modern liberal democracy in Europe and the growing divide between the East and West part of the continent, "The Light That Failed" presents some fundamental truths and, regrettably, comes to some fundamentally wrong conclusions.

It's a narrative that is deeply flawed by, what I suspect are Mr. Krastev's writing contributions, incessant criticism of the political course undertaken by Hungary and Poland, while completely glossing over the rest of the region.

In fact, throughout the book the supposed divide in modern Europe is presented as between the West and those two particular states, the rest of the East being reduced to short remarks such as "and other countries." Many of the factors that have lead to the rise of autocratic populism in Eastern Europe nowadays are correctly determined by the authors - the clash of cultural values stemming back from the Great Schism of Christianity and Europe, the historical fate of eastern nations being subjugated by empires for centuries and lacking strong institutions, the prevalent corruption that is part of national psyche, the precipitous demographic decline, and especially the deep disappointment of the transition to capitalism and the huge inequalities that it brought to these societies.

Yet, where all of these factors are common throughout the region, the narrative keeps the focus strictly on the "troubled members" of the EU - Poland and, in particular, Viktor Orban's Hungary. Yes, you will hear criticism of Orban frequently and throughout the book, turning what should be an objective analysis of liberal democracy's decline into a treatise of subjective criticism. What makes Poland and Hungary, two countries with significantly higher freedom of speech ratings, social mobility index, median per capita GDP and overall standard of living objectively "worse liberal democracies" and the targets of vehement liberal criticism by the authors than, say, Borisov's Bulgaria - a country roiled in excessive corruption, embezzlement, disruptive socio-economic divisions, and disastrous freedom of speech rating?

One who's personally familiar with Eastern Europe's modus vivendi, whether due to being a resident of the region (as myself, being a Bulgarian) or a researcher, would remain with the strong sense that what Stephen Holmes and Ivan Krastev point as the biggest issue of modern European liberalism is daring to voice criticism of the Brussels' brand of liberalism and not what amounts to trumping liberal values underfoot while keeping a strong declarative stance in support of it - as many autocratic Prime Ministers and Presidents other than Duda and Orban do.

And where this tragic hypocrisy of the West supporting Eastern Europe's current autocratic, corrupt, declarative style-over-substance brand of pseudo-"liberalism" should be the conclusion of the book, it instead divulges into prolonged criticism of just a particular facet of the issue that's easier to swallow for the Western reader/listener.

What you can take from "The Light that Failed" is some excellent insight into the political turmoil now engulfing the EU, made possible by great effort and research, and some thoughtful insight - and end up with some terrible conclusions that will grossly skew your understanding of the underlying issue.


Excellent narration by John Sackville! 5/5 for narrator performance.

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Rather dissapointing

Revisado: 02-03-19

I am a fan of John Scalzi's previous sci-fi series, Old Man's War, particularly the titular entry volume and the first sequel, Ghost Brigades. Maybe I came in with too great expectations but overall this was a rather disappointing read (listen, actually). I found the narrator fine. My only gripe was that there was some inconsistencies when there are multiple characters involved in a dialogue and, occasionally, I couldn't distinguish them. He did have a lot of energy and consistency of character throughout, and read quite clearly. I also think he was a good choice for the rather snarky and sarcastic tone of the book.

It's this snarky tone that I did not like. I am not against curse words when needed to drive a point but Scalzi has used them so liberally and so often here it becomes almost unpleasant. The characters often react like angry or spoilt teens to the world shattering events happening around them. The Collapsing Empire has an interesting premise yet it feels minimalistic and constrained in scope. I could compare it to Asimov's Empire-period novels which were rather minimalistic, adventorous and had feudalistic societies with sci-fi tech in space but without the context of the the rest of his (Asimov's) works. Maybe it can develop into something better in the sequels but so far, it feels like one of Scalzi' poorer efforts.

Again, not a bad novel but certainly not up to the class of Old Man's War.

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