EchoGlaive

Sometimes I wish I had my own Island

Revisado: 02-22-23

I had a fun time with this book. It lands somewhere between some of Koontz older work in Phantoms and King's Duma Key, both of which I loved. I tried listening to a couple of other books recently, which just didn't grab me, but this one I finished in just a couple of days because it kept me interested. The book has a good building mystery with likable characters that I wanted to root for. I've lost count of how many books I've listened to recently with characters that are all awful people and I don't care what happens to any of them. The narrator was pretty good and seemed to fit the character I had in my head. As some mentioned she does speak softly a few times, depending on the circumstances in the story, but it seemed to fit the situation to me. The characters are trying to be quiet and it would seem weird if the narrator was speaking loudly. I just turned up the volume a couple of notches and it wasn't a problem. As for the ending, the book does wrap up with an end to the story, it's maybe not as cut and dry as one may desire, but who knows maybe he will come back to the world of this book someday. I honestly hope he does. One of my favorite films is Annihilation and that certainly doesn't have an ending where everything is wrapped up with a bow on it either. I am happy leaving with a couple of things to think about. Overall definitely worth a listen if you like Koontz other stuff and are looking for something new. It's a quick, fun, mystery/thriller on an island with a lady who wants to get away from the world when some suspicious stuff starts occurring.

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Entertaining SciFi Action

Revisado: 08-01-21

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The Last Reaper is a decent substitute for more Altered Carbon if you enjoyed those books. It has a similar world and character types. There are also some similarities to Riddick. Ray Porter is an excellent narrator and elevates the story to be a bit better than it probably deserves to be. It has it's cheesey 90s action movie moments, but Porter sells it well enough that I don't mind. If you enjoy cyberpunk jargon and action movie fights between charcters that would probably be played by a pro wrestler in a movie version, it's entertaining enough to pass the time.

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More of an Introduction than a Full Story

Revisado: 07-12-21

I enjoyed the world and character building in the book, but the book ends just as soon as it gets going. Feels more like a Prologue to the larger story of the Dark Tower. I just listened to "The Stand" right before and this book is the length of one character introduction in "The Stand." Maybe that's what he was going for, breaking it down into smaller chunks? I think I will appreciate it more, once I've gone deeper into Book 2. I'm anxious for more.

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A Good Start to Hopefully a Series of Books

Revisado: 03-10-21

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It caught my interest because of Del Toro's involvement and it seemed to have a similar premise to the movie Fallen with Denzel Washington, which I also like. The characters were compelling and held my interest through the story. It was fun to jump around in time and hear their backstory and how it was related to what was going on in the present day. My only gripe would be some of the pacing is a bit slow. It takes a really long time to get into the really interesting stuff and they sometimes spend too long meandering in tangential information without moving the story forward. By the time they really get into the exciting stuff the book is nearly over. It feels like the pilot to a TV series drawn out into a 9h book. I hope they write more because alone it feels kind of unfinished. They set up a cool world and I still want more of a payoff.

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Mediocre Zombie Side Story

Revisado: 06-22-20

I just finished listening to this and yeah, it's just not as good as the other books in the series. It feels more like he wrote a science fiction zombie book and his publisher said, "but we'll get more sales if you connect it to the other Threshold books." So then he loosely connected it. The overall story reminds me of a lot of the video game series Dead Space, which isn't a bad thing, just nothing new here. All that aside the major problem I have with the book is that up until the halfway mark all the characters are forgettable and generic. At that point, you finally learn some things about the main characters, backstory, and motivations. The second half of the book is much better than the first half. Even then though, it's all pretty mediocre. Like many others have said, just skip this one.

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A Fun, Well Paced, Adventure Through History

Revisado: 06-16-20

This was exactly the kind of story I needed right now, with the current state of the world and being stuck at home, thanks to social distancing. It's a fun adventure, with an entertaining cast of characters. All of which were well-realized thanks to narration of the always-excellent Ray Porter. Its not overly long, as to outstay its welcome. As some have mentioned, it's kind of a mix of National Treasure and The Adjustment Bureau or The Matrix. The writer does a good job describing the action so that I can easily picture what's going on in my head. Some mentioned that the time travel elements of the story were hard to follow, but I never found myself being confused by it. I was really afraid I wasn't going to like it after reading some of the reviews, but honestly, I'm totally fine with it being its own thing and not related to the Threshold Universe. I quite enjoyed 14, The Fold and Terminus, but I was glad to see Mr. Clines write something else in his style. In fact, I liked this enough to hope that he makes another book related to Paradox Bound. I'll be looking forward to whatever he decides to write next.

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Likable Characters and a Fun Story!

Revisado: 02-19-20

I got this book on a whim, knowing nothing about it. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. For quite a while I wasn't sure where the story was going or even what kind of story it was. The mystery of the apartment building and the fun characters kept me interested until things got rolling. By the end of the book, I was invested in this crew of characters and hoping for more stories of their adventures. I don't want to say too much and spoil anything, but it's definitely worth a listen and I will likely check out more of this author's books.

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Fun to hear these characters together again.

Revisado: 06-07-19

It is a little slow to start and probably takes too long catching you up on the previous movie and Alien lore. Once it gets rolling its a fun entry in the series and one I would have liked to have seen on screen as maybe the first part of a TV mini series. Definitely worth a listen if you are a fan of Hicks, Bishop and the film Aliens.

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Many words Ghost Bird, often without saying much.

Revisado: 10-22-18

So, I saw the movie which was adapted from the first book in the series. I was super interested to learn more about the world. I also really wanted to know where things went after the end of the film. Now, after listening through the first book and part way into the second, I'm feeling fairly disappointed. I honestly feel like the movie should just say "inspired by" these books and be its own thing. I found the characters mostly unlikable and hard to sympathize with. The author also seems to enjoy long boring tangents that really don't seem to do much other that pad the length of the book. The author has tendency to spend page after page "describing" how indescribable something is, which ends up sounding like rambling. By the end of the first book it was less a story of someones adventure into this fantastical place and more just a series of boring, lengthy descriptions of things. The narrators of the first two books also didn't help with very bland character readings...or maybe they were just doing the best they could with the material. *shrugs* I really wanted to love this series, but now I doubt I will ever finish it. Some seem to love it, I guess its just not for me.

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A Very Entertaining Fantasy Adventure!

Revisado: 12-24-15

What made the experience of listening to The Spirit: Awakening the most enjoyable?

So, I started reading this book on my phone in the Kindle app, tiny text and all. I later discovered that there was this audiobook version and decided to listen to it while I was working, which was a much better experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed Adele’s journey from a carefree, impulsive young princess to a warrior and leader for her people. Her sidekicks were fun and memorable, especially Harper, who was an excellent source of comic relief. It keeps you engaged with a quick pace and well written characters.

What other book might you compare The Spirit: Awakening to and why?

It all takes place in an interesting world, clearly influenced by other stories like: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Princess Mononoke and The Legend of Zelda series of games.

What about Matt Thurston’s performance did you like?

For an indie book, Thurston did a good job reading the book will some feeling and character. His performance was better than expected.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The book kept things moving and I definitely wanted to keep listening, to see what was going to happen next. I finished it in a few sittings, over a couple days.

Any additional comments?

I wrote a more thorough review, in the books section of Amazon, if you want a bit more detail. I also read and reviewed the second book in series "The Spirit: Reckoning" which was also quite enjoyable.

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