Dan

Mostly forgettable

Revisado: 12-16-22

This book feels like an attempt to stall for time while the author works on the third and (I assume) final installment of the series. And that would be fine, if the filler were more compelling, but most of it just ... wasn't.

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Advertising was a little heavy-handed

Revisado: 11-13-22

This story reads like Amazon gave Scalzi a Chicago vacation in exchange for writing a scene in which their products featured prominently.

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Why not a full-cast reading?

Revisado: 07-12-21

The format of the audio performance is rather odd. They had enough performers that they could have done a full-cast reading, but instead they assigned performers based on whose point of view a chapter followed, with a given chapter's performer voicing every character. The result wasn't bad, really—just a little baffling.

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Interesting story, shaky narration

Revisado: 05-09-21

The story is pretty similar in tone to the previous books in the series, where the stakes are mostly low and the people are mostly friendly. If you're looking for "slice of life but about aliens," this book's got you covered.

Unfortunately, the narration is a little hit-or-miss. Have you ever been reading something aloud, gotten to the end of a line, and then restarted the sentence because you realized you'd placed the emphasis incorrectly? If you can imagine having to press on instead of taking the sentence from the top, you can imagine the cadence if this book; it sounds like Rachel Dulude never got a second take on most lines. It mostly feels like a failure of direction.

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Big cringe energy

Revisado: 05-09-20

Was this book designed to force the narrator into doing every stereotypical accent in their repertoire?

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Excellent work

Revisado: 08-28-18

I've only recently started reading China Mieville, but he's become a fast favorite. While many of these short stories share themes, each comes at the concepts from different angles and avoids feeling redundant.

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Very little new or interesting

Revisado: 01-13-17

Exactly the sort of shallow power fantasy you'd expect from someone wrapped up in the "sad puppy" Hugo debacle. Wouldn't have wasted my time if I'd known about that connection beforehand.

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VERY Derivative

Revisado: 08-07-16

Take Game of Thrones, Rome, and Hunger Games, throw them in a blender with pseudo-lightsabers and generic sci-fi elements, and you've got this series in a nutshell. The prose is vaguely embarrassing throughout, and Brown has borrowed way too many vocabulary tics from his source material, especially those of George RR Martin. It's far from the worst thing I've ever read, but it's entirely forgettable.

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Hunger Game of Romes. With lightsabers.

Revisado: 07-29-16

Brown didn't do a great job filing the serial numbers off the works that inspired this one. Hell, he even apes several of GRRM's verbal tics.

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Hooray, new narrator!

Revisado: 08-15-15

Still not the best book in the series, but way more listenable with Jefferson Mays reading.

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