OYENTE

Amazon Customer

  • 51
  • opiniones
  • 5
  • votos útiles
  • 98
  • calificaciones

An OKAY ending to an interesting story

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-02-25

Unfortunately he did not stick the landing in my opinion. Davian/Caeden's story ends well and those loose ends are tied up, but the other leads fell to the wayside, and all the secondary characters were as good as dead.

The climactic battle was disappointing and I found myself wanting to skim past it. In hindsight I don't think combat was ever his strong suit, but to build up a large war / defense and then fall flat, and all the antagonists just get checked off like a list was very anticlimactic.
It feels like he writes himself into a corner and then has to undo it by freeing an immovable character, and bringing two charcaters back from off screen who have had 0 presence to save the day.

The author admits their content had to be cut, but he really needed to revise and cut them out entirely. It's horribly convenient that they arrive with support and save the day and all questions (more than a dozen in the same chapter) are answered with "it's a long story".

The book meanders in the middle and his religious beliefs, while always present in the series, really get hammered into the reader as we spend chapters dissecting the topic. It was off-putting for me and came off more as preaching rather than philosophy.

This is significantly the longest book (15% longer than the previous) and I'm happy I saw the conclusion to Caeden / Davian's stories, but am left disappointed with most of the rest and wished he spent more time in the drafts.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Strong follow up on the first novel

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-02-25

All of these books felt planned from the onset, so there isn't a huge shift in my main two issues.
Summarized as: stereotypical fantasy names (alt spelling, appostrophes, etc) and no audio hint that we're in a vision/memory instead of real time,

What I think this book does better than the first book is exploring the antagonists and the history of the group. In book 1 they were generic masked baddies, but now we get to know the leaders and explore their rational. I love the worldbuilding and the investment in the time travel/prophecy planning.
I appreciate that he sidelined some secondary characters as they were not relevant anymore and allowed us to focus on the main four + antagonists.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Fascinating Fantasy with some Drawbacks

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-02-25

Overall I really enjoyed this series and flew through the all three books back to back. I loved the world James Islington created.
His foreshadowing / time travel planning is a joy to experience. You reap the investments he makes and it feels so well thought out.
That being said, he is a major offender of "fantasy name" stereotypes. Everyone has alternate letters / spelling / apostrophies in their name and it makes it horrible as an audio book listener to try and navigate his website. The narrator does an amazing job with pronunciation, but the names themselves are not good.

The book also covers visions / memories a lot, which is shown in the text with itallics. There is no corresponding signal in the audio so if you miss the hint that this isn't happening in real time, confusion accompanies you.
Lastly, it's a multiple-POV book, but that POV isn't always revealed or signalled in an efficient manner and I'd be minutes into the chapter before learning I'm with the wrong character.

The narrator is pretty famous and did a great job. My only complaint was that he has a heavy vocal fry and it took a few hours to get used to. I would advise listening to the sample if you're unfamiliar. I got over it, but I know some people will have more issue.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not what I expected coming from the films

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-05-24

I had never read LOTR before and have only watched the movies once or twice each. I had heard AMAZING reviews of Tolkien and while it's not bad, it's not necessarily my style. It's very meandering and builds this world very well. I personally don't care for the singing, of which there is a lot.

The narrator does an okay job. He sounds like a Tolkien/Gandalf/Grandpa telling you this fantastic tale, which is very fitting, but it can definitely drag at times. I listened to this at 1.2x speed to help speed him up.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Good story, bad production

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-08-24

The author’s tone does not match that of an otherworldly action adventure. He sounds like he’s talking about the mundane facts of life on a podcast.

Beyond that, the technical issues are present. He misread the story and they leave it in as he restarted the sentence. There’s long pauses after each chapter. I would seek out a different recording

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Short and sweet

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-06-24

I had heard of L'etranger many years ago and finally got around to reading it.
It was the perfect length for what it was trying to do. I didn't want any more or any less out of it.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great world with okay writing

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-06-24

The writing gets better as you progress through the books, but this is still very much basic writing full of cliches.
It's not BAD, but it's a very long book to be okay. I love the world he's created between the factions and mythos and species. It's great that he can get published via self-pub but it really shows in the lack of QA where traditional pub would have cut this length down and would have had a finer toothed comb for some of the fluff.

For the first time in my ~5yr of audible listening, I had to speed this up to 1.2x speed. It was too long and the dialogue too simple for me to commit 45 hours to this.

I'm interested to see how he finishes this series and I'm glad I had the adventure, but I would not reread this again.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Four years old and already dated.

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-24-24

I was really disappointed by this book. I saw it in the local "books to read this summer" and the blurb looked like an interesting idea.
Unfortunately the writing is a thinly veiled self-help book with one dimensional characters and language that's already dated less than 5 years after publication.
The author's writing is basic and before the first hour was up the entire plot was apparent. The author makes scientific references without understanding what the concepts are, but maybe neither does his target audience.
Beyond the language, the actual structure of the book is not my taste. There are a lot of "chapters" that would be less than one page if I had the physical book.

There are select scenes that are well done, but they're buried betyween the overwhelming majority of bad writing that I would not advise anyone to pick this up.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Excited to see where this goes next.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-24-24

This book is very safe in some aspects, playing to the popular roman empire theme and fantasy school trope.
That being said, the magic system and the characters felt really well done and elevate the basic premise.

The ending of the book had me craving the next series, but the epilogue threw me off a little. It seemed to introduce a theme I'm not very interested in, and also didn't feel like it was built up throughout the rest of the story.
I'm still looking forward to the next addition to the series, but with some reservation.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

All aboard for Charlie's Rollercoaster

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-24-24

This was recommended to me by a friend and I didn't think much of it at the time. I was so impressed by both the story and narration. The narrator really captures Charlie's adventure through life with the ups and downs that come with it.

Some of the language is dated for the 21st century, but the way the characters act and are treated still hit home today in the 21st century. I felt empathy for all the characters involved (bar the mother) and felt their highs and lows.

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro768_stickypopup