Bryan

Holy crap

Revisado: 04-14-20

Read this. Just... the ending is... wow.

This is quickly becoming one of my top favorite series.

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Interesting Approach to SciFi Crimeworld

Revisado: 12-08-19

This book isn’t anything amazing but it is different and I enjoyed it. The book takes a little bit of a suspension of disbelief - travel between solar bodies takes a few hours and Alzheimer’s progressing from super early stages to advanced in 3 days. Nothing major though.

The story is pretty straightforward - bad guy is betrayed by the syndicate and fights back. This particular book twists it by giving the protagonist Alzheimer’s and whilst he battles the syndicate he also battles his [rapidly] declining health. I did enjoy this tale but I won’t claim that it’s an overly accurate portrayal of the disease.

My main criticism with the book is that the author kept referring to the reader/listener semi directly and I found it a little off putting. Sometimes it sounded like the book may be part of a larger world that I’m not aware of. It wasn’t very frequent - maybe every other chapter or so a sentence directed at the reader would come in.

As always Bray does an excellent job narrating. This book is probably a decent quick listen to anyone who takes advantage of the whispersync pricing. I can’t recommend it at full price. It only took me two days to finish it after all.

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Alright Comedy

Revisado: 11-23-19

I honestly wasn’t terribly impressed with this book. The characters are alright, the overall story went at a reasonable pace and the world building was alright... but the dialogue is a genuine slog.

In the beginning, it seemed like “huh” and “what” needed to be large portions of any conversation and it felt like a lot of the conversations were needlessly drawn out. It’s fairly obvious what happens to the main character and I understand the need to carry on the plot, but it felt gratuitous on several occasions.

I found the supporting characters to be generally very like-able but the main character I found to be very irritating.

In summary, I found the book fell short of my expectations but if someone is in the mood for something similar to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy than this could hit the spot. I definitely loved Hitchhiker’s Guide and see the similarities but Hitchhiker’s Guide is definitely much better.

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This Book Sold Me on the Series

Revisado: 07-24-19

For those not in the know, the general read order puts this one second after, “The Last Wish” and precedes the series itself.

I liked the first book but wasn’t completely sold on it given how it was written. I started these because the Netflix series is coming soon and they were on my read list but that list never grows. I made it through the first one and starting this one up I was pretty much set on it the first couple hours in. This book shows more of an overlying story and focuses a bit less on providing background and it shows.

There’s not much to really say about the book as a whole, Geralt definitely seems to have a distinct personality with obvious friendships and the other characters are building up as well. The world is also more on the darker side which is a huge plus in my eyes as the medieval period is often romanticized and it was realistically very hard for a lot of people.

Overall, recommend as it sold me. I took off one star for the narration because of inconsistencies and I’m not sure where some of the pronunciations are coming from - Dandelion (like the flower/weed) is a bard who accompanies Geralt is pronounced like the plant. In the first book, it was pronounced ‘Dan-dill-ee-un’ and absolutely threw me off. The narrator has a couple other odd ones but the one I feel is just generally wrong is geyser - he pronounces it ‘geezer’ which is super odd. As an American, I may be unfairly judging but I’ve never heard of an English dialect pronounce geyser that way.

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Finished in a Day...

Revisado: 07-02-19

I finished this whole book in a single day - not necessarily because I liked it though...

The book is clearly very symbolic and is about Guy’s struggle to come to terms with his unhappiness and I suppose society’s expectation of him in the dystopian society he lives in. I can very clearly see where a lot of more recent books draw inspiration and because of that this was a little less interesting to me.

The book is very short and I finished it in a day more so because I don’t know that I wouldn’t have been able to slog through it to finish it the next day. The story is a little slow and there are some exciting portions but I wouldn’t say it’s frequent. As an audiobook I think this book struggles as I listen to books more because I want to relax whereas this book tends to require some reflection.

Overall - I don’t regret listening but I do feel this book suffers a bit in audio form. I also personally found some of the voices (particular Beatty and the wives) to be a little aggressive - they kinda drove my perception of the characters a bit more than I would have liked given the book itself.

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Series Keeps Getting Better

Revisado: 06-29-19

I honestly don’t know what to say about this book except it keeps getting better.

This book combines the best parts of the first book and the second book and throws them together - the chapter switch between Graves and Trass’ POV and it works very well. The story is a little predictable but honestly that’s one of the better things about this series. It’s got a great little ‘Expanse lite’ kind of feel to it and it draws me in. I definitely recommend this to anyone already in the series.

Only negative is that I wish it was longer!

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Good Holdover While Waiting for the Expanse

Revisado: 06-28-19

I got the first book for free in exchange for an honest review and really enjoyed it and went ahead and purchased the rest of the series - hope that says something about the series by itself.

The first book is touted as like the expanse and this holds very true in how the world is built up but it quickly progresses into it's own. The first book focused on Malcolm Graves and I honestly had a mixed relationship with this character. I both liked and hated him - this book I found the protagonist much more likable and in my opinion this book is better as a result.

Kale is a ringer as opposed to Malcolm being an earther and this gives great contrast to the story. It's a somewhat typical underdog story and Kale really just wants to save his mother but nothing seems to be going right. The story is very good and I won't call it hard sci-fi or overly complex but the book is super enjoyable and I highly recommend. It is definitely something to fill the void left open while awaiting the last expanse novel!

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Are there any questions?

Revisado: 06-23-19

I got this book on kinda of a whim - I didn’t really know what to expect but it was definitely a worthwhile read.

The book mostly takes place in a dystopian future landscape and paints a picture of a purpose filled and excruciatingly boring future for women. They aren’t really allowed to learn anything or make their own choices and it seemed as if most were excruciatingly bored as the current regime basically wants to strip them of anything that promotes thought.

The protagonist goes through her day to day and also flips back to past experiences to explain how she got there. Her generation is a transitional generation so she remember the time before the current regime and as such has an inner struggle of doing right by her presumably lost family while trying to survive. The story also flips around a little bit inside the story line and this itself is actually a little confusing but fairly minor.

Very little actually happens in the book and it’s very much about her and her struggle with her monotonous life - trying to find news about the world and some compassion from her peers. Offred is desperate for a connection to really anyone and does bend the rules when it comes to this and she can get away with it.

Overall, it’s a very good read but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s going to be a happy one. This is a dystopian tale and that doesn’t change. Now, “are there any questions?”

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A Little Average - Maybe Overhyped a Bit

Revisado: 06-13-19

I'll preface my review by saying I went in to the book expecting something much different than what I got. Having said that:

I found this book to be a bit of a struggle to get through. The beginning starts off interesting enough and immediately gets exciting, but after the life altering event that happens to Jason (protagonist), the book somewhat putters along for a little bit. As a reader/listener - it was fairly obvious what happens to the protagonist and it honestly just seemed like it took way too long for him to figure it out. I found more often than not I was just silently fuming whilst listening while the protagonist figured it out.

Eventually this does happen and the book starts to speed along on a fairly interesting path but I personally found that this quickly grew into a journey of self-pity and depression. I fully understand that the author wanted to convey how hopeless Jason felt but it was honestly exhausting to listen to the character wallow as much as he did.

The last 60-90 minutes of the book picks back up again and is in its own right very interesting but the plot wasn't overly complex or exciting. I also thought that the characters started to act outside of how they had been the entire book and while the ending made sense in its own right, it also somewhat felt like the author just wanted to write something unique or different but fell short.

The narrator did an alright job. I personally don't enjoy when men trying to mimic a woman's voice (I prefer they just slightly modify their tone versus speaking in a soft breathy voice like the narrator did) and this led me to find the female characters a little annoying. I wouldn't recommend this book to many people unless they are just looking for something science fiction related but in a modern day earth and can't find anything else (or it’s on sale). I don't think that the book is bad, but I would definitely say that it is resoundingly average.

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Fantastic Book!

Revisado: 06-11-19

This book is astonishingly good. I have not really read anything else like it to compare it too so bear with me.

I think the book itself is best read without really knowing what is happening when you go in and to just let it unfold before the reader so I'll leave out as much detail as possible.

The story starts off with a scientist about to start a grand project in a super advanced earth. She has implemented everything and is on the verge of starting the experiment when a terrorist incident occurs on her research vessel and she finds out that widespread civil war is also [probably] happening at earth. In a desperate attempt to save herself and her experiment, she jettisons herself into a pod and watches her experiment literally burn up in front of her. She seals herself off to sleep away the centuries and see if her experiment yields anything despite little to no hope.

The experiment itself has an incredibly unique and wonderful evolution and honestly I found this the most interesting part of the book. It offers a unique perspective on evolution and how technology is formed as well as a wonderfully different outlook on life. Overall I can not recommend this book enough. The narrator also does a fantastic job!

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