PNWAdventurer

Far, far from Arand’s best work

Revisado: 03-08-25

I’m admittedly not certain what had the greater negative impact - writing or narration. For writing, Arand has some fatal flaws in his character development arcs that compound from minor nuisance to full on cringe with each sequel. Please do recognize that even as I write that criticism, I keep coming back to his writing. As has become familiar, the further I progress in a given Arand series the more I feel like I’m grinding my molars and pulling at my hair to make it through. What’s cute but lacks verisimilitude becomes progressively more egregious in each successive book of each series. A recurring pattern. In this case, the gratuitous, pandering, juvenile take on character interactions and insultingly hackneyed attempts at masculine charisma (which are common in his writing but this book turns the dial to 11) teeter from his typical harem-logic caricatures to what I think might actually qualify as toxic misogyny. Then again, this narrator performs male roles uniformly as some variation on a theme of Mom’s-basement-maladjusted-shut-in, suffering some form of traumatic brain injury, and high af on mescaline. So her reading might be exacerbating what would otherwise be the tolerable idiosyncrasies of typical Arand fare.
This was bad. Just really, shockingly bad. But I’ll probably get the next one too so obviously there’s some hook he’s sunk into me that demands better than a 1-star rating.

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Intellectually lazy, characters like pre-teen sitcom.

Revisado: 11-08-24

There’s this really interesting thing we humans can do with water that gets near our mouths. There’s this concerning flaw with a spacesuit that’s so delicate the operator can tear hoses off. There’s some complications when aiming a pressurized bottle with a broken nozzle. There are interesting ways FTL travel can be discussed beyond “fold a piece of paper in half”. There are more compelling family dynamics than dad going on a trip and philandering. Women surviving a disaster have more sophisticated exigencies than a shirtless man. And dimples are not a skeleton key. Narration is flat.

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And… I’m out

Revisado: 11-03-23

There’s a lot wrong with this story, but it has generally been enjoyable if you overlook the constant plot conveniences and lack of meaningful character development. However, when the author casually has his main character’s side self-righteously justify taking a superyacht they wanted because he builds in plot armor that the current owner is evil, I was incredulous. But then he somehow justifies the brutal slaying of everyone onboard, backed by a travesty he calls a “trial”, after having drowned a man because he was witnessed watching 3 seconds of a snuff video, and tries to turn this into a team bonding moment? There is so much casual atrocity in this one scene that he tries to wrap up as a feel-good moment that it was repulsive. The “good-guys” instantly and viscerally became the embodiment of the evil they were supposedly attempting to fight. The entire story becomes a grotesque farce because the protagonists are no longer believable as the force against evil, having become irredeemably evil themselves. To be clear, I am not dismissing the reprehensible acts of the sheik or his men - this entire scene felt like something written by a sociopath. However, most of those men, who were non-combatants in the scene, were slaughtered because they were presumed evil-by-association. TQB had no direct knowledge of individual culpability for most of them. Then we happily jump right back into the dark comedic story fundamentals that, up until that point, had been enjoyable, if a little sanctimonious, pandering, and socially inept at times. Except the protagonists have lost any credibility because I can’t get past the vulgar self-justified brutality of their prior behavior.

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Good read, deeply conceived fantasy, but incomplete

Revisado: 10-02-23

Good book, though it seemed almost a trailer for an upcoming epic rather than a full novel in its own right. A lot of teasers and tie-ins to his other works, which is fun. I think it cribbed style and plot from The Name Of The Wind, which isn’t necessarily bad given that Patrick Rothfuss is too busy hating on his fans to actually complete a novel. Anyway, generally I’d love to see true novels written, because I think Andrew Rowe does his storytelling a disservice using the episodic novella format that is commonplace now. His stories are too interwoven and grand in scope for the model that Amazon/Audible have commoditized. Nick Podehl delivers a premium experience as always.

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Felt like a comic book issue rather than a story…

Revisado: 02-21-23

Seemed like there was just very little content to book 3 that advanced the story. The trial and the following combat were so brief, benighted and simple that they were immensely dissatisfying and the significance they seemed to bear in the plot was dismissed without a second thought. It feels like the two-person writing team yielded to the one that goes for the sex while the one that writes a proper story was on sabbatical. The comic book feel of this release would be fine, except that I’m paying the price for a book not a comic. Hated the choice Frost made in the last sexual encounter - way too anachronistic to his personality and utterly dissonant to the plot. Booooo. Amber Lee Connors is an extremely talented voice actor, regardless of content. Kieran Flitton provides an exceptional performance as well. Look forward to hearing more narrations from both of them.

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Returns to more of the strengths of the series

Revisado: 01-30-23

On the heels of my huge disappointment with book 3, I almost didn’t go in for the 4th. Glad I did. While Andrew Rowe sure loves to give “easy buttons” to his characters and pretends that makes them clever, he did get back to the core facets of the story that are most compelling and enjoyable. Note that this one takes a dark turn as things progress.

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Ruined by exhaustive play-by-plays

Revisado: 01-27-23

The opportunity to provide genuine plot development and advancement of the story depth is squandered on far-too-excessive dungeon crawling accounts in noisome detail. So sad, because there was such a strong sense early on that the author intended to invest richness into both the characters and the world while engaged in investigations and intrigues of a distant land. My least favorite of the series by far. Nick Podehl is fantastic as always, although I think the emotional flatness of all of the characters in this book left him little to work with.

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Good, stranger and less humorous than others in series

Revisado: 10-11-22

Love this book, but wish it had a little more of the outlandish humor present in David Wong/Jason Pargin’s other works. This one strikes a more serious tone with a wildly strange and imaginative plot. David Wong (story persona) is intense and angry and not particularly funny, and I think at points he tries to offset this by making John a little too farcical but it doesn’t quite catch. A little bit of more tangible horror in spots, just so you’re aware. Of course, lots of swearing, irreverence and detailed gore as expected. Nick Podehl is exceptional as always, although I don’t think this story lets him exercise his full range so he’s a little flat compared to many of his other narrations.

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Moderate start to a good series - if campy quasi-horror is your thing

Revisado: 10-09-22

John Dies At The End is my least favorite of David Wong/Jason Pargin’s work, and the movie had unfortunately turned me off for a long time. Having finally listened to it I enjoyed it but it feels like a bit of a freshman writing project, while the others are more sophomoric - and yes, that was a sophomoric double entendre. The story is pretty effed up, but it’s my kind of effed up. Something almost, but not quite, like a chimera formed of The Thing, Dorohedoro, Harold & Kumar, Hell Boy, and High School of the Dead. If you got all five of those references, we should probably be friends. Grab some soy sauce and you’ll know where to find me. Narration by Stephen R. Thorne is technically impeccable, if not particularly compelling.

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This one’s pretty twisty…

Revisado: 09-27-22

I will admit that I really struggled my first listen through - in many ways I think that this sequel is a bit of a mess. The plot is rather convoluted and cues critical to the story undercurrent can be subtle and never repeated, so it requires committed attention. The story-beneath-the-story is the real story, so you really need to absorb those crucial moments. Months later on a second listen, I was not trying to multitask so heavily and was able to follow the hints and inflections more thoroughly, and found the story depth more intriguing and gratifying. However, I find Harrowhark more difficult to become invested in, probably for many of the same reasons Gideon and Ianthe might declaim. The story twists and turns are brutal, and frequently as some thread was pulled clear I was left wondering why Tamsyn bothered - none of the main characters react, or react in any meaningful way, to many of these confounds. Sure 10,000 years might certainly leave someone pretty jaded, but utterly unperturbed? Ianthe and Harrow seem like they’re meant to be the youthful conscience of the Mithraeum’s party, however they drift right past many of the big reveals as well. The entire story just feels very flat, even though it is extremely convoluted. Like a forced-perspective backdrop that you discover is not 3-dimensional. The book was almost great, but just can’t surpass it’s predecessor in any measure, except calories burned (by your brain churning through the plot). Moira Quirk - wow, she’s amazing and I can’t imagine anyone, anywhere, being a better narrator for this series. I simply love listening to her read these characters!

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