P. Canniff

When does the action start?

Revisado: 01-08-23

I feel like I am 15% or more of the way through the book and I’m still waiting for the protagonist to figure out something that we the reader know from the title of the book, while nearly no character development has happened. Cmon John this is heavy padding.

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Surpassingly weak for an experienced author

Revisado: 10-28-20

Clearly the voice actor is a competent professional, but I can’t go five minutes without noticing how often they are forced to contort their voice into some Air sets falsetto to represent a female character. And given how prevalent the female characters are, it seems like a very strange choice. It breaks the immersion repeatedly.

The story is OK. It’s fun to see some thing in this setting and based off a imaginative historical alternative. I enjoyed the lead character, although her sidekick seems under-developed.

A Noticeable amount of repetition and padding. This feels more like a first attempt than the same author’s earlier books, which feel more mature and polished by comparison. I don’t know if it’s an attempt to keep up with a prolific publishing schedule or watt, but this feels pretty Shawty by comparison.

I gave up halfway through the second audio book in the series. I wanted it to be better but at a certain point it is what it is

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A good overview of the evolving language(s) of internet users

Revisado: 08-01-19

The author is a great reader. She does an awesome job with the typographical stuff - pronouncing “fadesmash” stuff like asdhfhshs, discussing lowercase ce uppercase, etc. without breaking the flow of the audiobook. She’s a little fast - this is one book I won’t be listening to on 1.25x speed.

The content is a welcome survey of the language of the internet. Even back to the old days of my youth. It’s really weird hearing about gaps in the written documentation of stuff a few decades ago! It greatly increases my sympathy for linguists dealing with issues centuries ago. And interesting to hear about a language area where written form is the primary form!

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Flawed but enjoyable

Revisado: 07-30-18

There’s a lot of things I like in the stories. I enjoyed the main character. I enjoy the company and construction of the plot, where the author seems to have seriously thought about the various problems and how they might be overcome. The downside is that the book is amazingly repetitive. At times it feels cobbled together from a serial or transcribed from an oral tradition. Certain stock phrases get overused. Certain parts of Chewase Chin’s repeat with irritating regularity. Character development is glacial and predictable.

But the characters, the writing, the voice performance in the audible version, and the well crafted plot kept me coming back for more of the series.

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I'm looking forward to more in the story

Revisado: 02-13-17

It's always tough to know when to give a five star review. This probably isn't one of the great classics of science fiction. But it was one of the most enjoyable pieces I've listened to in the last 12 months. And it was also an excellent performance by the reader. I found the story to be engaging and fresh, with a novel take on the subject matter.

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Short, well written, so-so reading

Revisado: 04-12-16

The book focuses on the very specific period surrounding the fall of Constantinople and I feel it does a good job of covering the basics.

The reading lacks dynamism, and the sibilants are often whistled. That gets old pretty quickly. The pronunciation is very clear with special care given to the names, many of which may be new to the listener.

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