Marc Z

Interesting Idea, Terrible Execution

Revisado: 04-19-25

Whoever was the audio engineer on this ought to lose their license and never be allowed near an audiobook again. I cannot count the number of times the background sounds or music were louder than the voice(s) reading the story! Ridiculous. The actors didn't help, either. Most are TV actors who don't know how to perform for audio. I've worked in theater, and the number one rule is it doesn't matter how great your performance is if the audience can't hear or understand you. Half of these narrators were trying to be dramatic and lowering their voices to a whisper. Not a stage whisper, but a real whisper. I'd crank up the volume to max and still couldn't make out half of what they were saying -- and then they'd shout and bust my eardrums. Hire proper audio actors or get these ones some training to make sure they talk at a consistent level. There are tricks you can do with your voice to not sound monotonous and yet keep your voice the same loudness. Also, keep in mind this story is international, so a lot of the characters have foreign accents, making them hard to understand even if there wasn't music or sounds over their words.

As far as the story, it's an interesting idea. I love dragon stories, and this has potential. The idea of reporting on it via hundreds of recovered audio recordings and interviews is interesting. However, it means we lack a central character to follow and care for. The main woman reporter who does the interviewing is sparsely visible -- like a photographer behind the lens, she's not seen. Also, having so many different voices and characters, many for just one brief interview, is confusing. I never know who is important. The idea of so many people each contributing their own perspective of the same events is good, but unfortunately, in this chaotic tale, it doesn't add much.

The first half of the book is slow without much in the way of dragons, like a horror movie that waits until the end to show you a proper look at the monster. Once the action gets going, it's got some promise, but it still felt slow, and not that much happened. The whole thing could have been told in a couple of hours without all the fake drama.

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Tedious

Revisado: 10-31-24

I really wanted to love this. I love Drew Hayes’ other works as they are funny. I expected this to be, though targeted at a younger audience. But instead I was treated to a boring lecture on how this world of magic works. Nothing happened, and kids would have been bored out of their minds. It’s all talk and no show. It was also confusing as there seemed to be much assumed backstory I didn’t know about and wasn’t explained. This is supposed to be the first book in the series, so I’m baffled by that. Eventually, the story got into a little adventure, and that was better and showed promise, but there’s no humor, too much bewildering history that’s unexplained, and way too much exposition. Reading a dictionary would be more fun. So disappointing, but I gave it an extra star because the author wrote this as a tribute to his dog.

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Fun, but terrible audio quality

Revisado: 03-24-24

Wonderfully humorous story with lots of fun characters and stereotype-defying plot points, but as usual with audible originals, the audio quality is terrible. They clearly never test these with earbuds or car speakers, because the heavy background noise, music, and sound effects make much of the dialog inaudible. It’s a slog to get through when only half the lines can be understood. Would love a version with just the voices and nothing else. Probably fine in a silent recording studio with million dollar speakers, but most of us are in the real world. Very frustrating.

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Sad

Revisado: 10-29-23

On the one hand, the writing is truly brilliant. The author nails every scene, describes the horrid details vividly, and even gets the science right. It’s really a clever idea and should have been a blast.

But on the other hand, it’s the most depressing and hopeless book ever. There’s not a single redeeming quality from any of the characters, who are all losers who do nothing but rage and complain about life, politics, and religion. Everything is incredibly hateful by morons so into navel-gazing they miss all the beauty around them.

It could be the author is exaggerating for humor or to make a point, but it doesn’t come across that way. It’s not funny at all, and is just a sad story of stupid people. What a waste of writing talent. I couldn’t wait for it to end.

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Terribly boring

Revisado: 08-08-23

I can count on one hand the books I haven't finished in my life, and this is one of them. It starts out with promise -- an old retired detective with a potential new case coming his way that stirs up memories -- but he just goes on and on remembering, mumbling to himself about stuff we know nothing about, and I got to where there was just a few hours left and he still hasn't even opened the file of the new case the current cops want his help with!

And then he starts bringing up horrible child abuse stuff, both his in own life and his late wife's. It's terrible, but with no explanation of where the book is going with it, just sad horrific descriptions and no resolution.

Normally I look forward to my daily walks with my dog because I get to listen to a book -- with this book I was dreading every step. I finally had enough and returned the book unfinished. I just don't care any more. I don't care about the sad characters, don't want to know where the book is going, and want the hours of my life back this book stole. It's definitely pretentious dribble masquerading as literature. I'd rather watch grass grow.

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I wanted to like it

Revisado: 07-24-23

I really wanted to like this more. It sounded fantastic, a tale of geeky video game designers, and it's well done, but it left me empty. In the end, I don't get the point of it. It's too much like real life in that respect. Novels are supposed to be better than life, and actually give us an explanation and satisfactory ending.

First, the good:

1) Fantastic three-dimensional characters. I fell in love with all of them.

2) Interesting narrative of their lives from childhood to adulthood and I liked the way it bounced around between different times and eras (it was really well-done and not confusing).

3) Fascinating and plausible video games. Often in books when characters create art it doesn't sound realistic or as good as it's supposed to be in the novel. The games these character create are unique and interesting, and though I'm not really a gamer (I'm a writer and programmer), I thought the ideas here were terrific.

4) Most of the plot was good. I liked the conflicts and progression of the characters.

Now the bad (may contain minor spoilers):

1) Much of the book revolves around the two main characters who are constantly collaborating and separating. While at times that felt correct and natural, in the long-term it got old and just felt ridiculous and forced. The two talk about how they love each but for some reason can't stand each other. That drove me nuts. When they were kids some of that made sense. Kids are foolish and impulsive and do silly things and hold pointless grudges. But as adults? Come on: you can be mature and communicate. As the central conflict in the story, it ended up pretty lame and the ending was not very satisfying.

2) Perhaps the most key part of the plot, an incident of violence toward the end of the book, was cliche, forced, and stereotyped. It came out of left field with no warning and was really distasteful, disturbing, and inappropriate. If it had been properly foreshadowed and some of the political aspects demonstrated earlier in the book it might have made sense, but it showed up out of nowhere and suddenly inserted politics into a book that didn't have any and I found it off-putting.

3) In the end, very little happens in this book. It's a sweet tale sweetly told, and while I admire much about it, it left me cold. What was the point? Was I suppose to learn something? Were the characters suppose to learn something? I'm not sure they did. They seemed almost as stupid and naive as grownups as they did as kids, still arguing over nothing. There was quite a bit that made no sense (or wasn't explained), and those ambiguous points are left vague in the end as though something profound had been said, when really nothing at all was said.

The fact that I'd write this long of a review says how much this book impacted me. I wouldn't criticize it so much if I didn't love a great deal of it and want it to be better. It's about 80% there -- and could have been incredible with another rewrite. Instead it falls short of its promise and leaves me feeling betrayed. It's still worth reading, but just don't expect greatness. It's a 3-star story, but I gave it 4 just because so much of it so good. But sadly the whole isn't as good as the pieces.

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Wow! So fascinating.

Revisado: 07-10-23

Love that this isn’t just science, but incorporates the human side of materials (how they make us feel and influence culture). Just amazing and so thought-provoking.

I’ll definitely re-listen to this periodically and learn something new every time.

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Fun but light

Revisado: 05-15-23

Not as funny as I expected, but still entertaining. The mystery wasn’t much and ending too pat.

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More confusing than helpful

Revisado: 04-13-23

This is so basic it doesn’t actually explain anything, yet it’s still obtuse and vague and doesn’t dumb down stuff enough to make it understandable. I wanted to like it and a few metaphors were helpful, but there weren’t nearly enough.

And don’t get me started on how he reads out long math formulas. If there’s a single bit of math in a beginner book like this, it’s a failure.

The tagline making it sound like this book is going blow your mind is ridiculous. I know barely anything about physics, and yet most of this stuff I already had heard about. I sadly didn’t understand any of it any better at the end. A complete waste of time.

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Couldn’t finish

Revisado: 12-25-22

Listened to half the book and nothing happened. So boring. Incredibly disappointed. I always finish books I start, but life’s too short for this waste of time. Returned.

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