Stephenopolis

Highly recommend

Revisado: 05-24-22

This is not your usual xianxia novel. Beware of chicken turns this genre on its head in a lighthearted way filled with serious humor.

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esto le resultó útil a 15 personas

A pleasant retread of old tropes made new.

Revisado: 01-04-22

A pleasant retread of old tropes made new. the classic is subverted and guided down paths both expected and not breathing a bit of life into the idea of fairy tales.

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Intense

Revisado: 12-22-21

This experience is to be savored. Do not rush this book, do not skip anything, don't fall asleep listening to it. Listen in a well lit room during the daylight and let Neil guide you through the realm of dream.

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a bit rushed.

Revisado: 03-27-19

felt rushed, a lot of slow build up followed by a really rapid wrap up.

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Well, crap.

Revisado: 03-27-19

that other review is right, the narrator pronounces Darian really weird. Dare - E - on is the closest I can get to textually showing it, it's rather awkward. Normally, I'd say it should be Dare - E - an, similar to the proper name Ian.

There does also seem to be a rather typical start for the first of every trilogy set from Mercedes Lackey, it takes a decent amount of exceedingly detailed setup of the setting, scenery, and character info dumping characteristic of a newish start of a story with new characters.

the archetype of the angsty teen brat who isn't quite happy with their current life but makes do, and then curve ball from left stage lands a solid hit on their carefully balanced life forcing them onto a new path. Also a lot of ... internal whining.

this is a book with themes about growing up, targeted at pre-teens and up. The sheer amount of whiny angst does not do well in the transition from text to speech, especially not with this narrator.

on the other hand this narrator is easier on the ears than the one that read the winds trilogy.

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A satisfactory conclusion.

Revisado: 03-27-19

Story wise this one recovers from all the excesses of the first two books in the series. A complaint though, would be the massive idiotball that it feels like was handed to the distant empire of mages. Mages which in the story are recognized to treat magic analytically with rules and logic and maths and so on... if anyone should be able to recognize the patterns that valdemar recognized in book two the Empire mages should've been able to. Granted the solution to the problem isn't something that they'd necessarily be able to enact or do anything about seeing how that's something that has to be done at the original point of origin. But it's an empire that is built on magic and magecraft, they should've had researchers gathering and collating data in orders large enough to analyze and see the pattern showing the effects of the storms sweeping across the land.

On the narration side of this audiobook, there are technical issues the impact the enjoyability of the work. Sections of audio where obvious sections where spliced together from different sessions and possible corrections to prior work. Volume control issues where the narrator goes from somewhat soft-spoken and quiet to strong and clear voice. Some character voices have issues where they sound like they're a hundred years old and have trouble speaking. On the upside, compared to the first two, the narration is improved, and at least consistent in the voices used.

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Ranty and over detailed

Revisado: 03-26-19

early work, it gets a bit ranty and over exploratory in places. a great deal of the internal introspection of the characters felt overdone and explored well beyond the nth degree.

as for the narration, what was true for book 1 is still so here. the pacing and audio levels are inconsistent, and there are sections of audio that are ... audibly... different indicative of multiple recording sessions with different equipment.

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It has issues

Revisado: 03-25-19

the narration has odd voice choices for characters, and inconsistent volume control, sometimes far too soft others slightly louder than necessary. however, it's a damn sight better than other performances like the one that begins the trilogy prior to this one.

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Early work shows

Revisado: 03-25-19

Struggle to finish? Yes, it was a struggle. This was for a few reasons. The narrator has a rocky start and struggles to find an illusive stride that never quite falls into place. Her attempts to provide characters with unique voices are more of a hindrance than a help. Also, as one of the early books in the series it shows in a lack of polish present in later stories.

The only thing that let me finish is the speed factor in the app, I had to up it to the max 3.5x normal, and there are points where the narration seems to go faster and slower than normal, the pacing is inconsistant.

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a bit thick on rhetoric

Revisado: 03-21-19

the narrator is the MVP who carries this story, which is heavily charged with thinly veiled references to the more extreme versions of certain religions. as it is a central theme to the story, the concept suffers in a case of preaching to the choir.

this is unfortunately a common element this author likes to make use of in other valdemar stories, though fortunately rare.

on the other tendril, it's a decent enough launching point for raising awareness of such things.

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