Rondy M. Reeves Jr.

Quite Enjoyable and Entertaining!

Revisado: 09-09-23

This series does start out a bit slow but it’s during this novel, the second of three, that things really begin to build. Both Guy Haley and John Banks have done a great job.

I never thought that this would be something that I would ever even think, but the author and the narrator have made some of Nurgle’s demons actually…adorable. Yeah, I know. How the heck do you make utterly alien and evil creatures that revel in decay and rot adorable? That shouldn’t be possible, but they sure pulled it off. The forces of Nurgle are the real stars of this series and while the Ultramarines are pretty cool in these three novels they’re not the true shining stars, not even the mighty Primarch Roboute. I would very much like for Guy Haley to write some novels that focus almost entirely on Nurgle, its minions, Mortarion, Typhus, and the Death Guard and that John Banks narrates it. One word of caution- there are times that Mr. Banks will (appropriately) raise his voice and even yell, and if you’re listening to this audiobook while wearing earbuds/headphones it could cause the listener a little ear pain.

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One of my Top 3 40K Novels

Revisado: 07-16-23

In 1993 a studio released a movie starring two older comedic legends, a movie that they hoped would make them a few bucks but one that they didn’t put a lot of hope into. The stars of that movie were Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, who played former best friends turned foes, both of whom are single when the still pretty hot Ann Margret moves into their neighborhood. That movie, in case you’ve not seen it, was ‘Grumpy Old Men’ and it was a surprise hit, making nearly triple its budget and greenlighting a less successful but still enjoyable sequel.

At some point the author of this book was contacted by Games Workshop and tasked with writing a book about the Necrons. I can imagine that, while Mr. Robert Rath was sitting in his favorite chair and pondering on how to start his novel and what the plot should be Grumpy Old Men began playing on TNT and he realized that the movie, which is pretty darn funny, could be turned into an equally hilarious novel set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you ‘The Infinite and the Divine’ by Robert Rath.

Trayzn the Infinite and Orikan the Diviner became two of my favorite characters in all of 40K and it’s entirety due to this book. The moment Games Workshop finally releases their minis in a non-“finecast” (there’s nothing fine about GWs’ Finecast minis; they absolutely suck) I will be throwing my money at them so I can finally put these two in my Necron army.

This is a great book from start to finish and never really slows down and bores the reader/listener. The narration is great and I never heard a single editing mistake, which is rare for 40K novels. Picture it, Sicily 1913 (if you know, you know) two immortal Necrons constantly squabbling and fighting a deadly game of one-upsmanship for an object that comes across as a MacGuffin but turns out to be anything but. I can usually smell a twist coming a mile away, and while I kinda smelt something fishy in the air the actual twist still surprised me. There’s a ton of humor, some good action, and dare I say ‘humanization’ of the two main characters. Trayzn comes across as someone who actually doesn’t hate humans, at least not as much as his fellow Necrons do, and he’s actually kind to his human servant.

I wholeheartedly recommend this novel. The Infinite and the Divine is absolutely worth your monthly Audible credit and is absolutely worth your precious time - I honestly can’t imagine that anyone would dislike this novel.

Also, go watch Grumpy Old Men if you’ve never seen it - you owe it to yourself!

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Meh. Not the Worst, but Far From the Best

Revisado: 06-28-23

The other reviewers beat me to the punch - it’s a decent story with lackluster narration and too many editing errors that I have no idea how they did not catch before releasing this audiobook- I’m guessing they rushed it through to have it available at the launch of 10th Edition.

I may wind up listening to it again some day, but there’s a pretty decent chance that I never will and that doesn’t feel like any sort of loss. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great or even good, but it was okay.

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Good, But…

Revisado: 04-18-23

This is a production of a magnificent story that is bogged down by lousy audio. It’s often difficult to understand what characters are saying, especially the Weird Sisters. If you’ve not read MacBeth before I highly recommend that you sit and read the story while you listen to it. I don’t know if there is a better production of MacBeth here on Audible, but you’re probably better off checking to see if there is; I would buy this one if it is the only production of MacBeth on Audible.

If you’ve never seen Sir Patrick Stewart as MacBeth in the BBC’s production you need to find it and watch it immediately. No, I mean right this very second, right after you’ve finished reading this sentence.

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Great Story, For the Most Part.

Revisado: 03-29-23

‘Shogun’ is a fascinating novel based upon actual historical events, though the author changed the names and added much dramatization to those events for the sake of his story. It’s a fairly in-depth look at Feudal Japan, at least as in-depth as a man writing a novel set hundreds of years in our past can be. Shogun is gripping, and it is worth your credit.

That being said, I am removing two stars from the review for the authors’ defense in chapter 20 of two of the most vile abominations on this planet. Shame on him. I know where he’s spending eternity, and I hope he packed a loose kimono because it’s hot, hot, hot.

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A Good Story with Flawed Pacing

Revisado: 02-08-23

Aaron Dembski-Bowden has proven that he is the Black Library’s most talented author; however, this isn’t his best book. It’s not a bad book by any means - it’s a pretty good book, but my issue with it is the pacing, which I personally find to be nearly as horrific as being trapped in the Warp.

You could start the book in the 8th chapter and you would have missed very little of importance. Once the characters find the prize that they’re searching for the book’s pace then picks up and the book is fantastic from about chapter 12 or 13 until its closing cliffhanger.

An example of the pacing - when the main character of this novel threatens a character with a knife, ADB stops the action for the character to tell us all about the knife, where it came from, what it is made from, and its significance. I’m sorry, my Battle-Brothers, but I just don’t care about his knife.

The true strength in this novel is one that I thought to be nearly impossible: ADB writes actually LIKABLE Chaos characters. They are far more than just “Death to the False Emperor” and “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD AND SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE” followed by wanton slaughter and frothing at the mouth. ADB writes characters that are far, far more than just the typical one-dimensional sort that are found in too many fantasy/sci-fi/epic fiction novels.

Jonathan Keeble remains one of the best narrators in the entire Audible library. The man is a national treasure, and he should be one of the only people legally permitted to narrate audiobooks. While he is a man and has a man’s voice, his female characters sound do not sound like a man attempting to imitate a woman’s voice. You won’t forget that he is not a woman and that no woman would have a voice like his, but they do still sound more feminine than other male narrators.

Despite my personal opinion about the pacing of ‘The Talon of Horus’ I enjoyed the book and I am very much looking forward to starting the next novel in this series, ‘Black Legion’, also written by ADB and narrated by Jonathan Keeble, and I look forward to any other ADB/Keeble projects that may be released in the near future.

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The Best Narration and Acting on Audible!

Revisado: 10-18-22

If there is a better-acted audiobook on Audible I have never heard it. The cast of Dracula are all fantastic, and this is the best way to ever ‘read’ the classic novel.

There are two or three audio errors that somehow got past editing, such as Dr. Steward repeating the same line twice in a row, but that doesn’t even slightly take away from the audiobook.

The only complaint that I could find is that the great Tim Curry is wasted in this audiobook. He plays Dr. Van Helsing, who has little in the book that is written from his point-of-view, and that’s one of the biggest shames imaginable.

I listen to this title every October at work, and you probably will as well once you buy it, and you absolutely should buy it. You’d have to be insane to pass this up!

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Another Golden Turd

Revisado: 04-01-22

They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If this is true then I must be insane, because I know how much of a lousy writer Christie Golden is and I keep giving her chance after chance.

And she’s utter crap, every time.

The Golden Bots will run to her rescue and downvote this review, but that doesn’t change the fact that Ms. Golden is the worst published author since the pathological liar known as L. Ron and that her fans haven’t bothered to read a novel better written than Twilight or Fifty Shades of Crap. Her dialogue is perhaps, perhaps, a middle-schoolers’ fan fiction. Her pacing is lousy, her descriptions are all the same. In short, she just sucks.

Only the voice actress of Sylvanas, who narrates this audiobook, keeps this from being one star bargain bin nonsense found at your local Dollar Tree store. Her acting in her narration is amazing.

I hold on to the hope that Blizzard will finally get its act together and hand Ms. Golden her pink-slip, but with the direction that they’ve been taking over the last decade I am losing hope.

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Strongly Recommended

Revisado: 01-26-22

This is an enjoyable and interesting work, and I’m now interested in checking out his other writings as well. He’s not Left-Wing, he’s not Right-Wing - he’s just an American with some common sense, and that’s so refreshing.

I’ve no hesitation whatsoever in recommending this book to anyone and every one.

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Ghastly.

Revisado: 07-27-21

Christie Golden is one of what I call ‘The Terrible Trio’, which is made up of three of the worst authors to ever be published. I rank her with the woman that wrote ‘Twilight’ and the woman that wrote ‘Fifty Shades of Nonsense’. Much like former President Barrack Obama and current Puppet Joe Biden, these people did not become successful because they had any talent whatsoever. Ms. Golden writes, at best, around a third-grade reading level. Her writing is so atrocious that it could be used by the CIA at their Black Sites to break terrorists rather than using waterboarding on them; after a few minutes of her writing the terrorists would gladly give up the identities of the other member of their terrorist cells and all of their plans. They would even turn in their own mothers if the CIA promised that they would not force them to listen to anything written by Ms. Golden again. It should be made illegal by an act of Congress for Ms. Golden to ever write anything more involved than a grocery list.

The only thing that Ms. Golden is worse at than writing fiction is narrating.

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