OYENTE

Astrid

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PLEASE make this into a movie

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-23-24

A phenomenal slow burn, leaving tantalizing crumbs for the reader to follow toward a satisfying conclusion. It was a little too slow at one particular spot near the end (no spoilers, but one scene with some cops could have been significantly shortened to the story’s benefit) and I found the daughter to be an unpleasantly daft antagonist, holding me back from ever fully settling into the horror.

A very good (and at times quite humorous) read with a believable and sympathetic protagonist, held back from five stars only by the repetitiveness of certain scenes, and the stubborn, grating, foot-dragging nature of the daughter’s role in the narrative.

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An impressive orator without much to say

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-07-24

I didn’t finish the lecture series. He spends a good amount of time talking about ancient myths, yes, but it’s just talking, and sharing personal interpretations like this is a one-sided conversation.

After a certain point (I had about eight hours left of the series when I finally gave up) he STOPS talking about myths and begins orating about real history, and of patriotism, and democracy, and the glories of dying for one’s country… By the looks of these reviews, he continues on this path of talking about non-fictional political figures for the rest of the series, somehow?

I don’t take my democracy for granted. But I find this sort of patriotism exhausting to listen to, and his mention of the Egyptians (paraphrasing as I best remember) “Worshipping cats where we might be more inclined to kick them” had me realizing exactly the sort of person I had mistakenly trusted to teach me how to interpret ancient myths and literature. Yikes.

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Very well-rounded!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-17-24

PLEASE get this professor on for more lectures! He was very engaging and sounded like he had a genuine, enthusiastic interest in what he does

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Okay story…until

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-17-23

Until Neolithic boomer wife “humor”. I was tolerant of the story up until the main character’s wife shows up to “rescue” him, causing instant confusion, mayhem, and, in general, everything she was warned might happen, all the whole blaming her situation on him and not listening unless he repeats himself several times. She’s an incredibly abusive, intolerant, and tone deaf boomer wife caricature. Instant turn off. Can’t finish it

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Just okay

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-16-23

The story itself is gripping, and I found the exchanges between the villain alien characters entertaining. Incredibly high, Doctor Who season finale-esque stakes throughout. But the banter between protagonist characters was way, way too much. Persistent, uncomfortable, and inappropriate sexually tense talk between colleagues of entirely different generations (one of whom was married). An abusive spouse who persistently belittles, degrades, and even throws things at her husband with no recourse, and with other characters even joining in on the abuse. Most “witty” banter in this book tastes like stale Boomer “sports good, wife bad” humor. The narrator does it no favors by giving the female characters’ dialogue a whiny, nagging, bitter, and demeaning tone where it wasn’t always directly implied to be so by the author.

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Compelling and engaging

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-11-23

A great story with a great performance! I love how thought-provoking the whole thing is. The characters were compelling and I believe that, even if I were to read this on paper without the enhancement of the superb voice performances, I would still feel each character’s unique voice through the pages. Never a boring moment, with high stakes and terror and community and even a few teary moments. I want to give special mention to the empathy of the fictional journalist collecting these interviews: his anger and indignation at the sensationalization of this tragic event brings more credibility and humanity to the whole thing, and brings it all together nicely.

However, speaking as a reader in their mid-20’s, I have to say that the author’s persistence in circling back to blaming social media was tiring. Phone and social media addiction is real. But take a look anywhere in history and you’ll see unprecedented violence. Heck, there’s even an interview in this book from the point of view of a rescue volunteer recounting stories of communities in shambles, with previously quiet towns suddenly resorting to dog-eat-dog behavior when faced with disaster, terror, and isolation. But when a similar violent and terrible scenario is played out by these younger young gen-Z and millennials? Kids who’ve probably never been trusted with anything worth anything in their young lives, or expected to be able to problem solve and look solely to higher powers to know what to think, both socially and professionally? The classic and ugly “social media melts brains” bogeyman has to show its face instead. I found it tiring and, honestly, a little demeaning.

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Morally suspect cardboard cutouts

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-05-23

Porter’s performance is this title’s only saving grace.

At the end of book one I intended to move forward with the rest of the series due to its interesting magic system and seemingly multi-faceted main villain. But after watching all these senseless, misogynistic, and sometimes even pedophilic people run about the epic scenes with cardboard cutout swords and only a general, on the nose, and childlike grasp of the noble characters they’re supposed to play, I’m saddened to say I’ll have to shelve this series forever.

The author attempts to copy something of Tolkien’s heroine, Eowyn, in the character Mirima. This was an exciting and epic turn of events, until further reading revealed her, like literally every other “strong” female in this book, to be a boob-bearing Woman with boobs and beauty despite her strength, and irrational and unmasculine feelings such as mercy and kindness. There’s an attempted rape by a male character upon Mirima, and the author clearly favored the idea of having mercy on the would-be rapist, deciding that the poor man was just hopelessly enraptured by her beauty and full of inescapable fantasies which the victim would, if not forgive, at least sympathize with and thereafter tolerate his presence without “unjustly” sullying his reputation. This was the moment the magic of this epic story died for me, and I shouldn’t have continued hoping vainly that it would maybe get better.

Breasts. Why are breasts mentioned so much? Why is a woman’s worth and goodness measured by her beauty? Why is it just okay for grown men to talk about a nine year old girl and lament about how she’ll be so beautiful when she grows up, and about how he’ll never be able to have sex with her? What??? This wasn’t even a villain’s dialogue, it was a character we’re supposed to sympathize with and see as a hero.

There’s a race of horse-riding people who were supposed to hold some pretty feminist views of the world, but when dialogue is read from the point of view of these women, they still proudly and embarrassingly reveal the author’s misogynistic views. Even these strong Horsewomen are apparently lesser than and need to be described in gentle, beautiful language instead of being acknowledged as the strong warriors the author claims they are.

The writing itself is only barely passable. Flowery, as though he kept a thesaurus open on his desk the whole way through and chose words that sounded Fanciest, despite the fact that even people with a college reading level would only be able to guess his meaning. Far too many shortened and repeated phrases for unneeded emphasis. A frustratingly passive voice.

There’s been a theme in these first two books where there’s a pretty solid and effective plan to win the day in the third act, and we read page upon page of this plan being prepared for and then acted upon, only for the author to mercilessly strike it down as soon as the arrow finally flies, causing the whole brilliant plan to end in horrible and pointless sacrifice. While a good story has its defeats, they’re meant to be learned from and to be useful in other unexpected ways, not as a poor and cheap way to elicit disappointment and surprise from the reader.

Overall, I really wanted to like the story, but it’s so weak and too morally suspect to truly enjoy. As with many other stories written by male authors, I’m a little shocked that A) it’s considered fine and dandy for the men writing this nonsense to hold these gross, over-sexualized, patronizing, and violent views of the “gentler” sex and B) people eat books up with these views and say they’re groundbreaking and great

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