The Yawning Horror

Meh-litary fiction

Revisado: 06-17-24

I really like AT's other work, but this is just forgettable apart from the narrator's draaaaawl.

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Far too long

Revisado: 02-17-24

The narration is excellent, but there should be half as much of it. This is actually well written, but it's also meandering, repetitive, and banal. That's what happens when a "cozy" style story overstays it's welcome.

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Did not especially care for this

Revisado: 09-28-23

Having enjoyed Good Omens, I managed to finish one Discworld novel before deciding Terry Pratchett was not my cup of tea. This book not only cements that opinion but has disinterested me in Baxter's bibliography as well.

While listening to this I had vague flashes of the only Piers Anthony novel I ever started, Scalzi's Fuzzy Logic, and Niven's Ringworld. All mediocre or disappointing experiences.

The English narrator's normal speaking voice is pleasant but he voices characters with awful American accents that sound like 1960s dockworkers? One whole chapter is the voice of a backwards conservative commentator type, and I just.. skipped over it.

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Fitfully interesting Chinese techno-thriller

Revisado: 10-30-21

Good: Often reminiscent of Gibson and Sterling's cyberpunk. Bad: Flat characters, cliched dialogue, affectless narration.

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An amateurish recording

Revisado: 09-07-21

The author reads her own work, and the resulting recording sounds like a public lecture recorded on a micro-cassette. There's an electronic hum, reverb from the non-studio recording space and not positioning the mic properly, and lots of mouth noises.

I can't speak to contents of the book as I can't bear listening to it.

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Glad I stuck with it

Revisado: 04-23-21

The narrator gradually gets better. Roanhorse's debut is a bit like Buffy's first season: enjoyable but rough around the edges.

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Unlistenable. May as well have a robot read to you

Revisado: 01-05-21

Duerden's robotic narration was rather fitting for 'A Calculated Life' but I just can't bear it here. Every time I've tried to listen to this I've wondered if I'm listening to a person or a synthesized TTS voice, because I swear my GPS nav has more character. It's not just monotonous, but all done in the most offputting British accent where every vowel is drawn out (think "draaawwings").

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Familiar YA in Latinx fantasy setting

Revisado: 01-04-21

The classic themes of being different and not fitting in are blended with contemporary issues of undocumented immigrants, sexism, gender roles, and LGBTQ acceptance. Sometimes the author/narrator seems to intrude on the plot with asides to various injustices just kind plopped into the text. It's an artless kind of message fiction, but that aspect gradually fades as the plot progresses. By the end I'd have jumped into the sequel if it were available.

I think there were some romance scenes? That I just skipped through..

The audiobook narration is.. fair? The characters are Argentine, so an Argentine actress reads the text. She sounds flat and morose throughout. If you've ever heard a book or film critic read their reviews aloud on the radio, that's pretty close. There are a lot of odd stress placements and occasionally words get mashed into a string of syllables that I had to check the text for.

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