Matthew Powers

Well researched but hard to get into

Revisado: 03-28-25

I respect the amount of research that went into writing this. The author includes a bibliography and notes at the end of the book. However, sometimes it feels like reading a dry Wikipedia article. This felt worse at the beginning of the book than it did later on, so if you find the beginning to be a chore, try to stick with it for a few chapters.

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Getting Old

Revisado: 08-28-24

X and Miles are getting old and so is this book series, honestly.

I am invested in seeing this series through but I kind of just want it to end already, especially since this book doesn't seem to propel the story very far forward. It sets up the next book but not much else.

Also, how fast are the boats/ships in this world? Small boats can just zip around the world across entire oceans and it feels like they get there in just a few days.

Isn't it like 4000 miles / 6000 km from the approximate area of the Vanguard Islands to Rio? But ships get there at lightning speed.

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Give it time

Revisado: 08-17-24

It took some time for me to really warm up to this book. The main character starts off aggressive and unlikeable, and his wife is also cold and unlikeable.

Eventually, the story starts to ramp up and becomes more fun.

I wasn't a super fan of the ending, but it's still a fun ride.

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Good History, Bad Humor

Revisado: 08-07-24

I have read/listened to a good number of books about North Korea, and this is the first to go into a lot of the history of the country, so I appreciate that.

What I don't appreciate as much is the weird humor. The author clearly considers himself a comedian and he constantly has joke names for things like "big zombie" for Pyongyang and "bad Elvis" for Kim Il Song.

These poor jokes combined with self-centered inclusions like how the author swam under a waterfall in his underpants during the cold North Korean winter detract from the topic of North Korea and make it seem like the author wants this story to be about himself and how great he thinks he is.

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Great ideas but some inconsistencies

Revisado: 07-01-24

i really enjoyed this story and the world and mechanics described within, but there were some annoying inconsistencies that could have used an editor's eye.

For example, in the start of the book, one medicine is described as being inhaled but later it is injected. Also, a location is described as containing 2000 people but later the main character keeps talking about it having 1000 people, then later still she says 2000 again.

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Fun Story, Unfortunate Narration

Revisado: 10-13-23

The settings and world-building is fun, but like others have said, I was not a big fan of the male voice. I got used to him over time but it was kind of jarring at the beginning.

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Try not to think about it too hard

Revisado: 04-24-23

This was a decent, fun audiobook series filled with action and adventure, but it was frequently over the top, and it was painfully obvious that the main character had serious plot armor. Just listen to the story and try not to analyze it because the main character is clearly the baddest action hero who has ever lived and almost none of the baddies can ever touch him.

Also be sure to have your map of Texas available because the author loves to go into detail about exactly what neighborhood and road is being traversed at all times. It gets to be a little much at times.

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Annoying Character Arc

Revisado: 01-14-23

Nice conclusion to the series, but the 5th book, Sixpence & Selkies, is pretty tedious. Hannah spends so much of that book sulking and overthinking everything that it became annoying.

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Not Worth It

Revisado: 02-09-22

I'm only giving this two stars because I'm withholding a one star review for the hypothetical book I can't actually finish. I did finish this one but it was not worth my time.

This book kind of reminds me of books by Haruki Murakami. The setting is normal Earth but slightly tweaked in a way that's never fully explained or even feasible. Also, this book and Murakami's tend toward being overly verbose and not actually going anywhere. There are way too many parts of this book where it's incredibly easy to zone out but that's okay because you probably didn't miss anything.

The ending and all the characters' motivations leading to the ending are both unexpected and without reason. Also I don't think there was any character progression at all. The people you meet at the start of the book are basically the same at the end. This whole book is a waste of time.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Fun Story with Problems

Revisado: 01-16-22

The story and the dialog are fun but there is a trans character who constantly gets misgendered and at least one homophobic slur. There are a couple reviews which mention a racial slur, but those reviewers just misheard because of the narrator's accent. The word actually used is knickers and nut the n word.

Also, since this book is a combination of multiple smaller works, the story frequently re-describes content from the previous books in case the reader needed a refresher. That might be good for separate stories, but in a combined version like this, it feels unnecessary and a waste of time.

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