patrisi

Great start to new series, content warning

Revisado: 10-24-23

The main character (Stephen) is engaging and his situation in life is interesting. There's a lot of world building as one would expect in the first of a series, all of it interesting. I like that it includes issues that workers in low paid jobs face in a realistic way. The magic system is something Stephen is still learning about and we get to learn with him. It's not similar to systems in other books, very original.

One of the best characters in this book is Stephen's cat but he also has good friends and good neighbors (he rents a room) and he's social enough to meet new people and establish relationship in a way that doesn't feel contrived.

The narrator, Will Watt, does a great job though I ran into one of the issues that sometimes comes up with audiobooks while listening. All through the book I thought I heard the narrator pronouncing sigil wrong or perhaps using a UK pronunciation I was unfamiliar with but I was the one who was wrong! I read the author's AMA and someone asked about this. It turns out that the word in the book is sigl, not sigil, and the narrator is pronouncing it correctly! Read the AMA for a full explanation of the meaning of the two words.

SPOILERISH CONTENT WARNING below


Those who are very sensitive to animals being hurt might want to proceed with caution. Stephen's cat Hobbes is one of the best characters in the book so you develop an attachment to him quickly. But the cat is very seriously injured and, even worse, this is done deliberately causing the animal great pain. I found this so upsetting I stopped listening. I would not have returned to the book if I hadn't read anything else by this author. But because I had read the author's previous series I decided I could trust that this was not gratuitous, would prove to be necessary to the plot, and resolved in a way that was ... not sure how to say this ... emotionally acceptable? true to the story but not make you want to never buy another book in the series? Anyway, I did finish the book and my trust was rewarded.

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Great reading, great plot, great characters!

Revisado: 09-14-16

Any additional comments?

This is the second book of The Great Way trilogy. If you haven't read book 1, The Way into Chaos, read/listen to it first. That said, this is a great middle book for the series, the characters change and grow, you learn new things about the world and plenty of unexpected things happen, the plot is really full of surprises. The performance is top notch, Kramer gets every nuance of the text and gives a strikingly individual voice to each character. This is a lively and interesting book, I highly recommend it!

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