Animated Puppets

The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 04-12-25

The Good: This story has an interesting premise. It samples many other existing stories: Event Horizon, Battlestar Galactica, The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Hero's, Blakes 7, and of course Aliens. If you go in expecting a young adult book then it is ok.

The Bad: All of the characters are paper thin and 2 dimensional. Mostly just tropes. You don't even know who the protagonist is, or if they are good or bad guys. They come across as what a teenager would think a soldier/adult would act. My reference to Battlestar Galactica is in regards to almost everyone being a secret undercover spy. It is very hard to connect to any character. There is a point in the story where they are focused on having paper orders, as if paper is really rare. But later on a shuttle crafts walls are covered with p*rn pictures. Seeing that this takes place in the future you would suspect something more high end. We are living in the digital world now and in the future skin magazines still exist on paper? It really took me out of the moment.

Overall: I got this on an Audible buy one take one deal, so price wise it is fair. I normally listened to a book a second time to see what I missed on the first pass. I will not be listening again nor ordering any more in the series. The worse part, is that the ship should have been the main character. Instead we get a lot of stumbling around with random characters dying in a very non-sequitur storyline. The author tried to save the book in the prologue, but it was too late. If anything the story should have started at the prologue and provided us a mystery as to what happened. Ray Porter tried, but with too many characters the voices overlapped and it was hard to keep track of who was doing what. A huge swing and a miss...

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 02-10-25

This is a review of all 3 books.

The Good: This is a Red Pill / Blue Pill situation. If you take the Red Pill and just go with it, it is an enjoyable ride. If you take the Blue Pill you will see all the plot holes and non-sequiturs and miss out on something different. I really like the game mechanics using writing tropes as stats and powers.

The Bad: There isn't a real exit plan for the characters. It's like being in an endless Scooby Doo episode where when you pull off the mask of the Grounds Keeper for the big reveal... it really doesn't seem to help with their escape or end game. Book 2 ends with a bombshell which is pretty well ignored in book 3.

Overall: I'm willing to bet good money that this started out as a writing exercise by seeing how many writing tropes you can fit into a story. Somewhere along the way the tropes became stats and abilities for the characters which really shaped the characters possible actions. For those who play RPG's one of the biggest hurdles for players to overcome is limiting their actions to what the characters know, and not the players life experience. Using tropes to limit the characters here made them make some very tough decisions. I am worried this will wash out like the TV Series "Lost" where the ending doesn't support the story, but I did buy all three and will pick up book 4 when it is released. OK Rob, show us what you got.

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I'm Starting to Worry...

Revisado: 09-26-24

The Good: I was able to finish it in a few days. Considering the subject matter I understand why they used this narrator. It starts out as a what would you do in this situation and changes into a bigger message. If you are under 30 you will like it. Under 20 and you will love it.

The Bad: I'm 58 and could not connect or relate to any of the characters. They all seemed paper thin. The premise is very non sequitur. Worse, this is a one time read. I love the JDAT series and have read them multiple times (not comparing just providing context), and there is nothing to learn from a second reading. In the end it was a slog and I was happy to finish it.

Overall: I like Jason's writing style. This is just written ok. I expected more as I pre-ordered this as soon as it was an option. I get more out of his Tic Toc videos than this. It just falls apart and just sorta ends in a Meh.

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 03-31-24

The Good: The Saga continues. Our heroes return and are put through the paces once more. There is a lot to chew upon in this story.

The Bad: This should have been 2 books. The last quarter is deeply compressed with a lot going on in which it is easy to get lost. I had to listen twice to digest the full story. It's like a roller coaster with no straight lines. You are constantly being pulled, pushed, and flipped with no chance to catch your breath. There is a throwaway comment in the book about sticky arrows. That is how the last quarter feels - as if you are eating piece after piece of taffy without time to swallow. Your jaw aches, drool runs down your mouth, and you want to spit the whole thing out to catch your breath.

Overall: It is still a good story. It is sad that everything is wrapped up as there will most likely not be another in this series. It had great bones. I would suggest you stop when they go for the dragon, and take a few days off before finishing it. Binging will be an overload and you will miss a lot of connections. Or, you can listen twice to pick up those missed bits. Hopefully Zach will build upon this world as Terry Pratchett did in Discsworld/Ankh-Morpork. I am left wanting more.

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 02-23-24

The Good: Narrator did a good job with what he had to work with. It's entertaining at moments. If you have an 8 year old interested in goblins and adventures they will most likely love this.

The Bad: This reads like a GM decided to publish their last gaming session, and the GM is a softie and always gives their players an out. Eventually you quit being concerned if a character is going to die, because, you know, the GM is a softie. I don't mind the profanities as I'm sure each race has a list of corresponding terms, but the use of idioms from our reality really took me out of the moment (IE: brownie points). One more gripe, and a mini-spoiler, the mimic predominantly on the cover is only in the story for about 50 seconds. So don't expect a clever encounter or story arc.

Overall: If you like being led by the nose you might like this. The goblin is the only character to be given barely any development, and the rest of the party are your standard trope characters. I assume the other raving reviews are from friends and family. I'll give it a 2nd listen but I will not be continuing the series.

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 02-05-24

The Good: Great voice work by narrator.

The Bad: This is an extremely watered down version of Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. There is no substance and story is trope after trope. It comes across as rushed and I assume Dakota Krout wrote these to fulfil a contractual agreement with the publisher. The fact that the next 2 books have already been completed support this. There is no endgame for any of the characters as there is no achievable goal. Lucky for each character they had no friends or likeable family to miss. A weak story propped up by Puns may appease the expectations of 8 - 14 year olds, but to everyone else this was as bland as a pocket pancake with bits of wood inside.

Overall: Very disappointed. Normally I would order Dakota's books as they became available. Audible/Amazon allow for refunds, no questions asked (I expect to receive an email from them for this 'negative' review) but I'm going to keep it like a splinter you can't dig out. Next time I"m tempted to order from Dakota I will re-listen to this book until the temptation passes. Avoid!

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 12-27-23

The Good: I will be saving a lot of money by not continuing the Villain's Code series. The white noise of the first story made it easy to play in the background while waiting for it to get better. At 9 hours and 28 minutes the slog was not unrecoverable.

The Bad: Amy Landon did ok, but the constant scraping noise in the background of Drew scraping the bottom of the Super Powered barrel was distracting. Not credit worthy.

Overall: These stories are more akin to fan fiction or writing exercises. This is what you give away to your paying Discord fans, and not bundled into a mediocre anthology. It comes across as a cash grab. Between the new speak and constant exposition with little action this should be avoided. Go pick up the new 5 minute Sherlock instead.

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 05-30-23

The Good: Intriguing storyline with interesting characters. This is less Philip Marlowe Noir and more Blade Runner Noir. Accept that and it is a fun 'read'. I listened twice.

The Bad: There was a lot of promise in this story and is played out too fast. More Novela and less Novel. It would have been nice to see more adventures with the protagonist, but the ending makes that extremely unlikely.

Overall: I like the thought process of Nick Harkaway and his writing style. It's less original and more a juxtaposition of noir and SciFi (old and new). A quarter way thru this book I decided to buy another. This has substance and the mechanics are explained well with very little McGuffin.

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 12-16-22

The Good: I made it to the 3 hour 9 minute mark before tapping out. This is the only Nathan Hystad book I bought, so there's that.

The Bad: As another reviewer posted " This is THE STAND, but with aliens". There is nothing new here. This isn't inspired by, or in the spirit of, but rather some very lazy writing. It is trope after trope, and reads like a screenplay with 'jump' moments poorly written in. It feels like fan fiction. I also will have to reevaluate books narrated by R.C. Bray. He made a name for himself and now seems to be cashing in on whoever offers him enough money. Sort of like the modern day Bruce Willis. It comes across as phoned in.

Overall: Stealing stories from veteran authors and repackaging them to the new generation as 'Fresh and Original' is just sad. In my 3 hours and 9 minutes I experienced a main dish of refurbished "The Stand" by Stephen King - microwaved with ketchup on top, with a side order of "Signs" a la Mel Gibson, garnished with a touch of "War of the Worlds" -H.G. Wells, and served upon a piece of glass.

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The Good, Bad, and Overall...

Revisado: 11-12-22

The Good: It has great bones (potential) to be a great story. I listened twice.

The Bad: I know a lot of reviewers believe this is too long but I disagree. If anything this is too condensed. It reads like an abridged story. To put it into context imagine the full trilogy of the LOTR series being reduced to one book. Yes, the dog was very entertaining and I did laugh out loud a few times, but how hard is it to make the mind of a dog funny? The idea of teaching knights how to drive a RV is ludicrous. The only reason it takes a couple weeks to learn to drive (this timeline people) is that we were exposed at a very early age and have picked up on the behavior. It weakened the story. The ending was extremely anti-climatic as well. All of the characters were 2 dimensional. This is also very linear. If the protagonist isn't there very little happens to move the story forward or add depth. The only thought it inspires is if this is meant to be a parody or not. The FBI agent was the worse. Pure milk toast as an agent. Maybe Alanson was watching old episodes of the X-Files. The cliff hanger at the end did not inspire me to continue with the series. Too bad, as this could have been epic if it was properly fleshed out.

Overall: Stop complaining that this isn't Expeditionary Force. Recommend by a friend so I bought it. i won't return it, but I will not continue with the series either. I rate it 2 Meh's.

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