Kathryn

A tender slow burn with 40-something queer rep

Revisado: 01-17-24

My only complaints about this book are that the plot moppet doesn’t get on page scenes in the second half, and that the balance between “they have believable reasons not to talk” and “please effing TALK TO EACH OTHER” falls a tinge too far toward the latter.

Other than that, a beautiful book I saved to savor on vacation. I loved that the author put so much of the main characters navigating family relationships on page (made their reticence with each other more believable). I loved the trans-masc rep and the queer awakening and the way the complexities of those identities echoed past the primary romantic relationship. I loved the banter, the well-researched (as near as I could tell) career details, the way the titular place was so specific and flavorful. I could have done with more sizzle scenes, but what is there is top notch and you can just listen to them on repeat if needed, they hold up.

The let’s jog to impress each other but actually we’re both out of shape scene is iconic and fully awkward and believable in a way second chance romance rarely is. I’m so happy to have this in my holiday re-listen pile for next year.

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Great book that transcends its lit-rpg genre trappings

Revisado: 04-04-21

Lit RPG ratings like military sci-fi need to be taken with a grain of salt because the genre provokes binary reactions in its readers. If you like the genre/tropes sometimes the entries get graded on a curve and this shows up in the audible ratings. This one however I think manages to be good when compared not only inside its genre but it’s a very strong entry into the larger fantasy space. Sure, Name of the Wind it isn’t, and subtlety it doesn’t have but for an honest straight forward book it’s wonderfully plotted, with an interesting world, and the kind of characterizations where you want to know what happens to all of them hero and villain alike. I enjoyed the whole thing start to finish and look forward to seeing if the series can stay strong.

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CW: Violent fatphobia mid-way through this book

Revisado: 10-06-19

The POV in this book is over-the-top smarmy and self-satisfied, and once it begins to interact with other beings, has a near-psychopathic colonialist attitude to the world it inhabits. I kept listening thinking maybe the author was setting the stage for character growth, but once it got to the point where the POV was gleeful about its kidnapped “apprentices” beating up the “fattie” and throwing him off a mountain, I called it quits.

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Unconventional survival adventure with a ribbon of SciFi

Revisado: 07-09-17

From its largely unsympathetic cast of characters to its repeated "Wait, what?" plot twists to its unusual setting (who needs the dangers of outer space when we've got underground right here at home?), Earthcore kept me thoroughly immersed. While at times the pacing seemed a little tedious, the absence of usual sci-fi tropes more than made up for it. Rather than rooting for a specific character, I found myself holding my breath to see what each character would do under the heat and pressure the author applied to them. All of the character development felt plausible, which is pretty impressive given the range of reactions they had to extreme situations. If you're tired of swapping between low-technology fantasy and the same old space operas, this is the book for you.

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Best book on audible

Revisado: 03-25-13

I've been listening to audiobooks at a clip of 70+ per year since 2000. This is the book I've listened to the most times through. While I normally buy Nelson Runger books to help me fall asleep more quickly, he's riveting in this, and David McCullough manages to keep a very long biography suspenseful throughout. (Even on the fifth listen through, when I knew very well what was coming,mI had a hard time turning the book off.) He paints John Adams with words so vividly that I found myself trying to anticipate what John would write to Abigail to describe the events unfolding. McCullough makes no apologies for Adam's views. Instead, he illustrates the cultural context and allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about his subject's internal contradiction. I think this is why I keep coming back to this book: other biographies of key revolutionary war figures tend to be a bit sycophantic, as if they just can't let go of the hindsight that many of the institutions established by the luminaries of this are still exist. In this book, there's room to trace both strengths and flaws in American governmental structure back to their beginnings.

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Dual geekdom needed

Revisado: 11-17-12

This book, and indeed this series, deeply explores the depths of two different neighborhoods of geekdom. You're going to need passing familiarity with one of them and fluency in the other to really enjoy the series. (It doesn't matter which one you're fluent in.) The first neighborhood is technology, especially programming. The second neighborhood is bureaucracy, especially business bureaucracy. If you work in an organization or industry has been bushwhacked by six Sigma or lean whatever-your-process-happens-to-be and other trendy efficiency systems that really should only apply manufacturing, you're going to think this is pretty funny. if you can also tell the difference between the different tech specs on a basic computer spec sheet without the row headers, and can distinguish between what the parts are (e.g. that's a graphic card that's the hard drive etc) based on the description, then you know enough to find this completely hilarious. Bonus laughs will be granted at various points for: Edward Tufte geeks, literature analysis geeks & Anglophiles.

Gideon Emery's performance is so perfect that you hardly notice that it's there because you're so immersed in the story. In fact, I enjoyed the first three books in this series so much that after I finished listening to the three of them back-to-back the first time, I immediately started the series over again. I knew I had missed some of the brilliant details on the first go around and it held up really well to relistening.

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A winner

Revisado: 06-26-04

I've just finished listening to this title for the second time; I loved The Amulet... the first time for its engrossing tale and wonderfully quirky characters, and the second for its sly wit and clever narration. Stroud has written a book that appeals to both my inner ten year old and the literary snob in me, and Simon Jones gives the book the narration it deserves. This is worth your listening time and your money.

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