JG

Good follow-up, so-so narration

Revisado: 11-06-24

I enjoyed the story (even though it really should be called Two Years After) and thought it was an interesting follow-up to the original book. Normally I think Pinchot is a terrific narrator, but this one was a bit disappointing. Not only did he assign southern accents to characters that were from the north, but he would switch accents from chapter to chapter for the same character.

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A great story hindered by distracting narration

Revisado: 11-15-23

I've loved all of Eskens' books, this one included. My biggest issue with it was the narration. I guess many people enjoy books with multiple narrators, but this just felt like too much. At times I found myself more concerned with tracking which narrator was doing which characters than paying attention to the dialogue. It was distracting and took away from the story a bit.

Aside from that, though...it was a well-plotted, evenly paced story that, though maybe slightly rushed at the end, was a lot of fun to listen to.

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Stephen King's fatal flaw

Revisado: 11-15-23

First, the narrator. Jusine Lupe played the character Holly Gibney in the Mr. Mercedes television show, so she is actually exactly who I picture whenever I read her character. I have zero problem with her being the narrator, though her voice did not vary a great deal.

For the story, it's good, but I think the fact that we basically know everything halfway through the book and the rest is just waiting for Holly to catch up with us is kinda hard to listen to. I would have preferred being held a bit more in the dark throughout. The antagonists were, while admittedly despicable, not as formidable as I'm used to in King's stories...especially those in the Hodges/Holly-verse. I guess they can't all be evil supernatural beings...but this one was a bit of a letdown.

Lastly...King once again chooses to lean heavily on his political slant even though it benefits the story in no perceivable way. There was never a time in my memory where people were so obsessively declaring their vaccination status. Those moments reeked of virtue signaling and contributed nothing of value to the actual plot. It felt more like King was interspersing his juvenile tweets throughout the novel. I honestly don't care if he's pro or anti Trump, pro or anti vaccine. Be who you want. Use it when it makes sense to the story. It did not make sense here. He just obviously felt like he needed to shoehorn COVID into every aspect of the novel, but he did a disservice to the story.

All in all, this was the weakest of the Holly Gibney stories.

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A decent entry to King's oeuvre

Revisado: 09-17-21

Not his best, but I'd rank this one higher up. Better than the recent "Later", and better than "The Institute", but probably not in my top ten of Stephen King's works. I think the narrator did a good job. Reminds me a little of Will Patton, who narrated King's Mr. Mercedes books. He did a good job with differentiating characters.
I think I've read enough King to know he has some idiosyncracies...some jargon or slang that may be a bit outdated - or maybe it's a regional thing. I mean, I doubt anyone under the age of 65 uses the phrase "shuck and jive" these days...and until this book I'd never in my life heard the term "gimme cap" (I had to look it up...apparently it's just a baseball cap with a logo or company name on it).

One of the other things he does is shoehorn his politics into a book where it absolutely serves no real purpose. I assume he just had to get his TDS out there for those who don't see his regular snark on Twitter. Whatever. It doesn't really take away from the story, but it also adds precisely nothing. It's out of place and in ten or twenty years it will absolutely date this book. But King's gotta be King, I suppose.

All said, it was an engrossing story, if perhaps a bit predictable. You can see the ending coming from a mile away, but the way he writes it, at least the journey is a relatively enjoyable one with only minor bumps along the way.

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I have a few issues with this book...

Revisado: 08-25-21

I won't get into the plotline in this review. I have some issues with it, but overall it's an entertaining and creative story that the authors handle quite well. My issues are a bit more specific, relating to both the production and certain character developments that are troubling me.

First, they need to bring back Jefferson Mays for future Pendergast books. He's by far the best person to succeed Rene Auberjonois. His voice is similar and he does a much better job than this guy. It bothers me how DeMeritt does various voice...those that aren't caricatures are just really jarring or way off what they should be. The voice of the documentary directors "Betts" is just awful. I think the narrator spent way too much time watching Golden Girls to get Blanche Devereaux's version of a southern accent so he could apply it to literally every character that is a resident of Savannah. Rather insulting honestly. Then there is the voice of Constance Green, who sounds like Katherine Hepburn. I'm not even sure where that decision came from, but it's very distracting.

As for the character development, I'm really bothered by how they have decided to handle Agent Coldmoon. He is quickly becoming the clueless sidekick, which almost directly contradicts the reason he was apparently brought in to be Pendergast's partner to begin with. He is virtually useless in this book, more often than not just coming across as some irritable or confused person to be there asking questions the whole time. They really need to either drop this character completely or make him a more important part of the story...one that can be insightful or clever. We had a hint of this in Crooked River when he was out on his own down in Central America, but he brings nothing to the table in Bloodless.

As for the plot, it ventures into absurdity, but we've all come to expect this from the Pendergast series. I accept it...but what I do NOT accept is that apparently people in this universe are completely unaware of Snapchat filters (or the concept behind them).

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I thought this would never end

Revisado: 02-01-20

I really have never listened to a book before where I thought it would never end...until this book. I mean, the idea is there and it is sufficiently disturbing. It's just that when you think things are getting closer to some resolution, you realize the author was only getting warmed up.
And don't get me started on the author's apparent total lack of understanding of the capabilities of second graders. This author is a worse offender than Stephen King when it comes to attributing much greater abilities to 7 and 8 year old kids than is even remotely reasonable. This really just killed it for me.
As for the narrator... she's terrific. She took a gruelling job and made it a bearable listen.

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A solid Reacher novel

Revisado: 11-27-18

It seems like Scott Brick must have studied Dick Hill's performances for the Reacher novels, because he reads it in a similar way...picking up a lot of the intonations and rhythms that Dick Hill made famous in his Reacher performances. Props to Brick. I'm not normally a fan of his narration, but he does a terrific job here.
As for the story, this is just the sort of Reacher story that got me hooked on the series. Keeping it small and tense. A terrific entry in the series.

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A good story ruined by terrible narration

Revisado: 10-22-18

Read the following sentence out loud (an actual sentence from the book):
Forty minutes later, the bus rocked to a stop at a one-room gas station depot lost in the great swath of pine and scrub and hot, sandy earth.

Now, enunciate every 'the' and 'a' as if you'd just learned to read:
Forty minutes later, THEE bus rocked to AY stop at AY one room gas station depot lost in THEE great swath...

You get the point. Throughout, the narrator pronounces every 'the' as 'thee', every 'a' as 'ay' and every 'again' as 'agayn'. It's incredibly annoying and distracting and there were points where I realized I'd missed whole parts of the story because I was so frustrated with how the narrator was reading the story. NOBODY TALKS LIKE THAT!

The story itself is quite interesting and original, so it's a darn shame that they picked this person to read it.

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One of King's weakest

Revisado: 11-10-17

This one was down in "Under the Dome" territory. Very disappointing - tedious, condescending, full of stereotypes and offensively broad generalizations about men AND women. Quite a few political swipes that, although I expected them because I'm well aware of King's politics. Still, they were pretty clumsy at best.

There are quite a few aspects to the basic premise that really bother me...so much so that it really makes me wonder if they thought it through enough before putting pen to paper. It all just felt too half-baked...all for the purpose of making some heavy-handed moral argument about gender politics and war.

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Wow. Awful all around

Revisado: 11-05-16

I was a big fan of The Alienist and Angel of Darkness. The Alienist got me hooked on historical mysteries and thrillers for a good long while. It was well crafted and well written.

This, on the other hand, was not.

It's full of absurd plotlines, completely unappealing characters and for some reason the author felt it necessary to throw in a heavy helping of gratuitous swearing that seems completely out of character to the people in the story.

I honestly could not even finish. I made it maybe 75% of the way through before I just gave up and deleted this from my iPod...which is a first for me. Normally I can power through even if I'm not enjoying a story (coughTheLastShipcoughcough)...but this was just too much even for me.

Do not buy this. Do not listen. I don't usually write reviews, so when I do it's because I felt strongly enough to make my opinion known.

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