Eco-Emancipator

Great story, not so great narrator

Revisado: 01-06-23

I loved this volume, but the experience was marred by the narrator. As in the first volume, he reads with a stilted cadence, akin to William Shatner doing Tambourine Man. If that were the only problem, though, I could live with it (while rolling my eyes). The bigger problem is that in multiple places, he mixed up his voices, so the voice of a gruff male character was used for the dialog of a female character. These two problems together kept jarring me out of the immersive experience an audiobook is supposed to provide.

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Strong story, weak narrator

Revisado: 08-22-20

I liked this volume as much as the first, but the narrator was a disappointment. The Warden sounded like Casey Kasem, which didn't really have the gravitas the previous narrator gave him. All the other characters except Adolphus had high voices, which was kind of weird, and some were basically indistinguishable from one another. The women's voices were worst of all. You'd think someone who mostly does high voices could do women's voices, but he couldn't. I got over my disappointment, and still enjoyed the story, but i hope the next volume has a better narrator.

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I loved everything about this

Revisado: 08-08-20

I have been a fan of The Sandman for close to 30 years, but despite the graphic novels being in a place of prominence in my living room, held in place by Morpheus and Daniel bookends, I haven't reread them for a very long time. I preordered the audiobook and promptly forgot about it, then when it arrived, I hesitated a little to start it because I didn't want it to tarnish the love I have for the comics. I shouldn't have worried. Holy smokes, was this good! It was creepy and alluring and magical and frightening, just like the comics. The actors were wonderful. McAvoy, in particular, managed to capture Morpheus so that he was simultaneously alluring and repulsive, just like I remember him. The music and production and sound effects were also top notch. A Dream of a Thousand Cats even had my cats on edge every time they heard another cat. One of the ways I gauge whether I really liked an audiobook is whether I am ready to start another right afterward, or if I want to just wait and bask in the feelings brought on by the one I just finished. I am currently basking. I loved everything about this audiobook--one of the best credits I've ever spent. I feel like my only complaint would be that I want more.

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I'm not sure why this gets good reviews

Revisado: 01-26-19

Nick Podehl was great, as usual. The book, though...

First the good:
1. The main plot was mildly entertaining
2. The LitRPG gimmick may have some promise. I like games. I could see a melding of games and fantasy being entertaining.

The bad:
1. The audiobook is introduced as "The Land: Founding, by Aleron Kong, MD, the father of American LitRPG." Seriously? Who calls themselves the father of anything in a byline? Also, his MD seems irrelevant to being the author of a fantasy book with no medical focus whatsoever. It just comes off as bragging. Unfounded bragging at that, since the story is just not that good.

2. The whole premise described in the prologue doesn't make sense. There is a prince of the "Dark Court" who is trapped in a place called "The Land," and he wants out. He and his vizier have been watching Earth somehow, and have noticed that "earthlings" bring chaos and destruction to everything they touch, so they think that if they can bring enough earthlings to The Land, they will destroy it and presumably free the Dark and Light Courts. Ok. I guess. But then it goes off the rails. The prince needs millions of "chaos seeds" in The Land in order to bring about its destruction, and it's slow going because not enough people want to write off their souls or something, so he just waits and watches until MMORPGs are invented, and then he and his homie vizier decide to create one of their own, "a virtual world modeled after The Land." With millions of earthlings playing it, I guess they think they can siphon off a bunch of them into The Land somehow to sow chaos. The story follows the first one they caught, named Silk or James or Richter or something. Again, fine. But when Richter gets into the Land, he is told it's not a game anymore, but it's still obviously a game, with the same ground rules one finds in an RPG. If he "dies," he wakes up in his safe place, he's got a stats screen, he goes on "quests" that he needs to accept first, he has a magical bag that holds and sorts his loot, etc. Trouble is, all the NPCs he encounters also live by these kinds of in-game systems.

The story would only work if the prince and his homie created the original RPG, modeling it after how The Land works, and seeded it on Earth in the 1970s, then 50-ish years later, created The Land MMORPG to snatch souls. I would buy that reasoning. But the story clearly says that the prince saw earthlings playing VR games, and decided to give them one modeled after The Land. So we created RPGs first, but somehow this other world uses exactly the same systems?

The other way it might work is if Silk/James/Richter was held to the game-type system rules, but the normal NPC inhabitants of The Land aren't. That would imply that Richter isn't in The Land in body, but only in soul (supported by the fact that when he looked at his reflection, he didn't look like James), and maybe disembodied souls play by different rules than real, living beings. I might be able to buy that. But the way it is doesn't make sense at all.

And to top it all off, after the prologue, the whole prince/Dark Court element never comes up again, and seems to have no effect on the main story.

3. It's poorly written. Dude needs an editor. I only listened to the audiobook, so I didn't see the typos people talked about in reviews of the book, but I did notice things like the use of "amount" where he should have used "number." Like in, "...the amount of souls he captured from that world increased." Dr. Kong, MD, if you are reading this, for future reference, if it is a discrete thing you can count, e.g. souls, the correct word is "number." It's like the difference between "much" and "many," and between "less" and "fewer." Common enough mistake, but should have been caught by an editor. There are also annoying repetitions of words that an editor would have caught, like "Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and hung well past her shoulders." These kinds of mistakes draw me out of the story, making it harder to suspend my disbelief.

4. After describing her height, hair, and skin, Kong described Isabelle as having hips that were "neither narrow nor wide," a slender waist, and "small, firm breasts." I'm left wondering whether the author has ever touched a woman's breast, or even read about them, because breasts are composed of fatty tissue, and aren't "firm," even when they are small. You'd think a doctor would know this. But even if they were actually firm (calcified breast implants, maybe?), how would Richter have been able to tell by looking at her fully clothed? Did he skip over the part where Richter walked up and gave her boobs an appraising squeeze? Right in front of her boyfriend? Aside from being silly, this description went a little too far into pervy-land. Surely, just describing her breasts as small would have been enough for people to imagine her. After all, there were never descriptions of whether the male characters dressed to the left or the right, or whether they were showers or growers.

5. The ending just... ends. There isn't much of a resolution, or even an exciting cliffhanger. It's like the author decided the volume should be 346 pages long, and left off at the last full sentence on that page.

Overall, if you live and breathe MMORPGs, you might like The Land, but if you're a fantasy reader/listener who also happens to game, you might be less than satisfied, as I was.

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This is where the story heats up

Revisado: 06-23-18

After listening to Brief Cases, I realized how much I miss Harry Dresden, so I did something I've never done before, and started relistening from the beginning. This volume is where the story heats up, where it becomes something more than a series of supernatural mysteries. I love it.

I also love Marsters as Harry. I just wish there weren't so many mispronunciations. Wretched was pronounced "retched" and writhed was pronounced "wreathed." Each time it happens, it pulls me out of the story a little.

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I didn't realize how much I missed Dresden

Revisado: 06-13-18

At first I was disappointed because I had already heard the 3 Bigfoot stories, but really this compilation was wonderful. At first I thought the Molly stories were my favorites, but then I got to Zoo Day with Maggie and Mouse. The Mouse parts were the best thing ever, and I loved hearing the same story from 3 perspectives.

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Took a disappointing turn

Revisado: 06-08-18

I loved the first volume, and enjoyed the first 80% of this one, but then it was like Clarke got tired of the curse storyline, and just called it in on the last impossible task. My main problem is that nothing about it makes sense. Here is where I go into spoilers.

If the ocean battle created an underwater civilization, then that impossible task was actually complete before the task with the stones. so when Naji woke up after the stones and realized he had weakened the curse, he really should have noticed that the curse was completely gone. It doesn't make much sense that the task doesn't count as done until he's aware of it. Also, if the underwater city just popped into being a couple months ago, it doesn't make sense that they have a well-developed social system, so much so that they have lots of artists already. The whole thing exceeded my ability to suspend my disbelief.

And that's disappointing because the love story was sweet, and the challenges in the first part of the book were well done. Makes me think Clarke went on vacation, and the publisher hired someone off the streets who's never written before to finish things up.

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Took an interesting turn

Revisado: 04-14-18

Overall, I enjoyed this volume. I think Atticus's circumstances at the end sets it up for some interesting stories going forward, especially with The Morrigan. I'm a little worried that the arm thing will be too easily resolved, but we'll see.

That said, I do think Loki and Hel were too easily dispatched, given that this battle had been brewing for several volumes now. That was a bit of a let down. And I think things got preachy a couple times, about the environment and religion. I do agree with the point of view expressed, but I like my stories to show rather than tell, and it seemed kind of heavy handed.

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Good characterization and exploration of power

Revisado: 03-17-18

I enjoyed this series. it has imaginative world building and good characters. And it explores topics that don't often get explored, like the politics of compromise. And letting go of past wrongs to pursue the greater good.

That said, it does require a suspension of disbelief. The cities are just bigger, by far, than a land animal can be. Unless gravity is significantly different, or people are significantly smaller. Still, though, it was worth the time.

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I hope these stories never end!

Revisado: 02-24-18

Sullivan somehow keeps each volume familiar without being formulaic. Royce and Hadrian may be my favorite characters ever. I love them both, and I also loved the new characters in this volume, especially Genny and Evelyn.

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