River H.

Dark, Compelling, Well Narrated

Revisado: 03-02-25

Amy McFadden does an excellent job performing this book, giving it the gravitas it needs without pushing it too far: she is clearly a seasoned pro, and she lets the story's weight carry itself in just the right balance. I especially enjoy her clear but subtle character voice differentiation.

I got kind of frustrated in the first half of the book by how the author drags out Ruby's secret; I was ready far sooner for her to tell the whole truth to her close compatriots. But eventually the author got us there, and the rest of the book was more satisfying. It's quite grim and sad, with maybe more gratuitous cruelty to specially-gifted children than I felt was necessary. But it was still overall a memorable and entertaining listen, and Ruby is a wonderfully strong and layered character, beautifully brought to life by McFadden.

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Another Winner in the Series

Revisado: 01-01-25

"Edge of Valor" (the next and final book in this series) is finishing downloading as I write this. I can't wait to start it!

The narrator, Stacey Glembowski, is wonderful throughout this series. She is a good actor and very experienced, but more importantly, she has the unique skill-set needed to narrate audiobooks well. For instance, she doesn't overdo the maleness of her male characters' voices, and she uses a light touch on all the character differentiations that is really impressive. You know exactly who is speaking without any heavy-handedness. Ms. Glenbowski's professional training shows in how she uses not just pitch but placement, pace, accent, attitude, and a range of other techniques to distinguish her character voices.

Ms. Glembowski also maintains a hushed intensity in her read that matches exactly the tone of the book and keeps you fully engaged and pulls you along. Well done.

Kyla Stone, the author, is of course also superb, especially with this genre. I wonder if she was in the military ... either that or she has done impeccable research, because the battle sequences and special-forces techniques are so realistic and authentic. So are the details about rural Michigan, wilderness living, and survival skills.

The final paragraphs of this book -- Hannah's reflections on what she has learned, lost, and found in herself and the world -- are especially poignant and beautifully written.*

As in the other books in the series, Ms. Stone writes especially good female characters: refreshingly strong, independent, vulnerable and fierce. Both male and female characters are compellingly complex. The storyline is great -- I couldn't stop listening.

(*The author's note at the end, written just before Christmas of 2020 as the COVID pandemic was headed into its second year, was sad to listen to 3 years later, because the hope and faith in humanity that Ms. Stone predicts has not played out. Our real apocalypse has been a slow-motion reflection of a lot of the ugliness, violence, misogyny and selfishness depicted in this fictional series, alas. But somehow it makes me feel a little less alone.)

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Great Characters

Revisado: 12-19-24

Excellent narration--she is a comsummate pro. The author continues keeping me very engaged with this series, and I'm really impressed with her characters, especially the female characters. Well done!

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I'm Hooked

Revisado: 12-06-24

Very well narrated, a great gripping series for fans of this genre. The female characters are especially well-written.

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Sex Scenes Are Wincingly Weird & Borderline

Revisado: 12-01-24

I couldn't stand the characters -- shallow and not realistic. There was a boring, icky amount of jacking off, and despite the main male character's asking, "Are you okay with this?", when he dominated and hurt the female lead during sex, it didn't ring true--it came across as assault.

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Well Narrated, Gripping Story

Revisado: 12-01-24

The Edge of Collapse series is a little more violent than I'd expected, but it's got me hooked. The female characters are awesome. Narration excellent. Great listen for fans of near-future dystopian fiction.

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Fascinating and Engaging

Revisado: 04-03-24

I learned so much from this book; it filled in details I only vaguely knew about the brilliant, indefatigable, devoted women who served at Bletchley Park during World War II. I knew that there was a fictional plot woven into the factual setting and storyline,
and in sometimes with historical fiction, that distracts me as I wonder which is which. But in this case, I enjoyed the whole so much that I went along for the ride happily. The Author's Note at the end gives a satisfying explanation of what was fact and what fiction, and I was surprised at how little Kate Quinn actually had to make up. She had a wonderful basis to start from -- this lively, quirky, colorful and intensely dedicated group at Bletchley Park -- and she made the most of it. I was especially moved by Quinn's theme of the cost of the secrecy oath -- the toll it took on those who swore it, mentally, emotionally, in relationships and families. And I was struck by how loyally they held to their oath. My mother took such an oath for a branch of the U.S. military during the war, where she worked in intelligence. She told no one, not even my father. We only found out after she died, when we discovered a hidden scrapbook she had made of those years. "The Rose Code" helped me understand better what might have been my mother's work as well, and why she never told of it.

The book was very well narrated by Saskia Maarleveld. This is the second audiobook I've listened to with her narrating, and she is one of the true pros -- clearly well trained and very facile with tone, rhythm and accents. My only quibble is that I wish she would do more to differentiate men's voices than simply lower the pitch. They all sound gravelly and it doesn't allow her to give them as much personality. She could do so many more things instead with rhythm, placement in the mouth, pace ... I'm sure she knows what I'm talking about. ;) But it's a minor complaint -- especially compared to her strengths in accents and the vivacity of her delivery.

I highly recommend this audiobook.

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Could Not Stop Listening

Revisado: 03-24-24

Great narrations from both actors, combined with a supercharged storyline that does not let up. This was an intense sci-fi experience, wonderfully written and performed.

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Lovely Story, Landscape, Narration

Revisado: 01-22-24

I really enjoyed listening to this story, even if the plot got a little goofy at times.. Colgan gives us a vivid depiction of two things I had very little idea of to start with: the world of commercial pilots (more specifically, being a female pilot in a male-dominated profession), and the magical landscape and culture of the outer islands of northern Scotland. Beaton is, I'm guessing, a native Scot, and so of course her Scottish accents are spot-on, but she does just as good a job with regional British accents for the other characters. (She's a little heavy-handed with male voices -- she didn't have to pitch them so low nor try to distinguish them so strongly, but it wasn't annoying.) The romance plot and setting are equally compelling, and with Beaton's performance carries it beautifully.

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Very Fun Story, Well Narrated

Revisado: 01-22-24

JoJo Moyes has written another wonderful story; this is one of my favorites of hers yet, second only to "Me Before You." The three main female characters -- especially Nisha -- are really well-drawn, and the challenges in their lives are relatable and written with a deep compassion and understanding of marriage, friendship, motherhood, and the continual challenges of being objectified and harassed as a woman in the modern world. Daisy Ridley's narration is excellent, notably in dialogue, which she delivers with a superbly naturalistic style. Her weakness as a narrator is with her American characters -- she gives Nisha a strong generic New York accent, but I think maybe this is because it's the main American accent that Ridley knows? (We learn in the book that Nisha is actually from Texas.) But Ridley's performance is so otherwise so good and so committed -- and her regional British accents (South London, North, etc.) are so exceptional -- that even as an American listener, I forgave her that accent glitch. She did what the best narrators do: caught me up in the story, in the world of the book, so that before long Nisha became real to me anyway. 'd recommend this book as a performance and a memorable story.

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