Phillippa Forrest

Frustrated with the mixing of the narration

Revisado: 07-19-24

Rosamund Pike is doing a fine job with her narration, as an alternate take from Reading and Kramer. The issue is that the dynamic range is too wide, and the audio swings from whispers to shouts at quite a big volume difference. it needs to be compressed a bit. Currently it feels like you have to adjust the volume constantly both ways to have things at the right volume consistently. it's irritating.

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Absolutely delightful.

Revisado: 04-25-23

Like a warm hug and a good cup of coffee, this little story is wonderfully comforting. A real highlight. Had no idea Travis was an author, having only known him from his narration work, but he does a masterful job here, as both. Such a lovely concept and execution. Very charming. Eagerly looking forward to more stories of Viv and her friends and her life after adventuring.

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A highpoint for the series, IMO.

Revisado: 04-24-23

Some of the more momentous changes we've been expecting/theorizing are finally starting to happen/fall into place, and god, is it good. Shirtaloon strikes again.

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Far better than people are making it out to be.

Revisado: 03-12-23

This really isn't the disaster people are claiming. The narrator's performances are solid. The story ends up being somewhat small scale, which is I think, in the end, perhaps the more disappointing aspect to it, but then again, this isn't a massive book. It's a quick adventure with the Mantis' crew, with some light buildup of characters and relationships, and some possible setup for some things in the future. I can understand why people might be disappointed if they were expecting something much more, but realistically they were unlikely to have massive character events or progression happen right before the release of the sequel to the first game. This is a quick exploration of the characters and their relationships as we knew them, a few years advanced, with a few interesting tidbits. Very much a side story, but for me, that's fine. I also fear a lot of the hate it's getting is because it dares to feature some romance, in particular some sapphic romance, which unfortunately there's clearly been a very homophobic backlash to, which is frankly ridiculous and frustrating. It's sad to see that from this fandom, though not entirely surprising.

My only real issue with the book is there are some QA issues with the audio, where at certain points in the book there are tinnitus-like sounds that go on for quite some time, that at least in some sections, definitely don't seem like they're supposed to be there. Hopefully that can be addressed.

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Something of a misstep

Revisado: 04-13-21

Some of the story arc elements are satisfying, but the overall story feels like a misstep, especially with its introduction of mysticism/fantasy elements. The idea behind some of it works, but the overall method and how far it goes with some of it, feels like it undermines the grounding of the previous books. It no longer feels like it takes place quite in our world. I still enjoyed the writing, but I think this book is a misstep for the series. Having loved the TV show, I'll be curious to see if further books in the series drop these elements, or if they double down and further diverge from the initial concept that works so well and seems to be what the TV show more directly adapted.

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Never really coalesces, -ends up disappointing.

Revisado: 11-27-20

Michael Kramer does a generally great job, as usual, but his performances can't save this, sadly.

The prose isn't terrible, and the world has potential, but the story, even up until the end, never really coalesces to an interesting focus. The main protagonist, a fairly trope-y boy, is frankly, an idiot. I think it's mean to be intentional, and to come off as sort of a tragedy of how naive he is, but it just ends up basically feeling insulting to the reader, if anything, and quite tiring.

The author also has some really bad writing habits that can be both confusing and just feel quite odd. The worst is where, particularly in action scenes, he'll shift perspective/narration perspectives, not in logical places, but like sentence to sentence, or even within the same sentence. IE-first-person limited, to omniscient, or from one character to another within a sentence's span, and then back. It can be very confusing and jarring, and feels like the book didn't get much editing/review.

Overall, the author is clearly aiming for a fantasy epic of the scale (and arguably style) of someone like Sanderson or Jordan, but quite frankly, it just doesn't get there, and ends up falling flat. I listened through the entire story (probably partially due to Kramer's performances), hoping it would come together or suddenly work fully at some point, but it just never comes to pass. Doubt I'll continue with the series. It's far from the worst thing I've ever read, but it's just not worth the time, and has too many flaws for what it's trying to do. Basically: not terrible, but far from what it's reaching for. Overly ambitious, in a bad way.

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Classic, but doesn't really hold up any longer.

Revisado: 11-22-20

Asimov is one of the old masters, and while that's partially evident, here, it's also clear that many of his stories, including this one/these, don't really hold up in the modern era.

One can see why they were and are considered classics. Yet much of it no longer holds up or can compete with modern handlings of the genre, that stand on the shoulders of these very stories.
Scott Brick does a generally good job, as he does.

This is an interesting read/listen if your main concern is to be exposed to some of the history/origins of sci-fi and sci-fi tropes, but as an example of those very things, the stories themselves generally don't hold up. They are mostly very much of their time. For better or worse.

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Great, but feels like half a book, pacing-wise.

Revisado: 10-04-20

Despite its length, this feels like only the first half of a story arc, and the pacing of the end doesn't feel like the end of a full book, but rather a mid-point. Feels like the first half or two thirds of a book. That said, it's generally great, and the same great world as always, from Abercrombie.

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An excellent short sci-fi thriller,

Revisado: 09-15-20

-though it definitely leaves you wanting more/a sequel. There definitely feels like there's more to be explored with this world and characters. Would make an excellent film, too. Basically the perfect length for it.

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ultimately unsatisfying

Revisado: 05-03-20

As much as the world is fascinating and the writing talented, the tale in its whole is at the end, unsatisfying.

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