Lindz

Tim Curry Made Me Fall Back In Love With Abhorsen

Revisado: 12-18-18

No one but Tim Curry could bring Mogget to life in such a visceral way.

Besides Curry's incredible performance, the story is as good as I remember. A deeply magical plot surrounding our hero forces her to stay focused, with little room for levity, but lots of room for powerful and creative action. A love story hums subtly in the background, like the final echoing note of a bell.

The world of Sabriel holds magic still for any and all who wish to hear it.

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Janet's Voice Makes Everything Better

Revisado: 08-10-18

She's an incredible writer, and I can't imagine hearing it read by anyone else. Honestly, just listen. You'll see what I mean.

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Well-Paced, Heart-wrenching Space Fun

Revisado: 04-04-18

Grief, death, hope, and humanity, balanced against an evolving AI, the cruelty of war, and the sarcastic levity of a bunch of talented teenagers trying to figure out what to do next.

The acting is excellent, the effects and music slight and perfectly timed, as was true for the previous books as well. Obsidio in particular is impressive with how well it held its large cast together. Keeping each person's voice, manner, and motivations separate and distinct in the listener's head as well as they did is a huge accomplishment. Obsidio also had a darker element than either of the first two books in the series; there were moments of real dread and brutality in this one, more so than the others. But considering the environment our heroes have moved into, it really could not have been lighter. The ending was still satisfying and complete.

Drama stayed within the realistic concerns of people surviving trauma and going to war, so though there are many times where the characters' relationships take center stage, it's honest, not at all superficial or forced, and does not distract from who they are and the challenges they all face. I have my favorite characters, but all of them are realistically flawed and capable. And they just kept somehow surprising me.

I cannot recommend this series enough, chums. I'm sad it's over... What an incredible ride.

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A Book full of Wonder; Narrator is Excellent

Revisado: 11-13-17

This story brings those who love books and those inspired by technology together in a creative mystery that will remind the reader that our world is, and has always been, full of interesting and beautiful things - and the interesting, beautiful people who create them.

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Everyone Gets Raped, I Get It

Revisado: 09-23-17

CW: language, explicit content from the book

This one almost made me give up on the series.

I don't care how much war has gone on, it is entirely the author's choice to make rape what it became throughout this dragged-out book. I know war veterans, and I know my ancient history and the records we have, and the mention of raping women from all these sources is surprisingly low and usually treated as taboo or sinful or a sign of extreme violence. Not so with Martin's world. Dany wasn't here to give relief, so I got to see Sansa and Briene get sexually harassed by every man they trusted instead, and then got to hear vivid descriptions of Margery's privates in Cersei's head constantly. Arya and Sam gave me a break in their thoughts, but only some of the characters around them talked about things other than raping women.

And I do mean rape. Rape is a tool of control and fear, not politics, and it can and does define lives. It can also end them. One mention, one close-up of poor Lorries would be enough to drive home the horror and serve to warn other characters of these dark times. However, the author has apparently no idea what rape is like, so he thinks he has desensitized his audience. He thinks gangs of angry "common" people will rape any girl with no one protesting, and thats just what happens when people are upset. So now he has to make up worse horrors to remind us who the monsters are, like biting off nipples. He seems to think rape isn't bad enough, that it's too easy to get over, that "broken" women must be gang-raped or kept captive and raped and beaten for weeks or months to justify their tormented appearance. At one point, one such victim is basically GIVEN by Jaime to a "nice boy" so he can bed her, "gently", and thats a happy ending for her ("If she'll have you," he stipulates, as if this girl would be in any shape to trust someone to accept her refusal???).

This author has made up a world where not only does every woman get raped, and every man is capable of rape, but no one cares unless the women get, like, REALLY raped, and then a good pity fuck fixes it all.

I like this story. But I'm a woman reading these books, and I am getting sick and tired of watching the characters that represent me in this world get fucked by an author who has absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

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#Jan25

Revisado: 09-02-17

I saw Egypt begin her fight, but was forced to leave in February. I monitored the Arab Spring on twitter, following @acarvin and many of these people he mentions. All of it comes back in greater context and understanding as I listen to his story.

It broke my heart to leave. Thank you for this book. Like social media did for those of us who cared, you connect us once more to the real, complex, human story, past and current, of heroes and their sacrifice.

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SciFi Classic for New Gen of Readers

Revisado: 04-08-17

This story of space battles, evil AI, and heroic sacrifice is not new, but the telling and the characters are brilliantly modern and easy to see completely. These storytellers have taken classic themes and filled them with actual people, taking men and women alike and treating them as individuals with their own wants, weaknesses, and capacity for heroics. The shell form it's in adds to the intensity and my own investment. I binged this one. In terms of book reading, I could not put it down.

I appreciate the distance achieved when I had a narrator tell me about the worst horrors, making them real without losing me to the gore. Though the main characters were a bit cheesy, it was forgivable because of their age and because I felt like I knew them so well... I remember being that dramatic. The ending was a surprise. I thought it was unnecessary, but then again, it was satisfying to have a true villain and hero face-off.

I have to say, despite the clichés (mostly acknowledged) and the cheese (mostly rendered horrifying by the AI's reveal), I loved this story and I'll read the sequel. Very, very chill.

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Lots Of Fun, Lost The Plot

Revisado: 03-29-17

The characters are fun and the heists are creative and clever, but our adult main characters all lack any goals of their own. They are on the defensive this whole time, with no common narrative to give the reader a sense of story. There is no big bad, no mystery to solve. They are completely focused on survival, with no other goal after that. Locke sees his friend get killed, but instead of feeling his own sense of grief or vengeance, or connecting the murder to a greater evil or mystery, he simply acts according to the grief and vengeance of his friend's father and his own focus switches once more to a heist. I can't connect to that character.

It's almost as if the adults are complacent. Anything they've wanted, they either got or gave up on - family, humility, friendship, love, money, trust, purpose. The author creates and resolves these pivotal moments of growth in childhood flashbacks. I'd rather read an entire book about the children versions of these characters learning to steal under the wise, sardonic tutelage of Chains. When I read this book, that's the story I came back for every time.

Also, I love cursing. But when this proper-sounding narrator makes Chains say "fuck", I wince every time. I don't think this narrator should be made to curse. No matter who's talking, it never seems to flow.

The world is incredible and beautiful, rich with mysteries to solve, yet the author has attempted nothing greater than problem-solving and survival. I got halfway through and finally gave up (it's a long book). If the author brings in ancient magic and the incredible design of his world and readers actually get to dig into that richness, good for them. I've waited long enough.

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Brilliant Story and Narrator, Bad Edit with Music

Revisado: 02-28-17

James Harriot is a master at storytelling, and the narrator is talented as well. But it's very distracting to hear the audio quality drop every time the cheesy music plays, at the beginning and end of every chapter. This is obviously an old recording, but it shouldn't be impossible to re-record or re-edit the audio so it flows. Why on earth is that music going on so long, anyway? Still, I can deal with the interruptions for the sake of the simple beauty these stories bring to my life.

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Colorful, Confusing, and Full of Heart

Revisado: 02-20-17

Fantastic twists and beautiful relationships make the complicated, plot-essential magic system and scattered mystery worthwhile.

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