OYENTE

Victoria P.

  • 21
  • opiniones
  • 2
  • votos útiles
  • 22
  • calificaciones

Slight, but fun

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-28-25

I struggled with how to rate this book. It is crisply written, the prose style is excellent. The story does carry you along, and it is amusing in many places. At the same time, the heroine is just too amazing in too many ways, and the villains are just too obviously and inanely villainous. And the plot relies on coincidence way too much.

So, I considered 2 stars, but the ending was satisfying, and I overall enjoyed it. So 3 stars itis.

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It's Over

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-19-24

I almost wept when Andy Serkis read the last line of the novel. LOTR was such an important book to me in my teens and 20s, and I have been away from it for way too long. The whole experience has been amazing, and it took me over a year to finish listening. The appendices were a bit of a trudge, but still well worth it to hear more Andy Serkis.

Such fine storytelling, such fine prose, such fine character and world building. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

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Still great

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 06-17-24

Fellowship of the Ring was amazing, better than I hoped or expected. I loved LOTR as a teen and young adult, and feared it wouldn't hold up -- but it definitely has. And Andy Serkis just makes it all the more phenomenal.

As the middle of the three volumes, The Two Towers is probably the least enthralling. The battle scenes are sometimes a touch tedious (and all these grown men yelling the names of their country, their beloved or their sword or whatnot as they plunge into battle gets a little silly), and you spend the first half of the book just waiting to get back to Frodo and Sam. And yet, even that first half draws you in with its detail, its tension, its rich cast of characters. And then the second half is just nonstop drama. Almost unbearably great.

Now on to Volume 3. It will be sad when I am done.

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Nifty little tale

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-06-23

Quite a good little tale, really. The author does a good job of developing the relationship between Clara and her evil sex-trader husband -- it's believable, for most of the book, that they have chemistry and that Clara is blinded by love and by the way she was raised.

By the end, though, once Clara starts to crack, we start to see some exchanges and events from her past that are truly horrific, and make it very hard to continue to accept that Clara had the faith she had, given what she had actually gone through.

This is confusing -- but the main point is, the book hooks you in pretty well for about three quarters of it. Things start to fall apart and become generally less and less believable -- but it still makes, all in all, for a pleasurable read.

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Taut and suspenseful

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-27-23

This is a wonderful Stephen King novel. Really suspenseful, interesting, well developed characters, with just the barest hint of a supernatural element.

Best of all, King's two major flaws are that he: 1) tends to enjoy sticking in major jerk characters, who are just jerks because King decides they will be. That kind of character is generally insufferable. 2) He tends to let vague nonsense dominate the endings of his books, leaving it a little unsatisfying even if the main thrust of the story was tightly written.

Neither of these flaws are evident here. No jerk characters -- well, maybe one possible one, but he doesn't show up too much. And a satisfying, well-plotted ending.

Some of the early parts of the novel are a bit slow moving, but otherwise an almost perfect story.

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Tolerable thriller

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-10-23

This was not the best novel ever written. It starts promisingly. The prose is fresh, clear and tightly written. The story captivates at first. The narrator was quite good, though nothing especially special.

But then the cliches start kicking in. We have the clean freak husband, who is obviously a problem (because clean freaks who enjoy white, modern homes are never good news). We have the silent, returned-from-the-presumed-dead kid. Worst of all, we have the evil, evil media who do nothing but pursue our poor benighted family and make everyone look bad for the fun of it. Yuck.

So, probably should have given it fewer stars -- but it did pass the time pleasantly, and really other than the nonsense about the media, it was generally enjoyable and fairly suspenseful.

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Classic SF for a reason

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-04-22

I loved this book. I've never read Butler before, and now I understand all the hype. This is a suspenseful, character driven novel with an interesting SF twist that plays out beautifully. The relationship between the heroine and Rufus, the boy she must repeatedly save, is subtly and brilliantly depicted.

I really have no negatives. I'm not giving it 5 stars mostly because I do hold those for the truly best of the best. And I'm a tiny bit disappointed in the ending, which I think is a bit convenient. But this is a fabulous read.

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Beautiful prose, dull story

Total
2 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-15-22

As others have said, the narrator is pretty bad. The women all have little-girl voices, the men all have exaggeratedly flat, manly voices. The narrator is fine during descriptive passages.

The prose is beautiful, and the first half or even two-thirds of the book kept my attention because the characters (especially that of Martha) are well depicted, though the plot is fairly arbitrary and dependent on convenient deaths. The last third of the book becomes increasingly pointless and the ending is definitely disappointing.

Not recommended.

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Fantasy Western fun

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-06-22

This is just really a fun little book. Entertainment all the way through. Gunnie Rose is strong and independent, but thoughtful and fallible at times. Her relationship with her wizard employers is interesting and develops convincingly. And the world building is also extremely convincing and just plain neato.

My only complaints are that there is a bit too much of everyone getting beaten up, taking a bath and then being refreshed and recharged. (My memory is, there was a lot of this in the Sookie Stackhouse books too). And I would say that there is a lack of depth and character development that keeps the book from being truly great.

But all in all a really fun read.

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Lives up to the hype

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-04-21

I purchased this without really any idea about it. Looked interesting. Subsequently I learned that this is one of the hottest SF titles of the past decade, and Adrian Tchaikovsky is hailed by millions.

And I can see why. This book is gripping from start to finish. Witty, suspenseful, really unique blend of character viewpoints. It is like nothing else I have read. The prose style is fresh and invigorating, and the ending is, well, just perfect.

To pick nits, I would say that the pace flags a bit toward the end (during the second to last section). The spider civilization becomes a bit less interesting, and, on the human side, Lane calls Mason "old man" a few too many times. But it picks up again and, as I said, the ending is perfect.

Really well performed, seamless narration as well. Give this one a listen.

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