Needles

Solid Historical Summarization

Revisado: 10-31-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

It took me a while to actually get through this. It very briefly skims such massive historical periods that there are scant details for a lot of the historical events that comprise this text. I found myself having to pause frequently so I could look up more detail on the periods that were being discussed. It's basically like viewing 100 years of history via bullet points.

A small nitpick would be the narrator. They sort of droned on and were mostly unenthused throughout the narration. They also clearly mispronounced things quite a few times. Overall it was a decent audiobook, I would just anticipate needing to reference or search for more detail on the topics that actually interest you. There were a few things I did not remember from history classes that were nice to get a refersher on.

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Takes a While to Get Going

Revisado: 07-29-24

First off, the Audible narration is basically all whispers. It's like the narrator had a sleeping child in the room she was trying not to wake. I had to crank the volume way up every time I listened. Then when I opened something else up I would be blasted by the loud volume. It was incredibly annoying to say the least.

The story itself is kind of all over the place. It's Romeo & Juliet with monsters, a plauge, communists, and set in the 1920s Shanghai. The characters feel like archetypes that all act exactly as their defining characteristics would allow. They never really get fleshed out, but rather always do exactly what you expect them to do from their initial description. Side characters like Kathleen and Rosalind felt mostly forgettable.

Overall, I would probably give the book a 3.5, but I didn't feel it warranted 4/5 stars. It started to get interesting really late in the book, and the overall story is fascinating, just not written in the best way. The whispered nature of the narration also didn't help, and the book felt like a bit of a grind to get to the meat of the story. I'll probably check out the next book to see what happens after the cliffhanger at the end of this one, I just hope that the narration is a bit better.

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Mummy?

Revisado: 07-12-24

A woman goes camping with her three kids, her sister in law, and her niece in the British countryside. Overnight the world seems to end and it becomes a post apocalyptic storyline.

The main character is just a terrible mother throughout. You'll find yourself scratching your head wondering why they say or do most everything that occurs in this book. They don't seem to care about the children unless they are about to die or are disappearing. At the end of the book she makes a choice that it would be hard to imagine any mother doing. It was just awful. I won't spoil it, but clearly she didn't care to be there for her kids.

Children and animals just senselessly die in fairly horrific ways. The kids dying aren't really related to the post apocalyptic setting, but just accidents and negligence. It felt so weird.

The characters are very poorly developed, and almost all of them are extremely unlikeable. They find a boy, and he seemlessly becomes a part of the family. He never speaks a word and doesn't factor into anything in the story, just being mentioned occasionally as being present. He is simply referred to as "Lost boy" for the rest of the book. Really?

The narrative randomly seems to jump with no explanation of how we get to that next point. I went back multiple times because it felt like I missed a chapter or accidentally skipped ahead, only to find that nothing was said after the thing that occurred that clearly needed some kind of explanation or further detail.

So much of this book makes little or no sense. There's almost no discussion of how they actually survive, gather supplies, compete for basic necessities in this new world. There should be so much food and supplies, but all you hear is children whining about how there's no food and "mummy I'm hungry!". The bad guys make no sense as far as their motivations. Their reason for avoiding entering a certain area is also laughable.

The thing that drove me up a wall was that a good chunk of this book is simply children whining. It's a non-stop barrage of "mummy, mummy!" with children spouting inane nonsense and constantly whining. It just felt so annoying, and it seems like 25% of the entire book is devoted to children's banter.

The final thing I'll note is that it basically has a cliffhanger ending, but there's no actual sequel planned. You end up at a point without clear resolution. I don't mind it too much, since at least one major plot point wrapped up, but I know it will drive many readers mad. Overall, I just felt like the premise was solid but poorly executed.

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Different from the show

Revisado: 07-06-24

I watched the first season of the show Silo on AppleTV before diving into this. There are a lot of differences where things were clearly more dramatized for TV audiences. The show only covers about half of this book, and the timing of events seems much quicker in the book. There's also much less of a focus on relics, judicial, and random silo investigations. Both are great if I'm being honest.

I really loved figuring out the mysteries of the silo and the all important questions regarding why they were created, and by whom. I finished this feeling satisfied and wanting more. Luckily I already have the second book purchased. Time to dive deep into the silo again.

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Excellent First Fantasy

Revisado: 06-27-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I thoroughly enjoyed this title. I thought it sounded somewhat like the premise of the Hunger Games, with a grand tournament to the death, but it absolutely wasn't. In fact, only a small amout of time at the back of the book is actually about the tournament itself. A lot of time is spent on building out a bleak world on the precipice, holding on against overwhelming dark forces looking to wipe out everything. I found the world to be interesting and well described.

The only thing I didn't really like was the narrator's voice for the character Delgado. He just sounded a bit annoying and like an evil street gang urchin, even though he's a pretty good guy. Also, there's a fair bit of cursing and some intense gore depicted, so trigger warning if that might bother you. I myself am looking forward to the next entry in this series and give kudos to Dustin Bilyk on his debut. I can easilly recommend this book to fans of fantasy, and hope that the coming volumes are even better.

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Listen to This Before it Becomes A Movie

Revisado: 06-20-24

I jumped into this after finishing Weir's other book, Artemis. This succeeds, where that book failed, despite having very similar writing and tone. Andy Weir likes to use a bunch of science, but isn't great at developing complex relationships between people. In this book the main character is again super immature and dorky, but it fits their background and profession. He's also alone in space, so all the inner-monologues kind of make sense. He's a unique blend of immaturity, and pure genius, rolled into one character. It's like a mixture of Ryan Reynolds non-stop joking with a Stephen Hawking intellect. It's very odd, but works quite well in this book. I found myself perplexed by some of the science, while also laughing at a lot of the random goofiness. If you have any interest in space or biology, I highly recommend checking this out.

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A Dragon's Love

Revisado: 06-20-24 El oyente recibió este título gratis

A dragon, and the assassin sent to kill him, sit down and discuss history over some soup. Sounded strange enough, so I wanted to see what it all led to. Without giving anything away, the dragon is just misunderstood and all of the rumors about him are not what they seem. It's a quick read that gets right to the point and tells a heartwarming story.

The narrator did a great job as well. Some might find him a bit intense at certain parts, but such is the tone of a dragon I guess? I would gladly listen to other stories told by this narrator.

Final thoughts, but I hope the author continues writing and building their own worlds without too many of the common fantasy elements that are found in other texts. We had a magical never-ending bag, healing elixirs, life/death magic, orcs, dwarves, limited use magical shield, and all the other common fantasy stuff. None of them were too important to the story, and honestly not a big deal, but it would be interesting to see the author come up with their own unique elements to build their world.

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Dialogue ruins this

Revisado: 06-13-24

it's a cool premise and there are some legitimately cool science factoids present. The thing that ruins the book is the obnoxious dialogue from the main character. As others have mentioned, it's like the author has never met or interacted with a woman in his life. Our protagonist sounds like a 12 year old boy. it's incredibly cringy at times, and was a bit hard to get through. Rosario Dawson does her best with the source material, so no fault to her.

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