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Space Cozy

Revisado: 08-02-23

There's probably already a catchier phrase for space cozy, but you get the idea. There's a plot here and some action-y stuff, but a lot of the book follows the protagonist getting their cargo business up and running--and it's great. It's not fast-paced, and it does feel like a novel written early in a career, but it's enjoyable and shows promise and there's enough intrigue in the story to keep me going for this book and tee up plot lines for the next. Head-and-shoulders above a lot of the new-author stuff I read. I hope O'Brien finishes up that second book, fingers crossed.

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a road to nowhere

Revisado: 08-02-23

Things described in this book: Deciding who should drive to a supermarket. Driving to a supermarket. Walking around a supermarket. Deciding who should drive back from a supermarket. Driving back from a supermarket.

Things not described in this book: Magic. Plot. Character arcs.

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Had potential to have potential

Revisado: 08-02-23

Something about this story made me keep listening and even made me buy the next book, but as I try to pinpoint what that something is ... I can't. The characters aren't compelling, the boilerplate story is stretched thinly over the runtime, the climax is anti-climactic. Maybe what kept me reading was the sense the whole time that it still could (and maybe would) turn into a good story. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Not by the end of this book, and not by the end of book 2.

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Harlequin Romance

Revisado: 06-28-23

Firstly, this is (mostly) a YA novel. It's a YA novel with lots of f-bombs and graphic sex scenes, but the tropes are 100% YA. Which isn't a bad thing, but you should know what you're buying.

Secondly, the main storyline is a perfectly serviceable YA novel. That's nothing ground breaking--magical school, "marked child", loyal friends, etc--but when it's allowed to be a standard fare YA story, it moves along at a good clip and it kept my interest.

Thirdly, this is ALSO a glistening thighs romance, and those elements crescendo as the story goes along until I nearly DNFed with a few hours left (but instead gritted my teeth and finished it out on 2x speed). I mean, the horniness, the straight-faced "I will die if I can't be with you," the descriptive detail of the sex scenes ("inner walls" are mentioned more than once, not in an architectural sense)--it's a lot. Let me be clear, while I wasn't prepared for some of the graphicness of the descriptions and didn't love that aspect, it was the sheer amount and the silliness of the romance that got to me. And they don't even maintain "will they/won't they" tension. Halfway through it transitions from "will they/won't they" to "please stop" for the rest of the novel.

And look, if you're going for that kind of romantic escapism, I'm not trying to criticize you. I haven't read Twilight, but I suspect the appeal of this novel may be similar in nature to Twilight's, which obviously strikes a chord with a lot of people. But I am not one of those people, and nothing in the book synopsis or the reviews I read suggested the heavy romantic element of this novel.

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Language worth the price of admission

Revisado: 01-03-23

I have never read another author that creates colorful and authentic sounding idioms and aphorisms and other speech for multiple made-up cultures the way Buehlman does. Mid-way through my listen, I ordered a hard copy so I could go back and study how he does it. True, about 50% of it takes the form of crude insults, but it's remarkable none-the-less (and often very funny).

The pacing is slow at times, and the character arcs and plot are meandering, which I didn't mind. Some I think may just be slack plotting, but I think to some degree, it's simply the kind of story Buehlman wants to tell. There is a through quest, but it often feels like, well, like you're reading about events along a journey--not everything that happens drives the plot, but it all lends to the texture of the story and the characters, and it all feels like part of an adventure. And even with that being the case, I was still pleased with the development of plot and characters by the end, and the development of what seems like will be a series-long story.

I enjoyed the main characters, and they felt and sounded distinct--Kinch, Galva, Nargul, Malk, Bully Boy, (I have no idea how these are actually spelled), as do a number of colorful side-characters. The world-building is, again, remarkable. It's not terribly original--magic, goblins, giants, thieves, etc--but the cultures of each and all as described first-person by Kinch have so much more life to them than you find in your average fantasy novel.

I'll give you my thoughts on the narrator, but first I'd like to gripe about some other reviews: Can we agree that it's dumb to complain that someone's accent is "made up" when you're talking about the narration of a story in which goblin wars play a significant role? Also, the reviews that complain about the songs all make especial note of how the narrator sings his own songs, which is not true, and it baffles me a little that so many reviews mention it. It's obvious that it's someone else's voice when you hear it, and the credits confirm it. That's not to say you'll like the songs. I didn't mind them, but I was surprised at how long some were.

Back to my thoughts on the narrator, I really enjoyed him. The accent took 20 min or so of getting used-to (it's thick), but it's very fitting for the story and lends more color to, as mentioned, the already very colorful language.

Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't heard more about this story and author. Even if you're turned off by some of the plotting (again, I'm not, I think it works well), there's enough here that's so distinctive that even if the story were much weaker, I'd still recommend it on the merits of the language and characters and world-building alone.

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Fun with glaring oversight

Revisado: 03-28-19

Overall, I really did enjoy this book and thought the narrator was great. I wasn't sure about the narrator at first, but I liked her a lot by the time I finished. And I enjoyed each of the main characters. Again, I took a bit to warm up to Maeve (protagonist), but I really liked her by the end and enjoyed her character arc. BUT. But but but. Evvvvvvery conflict could have been resolved multiple times over if the main characters had just passed around the lamp and each used two wishes. Or just passed the lamp around at all. But that possibility is NEVER considered by ANYONE. And the story makes it clear that it would be completely allowable according to Djinni Law. The Djinni makes it clear that it's okay near the beginning. But it's such an obvious course of action that isn't taken that I kept thinking, "did I misunderstand or miss some explanation that makes this impossible?" But nope. There's even a section where someone else gets the djinni and uses a wish, and then the protagonist gets it back and is master over it again, no problems. Again, passing around the lamp is clearly okay. It's like you're reading a story about a person who needs to walk across the street, but it's raining and they can't get wet. But they're holding an umbrella. It's made quite clear that they have an umbrella on their person. But no one in the story ever mentions their umbrella. They just keep saying, "oh my gosh, it's raining! How am I going to get over there without getting rained on? I wish there was some way to keep rain off me. I don't know what to do!" And you begin to think, "... Wait, maybe they don't have an umbrella, maybe I'm remembering that wrong. Or maybe it's a parasol or something" But then the author writes a passage like, "The protagonist slowly twirled their waterproof, non-parasol umbrella as they deliberated ..." and you're like, "Okay, they DEFINITELY have an umbrella. I don't ... why don't they ... what's going on? Is there going to be an 'aha' moment where they realize they've been holding an umbrella the whole time? That would be weird, but ... they ARE holding an umbrella. We can't just ignore that." So you keep listening because the narrator is good and the rest of the story is pretty fun, and you expect that at some point someone will use the umbrella. But instead in the end the protagonist uses the crook of the umbrella to hoist herself over the locked entrance of a covered walkway, and then she uses the umbrella to fight off the wolf that guards the walkway, and then she uses the covered walkway to get to point B without getting rained on. Obviously I could not get over it. I kept thinking, this is a fun book and I like these characters BUT OH MY GOSH JUST GIVE TOMMY OR ALICE THE STUPID SARDINE TIN AND LET THEM MAKE A WISH IT'S SO OBVIOUS AND IT WOULD SOLVE ALL YOUR PROBLEMS. Or just change the rules so that's not possible, that would be really easy. Not trying to be a backseat author here, but just make it so that the master of the djinni lost unused wishes if they passed the djinni on, but also the djinni vanishes if they use all three. There's one plot point that wouldn't work with those rules, the bit about the cook, but that point was superfluous anyways. Whew. I've got that of my chest. I still enjoyed the book.

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