Ryan Helm

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Revisado: 02-13-25

I doing the book before this one kind of mediocre, but this one gets back to being the series I love. Better pacing, interesting developments, plenty of action and new information.

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good, but meandering

Revisado: 02-05-25

still good, but this one took the melodrama and dialed it to 11. there were many parts in the middle and later half that really dragged on. it may be fitting for the events of the story and the character's mind set. but I found myself jumping 30 second forward now and then and not missing anything at all.

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melodramatic sci-fi opera on a Grand scale

Revisado: 01-17-25

excellent story that maintains great pacing all throughout. dripping with melodrama, so that might either turn you off it or be part of the "immersion" for you.
it feels a bit like Dune fanfic at first, but develops it's own character (especially by the second book).

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timeless, poignant, and not cliche!

Revisado: 12-27-24

honestly, it's one of three audiobooks I always keep downloaded on my devices to listen to at any time. it's motivational and aspirational without being "hang in there kitten poster" cheesy or cliche. And it always lifts my spirits with each listen.

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great story, terrible pronunciation

Revisado: 05-03-24

good story, a little slowed down by what felt like too much flashback interspersing. But great characters and excellent development over the story. good mix of emotional and enough action to keep it driving. Enjoyed the story very much.

The narration was... mixed. He does a great job with voices and emoting. But the poor narrator had not even the beginnings of an idea how to pronounce all the Japanese terms in this Japanese fantasy story. And there were A LOT. Like enough Japanese words used that if you don't have at least an anime fans exposure already, you might have a hard time following the first 3 or 4 hours. But if you do have any Japanese language knowledge, the narrator's constant mispronunciations will drive you CRAZY.

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interesting plot / overly annoying "amateur" immersion

Revisado: 04-12-24

The story and plot were good, though a little slow and repetitive (hard to avoid in a memory loss story).

But I really didn't like the "amateur" immersion they tried to put in, to make it feel more like college students who didn't know what they were doing. It was so overdone it was annoying and actually immersion breaking at times where the friend would go too far and just completely take me out of the story.

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Super original sci-fi

Revisado: 12-04-23

It can be bizarre and a little hard to follow sometimes. But that's because it's actually something new and fresh! And I love it for that.
Beyond the very unique worldbuilding here, it's a military-light story focused on strategy and drama with a good helping of intrigue.
All in all, one of my favorite new finds in years I think!

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just not for me

Revisado: 12-01-23

the writing is good, characters are unique and the setting/plot is unique and well set up. it's all "good"... but just not what I was looking for.

There's a definite lack of action or conflict and it's just the story of someone starting a fantasy coffee shop. I probably should have guessed that from the synopsis, but was still kind of expecting more action by the end. The characters instead make it a point to avoid any possible conflict and are extremely passive. Again, nothing wrong with that in a book, but just not for me.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Alice in Sci-fi-Wonderland, but... Meh?

Revisado: 09-18-23

It's a huge imagined sci-fi world, with really interesting, imaginative places and peoples. But for some reason, the main cast of characters just never made me care about them. They never felt like more than NPCs in a video game. No matter how deep their backstories got, or how emotional of a scene they were in, something about them just never felt real or engaging. So I never invested in the story at all. By halfway through I was just counting down the time left until it was over and I could move onto another book.

I think pacing hurt it too. They spend most of the book gathering people and building up to failure and learned lessons. Only to turn around and try again for that epic climax in the last 10th(?) of the book maybe?

Again, I do applaud the narrator and unique world building of this book. But not caring for characters spoils it for me.

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so-so story, unremarkable narration

Revisado: 07-23-23

the only thing that stood out to me was the way it ended. won't say spoilers, but I thought it had a very unique and interesting conclusion. unfortunately, I found the everything else about this book unremarkable and unfortunately bland or boring at times.
it seemed like the author was trying too hard to make things descriptive and flowery, and they didn't quite have the skill/talent for that deep immersive style. they would have been better served keeping the story succinct and punchy.
narration was alright, but didn't help with the boredom and lack of enthusiasm I felt listening to it.
I think the original sci-fi setting is another positive point and it's a fictional world that I wanted to explore more. but I felt like there was very little presented to us on that front unfortunately.

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