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Good stuff

Revisado: 05-19-23

By book 5 of an ongoing series, you’re either sold or you’re not. The audiobooks have now caught up with the anime, and the performance is as good as ever. Side stories and asides seem to be becoming more common as the series goes on, which really helps break up the flow and keeps the story engaging. The long (and I do mean LONG) stat descriptions also seem to be becoming less frequent, which for most will be a godsend.

So overall, good as ever. Looking forward to the next one.

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Great Overview of the 90s Pokémon Craze

Revisado: 10-08-22

Great book. As a late nineties-early 2000s kid, this book hit a lot of interesting topics: Pokemon, Digimon, 4Kids, Monster Rancher, and all of the other monster collecting shows and anime of the era. Veronica Taylor narrated with energy and enthusiasm. Of course, it was great to hear the original voice of Ash Ketchum narrate a book all about Pokémon. Well researched, and a light quick read that I devoured over the span of 3 days. This is a perfect book for those who watched KidsWB, 4KidsTV, and Toonami back in the day.

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A Fine Continuation to The Blood Curse Chronicles

Revisado: 07-02-19

NOTE: I received the full 4 book series on audio from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Cajun Dusk is the second book in the Blood Curse Chronicles, and continues right where the last one left off with the 3 main vampires (Libby, Christophe, and Thalia) traveling to New Orleans in search for the cure for vampirism. There's a mage-vampire war going on in NO, however, and they arrive within a few days of its climax. Along the way, they meet up with a mage girl Athena, her on-again-off-again boyfriend Lucca, and try to stop the war before its too late.

Cajun Dusk was, like Dead of Night, a YA vampire romance; lots of angst, introspection, and occasional bloodsucking. The POV characters expanded beyond Thalia and Christophe to the new characters, and that expanded view was much appreciated. I'm the sort of person who likes fantasy action, so I was usually interested in the vampire fiction side of the story. Its the second book in a 4 part series, so while it does have a conclusion it leads right into the next story Moonrise Souls.

Jamie Dione's narration has grown on me. As two of the new main characters are from New Orleans, he puts on a Cajun accent (particularly for Lucca); YMMV on its quality. The quality of the narration is on par overall with Dead of Night. One small thing with the production: there's an audible phone ding (like an iPhone message update sound) at around 4 h 6 min. Its a nitpick, and just something I noticed.

Overall, Cajun Dusk is a fine continuation of the Blood Curse Chronicles. It has the same qualities of the original (lots of character introspection), but with a few more fantastic elements. Onward to Paris!

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A Better Love Story Than Twilight?

Revisado: 06-17-19

NOTE: I received the full 4 book series on audio from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I kid with the headline, but it does give you an idea of what to expect from this book. Dead of Night is the first in a 4 part YA vampire romance series by James Agee Jr. The story alternates chapter to chapter between Thalia (a disaffected teenager) and Christoph (a teenage vampire). Thalia is drawn to the town of Frederickton to attend her grandfather's funeral. Christoph's family, the Vasiles, act as the town's morticians. Naturally the two meet, and Christoph instantly falls obsessively in love with her. Soon, Thalia figures out the truth and is drawn into the secret world of vampires, ghosts, and shamans.

As a mid twenty something now, YA vampire romance isn't entirely my thing. For the first fourth, I was far more interested in Christoph's chapters than Thalia's chapters; the mechanics of vampire morticians is far more interesting IMHO than standard teenage drama. The funeral scene, where the family makes it appear as if the grandfather got out of the casket and disappeared through the use of shadows, reminded me heavily of the vampire anime Shiki (a great series). Eventually, the two stories merged and remained generally interesting. I didn't find the romance all that believable, but hey its YA romance. The action scenes and lore regarding the Blood Curse (a possible cure for vampirism and hopefully the central thread for the rest of the series) held me over. Refreshingly, the story gets right to the point and does what Twilight waited 3 books to get around to; I won't say exactly what it is, but you should be able to figure it out. The story isn't particularly new or groundbreaking, but it is enjoyable enough genre fare. Vampires, as Dead of Night puts it, are ice sculptures in a world that doesn't appreciate the cold.

The narration was excellent. While Jamie Dione doesn't really distinguish Thalia and Chistoph's narration from each other, he read the story well.

Overall, I'd say Dead of Night is a fine story with good narration. Its a good start to the series. One down, three to go.

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A Simple Folktale w/ an Irish Flavor

Revisado: 06-12-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I received this book for free from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

The Ocean Road is, at its heart, a simple folktale about why there's only one moon in the sky, why there are seasons, and why there's no unicorns left in the world. Long ago, there were 7 moons and 2 suns in the sky, goblins, fairies, and elves existed, and there was only one season, but trouble brewed as the corrupted Gothmur stole the WoodRock.

The setup is pretty simple: evil monster steals magic rock, good guys go on an adventure to get it back before the bad guy uses it to take over the world. The party characters are drawn pretty broadly: the wise wizard, the mischievous but ultimately well intentioned Elven / Elwin (a Changeling, basically). the salty sea captain, the noble warrior and his impulsive son, the quiet and introspective Keeper of the Words (our narrator), and the girl. The simplicity of the characters and outlandishness of some situations (trolls are defeated through magical song) may turn off those wanting a more complex story, but its acceptable when you thing of the story as a folktale. Its no Lord of the Rings, but its enjoyable enough if you adjust your expectations accordingly.

I have mixed feelings about the narrator. As an American, the accent took some getting used to; it gave the story an undeniable uniqueness and flavor, but it was sometimes difficult to make out what he was saying. He reads well (if occasionally conveying the wrong emotion when speaking as a character) , but maybe a bit too quickly; this was the first book I had to slow down to 0.75x to better understand it. I don't mean to insult the narrator; he was fine, but the accent may be too much of an obstacle for some. I can't remember the characters names, but I understood their roles in the story well enough.

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Slightly misleading title, but interesting stories

Revisado: 05-10-19

I received this title for free from the author.

The title of Sally Stanford is a bit misleading: the first half of the book focuses on Sally Stanford while the rest is composed of other stories of madams in California and the Midwest.

I found this title enjoyable enough, but don’t go in expecting a full biography of Sally Stanford; it’s more small humorous or interesting episodes in the woman’s life. Chapters are short: only about 2-5 minutes each, and they tend to end rather abruptly (in my opinion anyway).

The content, despite the short bursts its divided into, was pretty interesting. I never heard of Sally Stanford before, so hearing the goings on of a 20th century madam (brothel owner) was novel. The book leans heavily on Sally’s own autobiography (as to be expected), which might be a double edged sword; I’m not entirely sure how much of the material is just summarizing parts of the book or how much research outside of Sally’s autobiography was done. Curt Troutwine’s narration was superb, and really fit in with the material.

I like the info that’s in the book, it’s just how it’s organized that puts me off. It feels sort of disjointed. There is no coda to Sally’s story; one chapter it’s talking about Sally, the next it jumps a century in the past to the early prostitution business in San Francisco. There’s some connective tissue missing there, and I feel that a restructuring of the order of events (perhaps chronologically) would have suited the book better. A light read on rather racy material, but could have been better.

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A must have for fans of the Tennant years

Revisado: 08-06-18

Doctor Who is a long-running sci-fi series by the BBC. Over the years,several actors (around 15) have played the main character of The Doctor. Everyone has their favorites; personally, I like the Second, Fourth, Sixth, and Eighth Doctors. Among the many actors to play the Doctor, David Tennant is one of the most popular in the fanbase. What The Tenth Doctor Adventures provides is effectively 3 brand new episodes of Season 4 Doctor Who (Doctor and Donna). The set is divided into the earthbound episode Techophobia, an adventure in outer space with Time Reaver, and a pseudo-historical with Death and the Queen. Its a good variety, and captures 3 common settings often found in the series. All three stories are full cast audio dramas, with the main draw being the return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble respectively. The set encapsulates a lot of the twists, turns and general weirdness that Doctor Who has. As a fan, I really like the set. For those unfamiliar with the show or the Tennant Years in particular, its not the best place to start. I would personally suggest to see, at the very least, the episode "Runaway Bride" and the season 4 opener before starting this set if you are new to the series. Overall, the set is great for fans but not the best place to start for newcomers to the franchise.

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