Steve Angeles

Wonky writing

Revisado: 08-15-23

I'm not sure if it was the narrator in combination with the messy writing, but I could not sit through this book. I got around 3 hours in and it just kept repeating level 1 adjectives and being so wholesome but vulgar. That didn't make much sense to me either. It didn't feel creative or edgy, more of like a contrasting element to make the main character seem like she's in the thick of things. She's boring besides her hero status so you put her in with a bunch of foul mouth people to make her seem like she's learning becoming more deep but maintaining her status as untarnished hero. I'm HOPING the rest of the book gets better. I think I've decided to trudge through it and edit this later if I change my mind.
I knew as soon as I heard two sentences with the word "surprise" within two words of each other that this book would get irritating. I can't remember the lines, but it ended with surprise then started with "to her surprise"... and I thought... really? Where's my red pen? Points off for lazy writing. AI?

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Anime Side Eye

Revisado: 08-24-22

Fun Book, but has some typical lit RPG problems and some character issues.

The world building is good. The only thing that's missing is some feeling of being in the world and it's space. Author is good at saying where they are and what it looks like, but doesn't give you much world flavor... I mean, there's food talk... there's cooking and smells, but as someone in the new world I think I would be like... "wow this almost taste like corn dogs and bacon had a baby." I can see that maybe because the MC got stronger he no longer was affected by the environment... but I'd like some more. Does the character see birds when he looks off into the sunset? He does it often, but it seems more like an afterthought of niceness than actually experiencing the beauty of the world. I think with some seasoning in his writing he could def add more to the feeling of being in the world... ok now I'm hungry.

The Lit RPG issues are more with momentum and plot point value. It often feels like segments of a module, but the problem with that in book form is the value of moments can get lost of the momentum is too fast. I re-listened to a couple of chapters because I totally lost track of plot points because they were so lightly skimmed as throw away conversation in the middle of plot movement. Like... why was Clive hanging out with Jason? Did Clive ever get the info he needed about the coins? I don't remember anyone talking about it other than a little blurb about law with Clive's boss. Did the momentum get away from the author? What happened? Was that an excuse for Clive to become friends with Jason?

MC problems, and character depth. Jason is a difficult character to get into. He skirts the line between nerd ego fantasy and typical comedy bard/rogue trope. He suffers from a bit of fish out of water who knows how to handle every situation(stumblingly in the beginning). It's like... egocentric Mary Sue. He doesn't end up with a harem, but does get the hot girl. He acts like that anime big brother hero trope, knows everything, says vague things at the beginning of altercations then suddenly wins the day after galaxy braining the enemy. Two months after landing he's having side eye anime conversations with powerful city icons? Meh. That's just the parts I don't like. He balances it out with not knowing what to do in other situations, but it's very one or the other with him. Other than that, I like that he learns from his mistakes and moves forward and he doesn't skip training. That momentum can make it difficult to get into characters in a good way. With a certain thing happened towards the end of the book it was hard to care because I wasn't quite sure who the person was right away. There are a lot of ladies in this book... and remembering who's who can be difficult because they are not given the time to sink in.

I am interested in this world and how it functions, so I'm probably going to continue. I hope the character depth and main character gets better.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Misery Mountain TM

Revisado: 08-04-22

This book is hard to quantify. As in my review of The Girl and the Stars, I was caught up in the world and the story, but most of the characters were just hard to care about. I really liked a few, but as companions and side characters to Yaz the block of ice, it was difficult to care.

When this happens and its a female character I have to ask myself, is this my own female MC expectation? So I imagine it's a male and see what my opinion would be in that situation, I'd find a male this indomitable boring too.

I was recently watching a videogame review about Horizon Zero Dawn: Forbidden West characterization, by Yatzee Crosshaw and he summed part of my issue with this book very well.
"Combat in Horizon is a desperate, frantic affair in which Aloy has to constantly dodge roll left and right, screaming as she’s smashed fifty feet by a tail whip from a speeding robot monster, having to scarf down healing berries hand over hand to keep herself alive. If you or I got through a battle like that, we would f***ing fizzing on an adrenaline high equivalent to three buckets of uncut coke. We would be panting and sweating and hopping up and down going “OH GOD OH GOD OH BLIMEY OH GOD.” We wouldn’t be going 'Oh guess that’s the last of them let’s go to the next objective marker.',"

This book has no chill.
There's no breathing room between bad stuff. It's like just a beat up mangled ball rolling down a cold mountain made of nails and disappointment. It was exhausting. I would find myself NOT wanting to continue it because I didn't need the extra stress in my life. It wasn't Joe Abercrombie levels of grimdark but it was pretty dismal.

I don't know if I can recommend it. But if you want to full story you should go through it.

There's a bit of tech so advanced or ideas so advanced that the characters can't fathom what's actually happening. This can get annoying, I don't feel like the reactions to this are right in this story, but I don't know how it would be to live in a world with mysterious advance tech so... what do I know?

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Well weaved, but still has some issues.

Revisado: 08-04-22

Better than tGatM but still suffers from "teenagers in peril", bad decisions, having to tools or previous instances of action that will work but not doing them because of whatever. The world is still great. Much better character work, and I actually cared about them. Yaz has possibly 2 notes now so, better.

The plot weaving is very good. There a big plot bomb that really made me not feel great about it though. One of those... "wait... all this and ___?!" But, I guess that's how you sell more books.

I DO want to know more about this world. But I don't know if I can get through another brutal book series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

3 books. Rollercoaster of misery? Kinda...

Revisado: 08-04-22

I just finished the series, so I'm going to make an entry for each. I have read the previous series as well. Though, I will say that the "freshness" of my experience is waning due to time and life.

Good story. Stakes are severe. Good expansion on the world built in the previous books, The Book of the Ancestors Series.

I feel like the story and world kept me going but not the characters. I wanted to know what was going on, and why, but I never had the space to like anyone particularly. Maybe two of Yaz's friends were interesting, but not that deep. I tried to justify it with things like, "everyone is tired, hungry and desperate," or "her people only care about survival and don't trust anything so no one has feelings or any interesting personality traits anymore".

I like that the main character doesn't always think of what needs to be done right away, where her friends will think of it and suggest, but sometimes it does wear on you. If you start asking yourself questions about the logic it starts to get to you. "If she knows that A happens to B when she does C, why doesn't she do C when..." You have to ask yourself why, and it can come down to YA, and "teenagers in peril". One is forgivable and one is just tired.

I still enjoyed it enough to get through it and go on to the next book. I want to know what's happening in this world.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

1 & 2, good but oddly annoying.

Revisado: 06-16-22

I listened to both books in a row... quite the long story put together. Was great.
Excellent narrator. Good plot, not wholly original but well thought out and a pretty solid world built.
I like the main character. She's very capable and fun to follow. Big mouth but has a brain and knows when to shut up. Doesn't know everything, isn't all powerful, isn't the chosen one. Recognizes her issues, tries, and sometimes fails, to get past them. Thank you Mr. Hayes. Well done.
SOOO.... The negative... and very slight SPOILERS.
I say annoying because I'm not sure if I have a proper word for it, or can express it correctly.
There are only two issues I have with this book. One is conceptual and one is methodological.
1. Does this world have any nuance?
Villains and Capes... and no one can spend more than a sentence on what that means on a spectrum. You know that Chloe lives on that spectrum and Tori knows that but it's almost like Chloe is the only meta who has ever been there and no one has ever had to think about it so the world just keeps on living as though it's only black and white. It's almost like the Capes can only see things as Metas and people to be saved. While the Villains can see the spectrum but for some reason, never aknowlege it fully or can't talk about it, much. There's a totally of maybe 5 sentences in the whole series where they go into other metas.
Even our protagonist capes cannot even fathom this spectrum.
2. Mr. Hayes uses "if only you knew" to his detriment.
It took a while, but I started noticing a trend in the writing. EVERYONE has afterthoughts... all the time. It's one thing to have plots in plots etc., but it's another to always talk about it, even if it's just to yourself. Since I do not have a hard copy of this book I cannot highlight, but I wonder how many times someone leaves a scene or has a conversation, then spends the next paragraph plotting, or introspecting, or eluding to hidden information. As a tool this is good to keep the reader hooked, but when you start to realize that the whole cast does it at every turn it just becomes a bit ridiculous. I started rolling my eyes when it happened in Bones.. then really started paying attention to when it would happen. I know that this is a staple of the comic industry due to the brisk pace of it's physical medium, and perhaps Mr. Hayes was trying to connote comic book hero/villain dynamic. (like the monologuing) Either way it was VERY noticeable. I began imagining campy evil soap opera hugs.

Other than these two things, good books. Fun and I'm looking forward to the rest of the story.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

1 & 2, good but oddly annoying.

Revisado: 06-16-22

I listened to both books in a row... quite the long story put together. Was great.
Excellent narrator. Good plot, not wholly original but well thought out and a pretty solid world built.
I like the main character. She's very capable and fun to follow. Big mouth but has a brain and knows when to shut up. Doesn't know everything, isn't all powerful, isn't the chosen one. Recognizes her issues, tries, and sometimes fails, to get past them. Thank you Mr. Hayes. Well done.
SOOO.... The negative... and very slight SPOILERS.
I say annoying because I'm not sure if I have a proper word for it, or can express it correctly.
There are only two issues I have with this book. One is conceptual and one is methodological.
1. Does this world have any nuance?
Villains and Capes... and no one can spend more than a sentence on what that means on a spectrum. You know that Chloe lives on that spectrum and Tori knows that but it's almost like Chloe is the only meta who has ever been there and no one has ever had to think about it so the world just keeps on living as though it's only black and white. It's almost like the Capes can only see things as Metas and people to be saved. While the Villains can see the spectrum but for some reason, never aknowlege it fully or can't talk about it, much. There's a totally of maybe 5 sentences in the whole series where they go into other metas.
Even our protagonist capes cannot even fathom this spectrum.
2. Mr. Hayes uses "if only you knew" to his detriment.
It took a while, but I started noticing a trend in the writing. EVERYONE has afterthoughts... all the time. It's one thing to have plots in plots etc., but it's another to always talk about it, even if it's just to yourself. Since I do not have a hard copy of this book I cannot highlight, but I wonder how many times someone leaves a scene or has a conversation, then spends the next paragraph plotting, or introspecting, or eluding to hidden information. As a tool this is good to keep the reader hooked, but when you start to realize that the whole cast does it at every turn it just becomes a bit ridiculous. I started rolling my eyes when it happened in Bones.. then really started paying attention to when it would happen. I know that this is a staple of the comic industry due to the brisk pace of it's physical medium, and perhaps Mr. Hayes was trying to connote comic book hero/villain dynamic. (like the monologuing) Either way it was VERY noticeable. I began imagining campy evil soap opera hugs.

Other than these two things, good books. Fun and I'm looking forward to the rest of the story.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I tried... a convenient mess is still a mess.

Revisado: 02-22-22

I listened to the first two books. My first review talked about how this series was crazy pants. Everyone is scheming and the plot, while insanely all over the place, is also kinda ambitiously fresh in it's complexity and the sheer fact that the author can keep it all together. The Stormlight Archives WISHES there was this much scheming. But this is also where it falls apart.

I just can't take any more new characters, or convenient plot devices that fast forward through real depth to get to the next back stab, convoluted history, birthright or betrayal. The characters are on rails for the most part, just plowing through whatever is in their way, fighting dragons, discovering magic, chatting with gods... but where is it even going anymore and who the hell is going there?

The characters are sometimes so oblivious when it's convenient so that they can be used to move us in a direction. Some are completely forgotten during the journey only to pop up for some kind of interpersonal drama. There's also convenient character traits that pop up to make issues for more drama and plot movement, and it's too obvious. The trick to using cliche right is to obfuscate it with real creativity and sincerity... and we get none, and no ones deals with their issues so no one can move on or grow, that way, it can be an issue later when it's convenient. But in the in-between times, similar situations will arise and we'll hear nothing of it, or they'll just keep it to themselves.

I am very curious to see how the story ends but not right now... maybe when I get bored and want to return to it. I like all of the inclusiveness and different relationships. So many review complaints about the sexual content, but it's so rated G... I assume it's just obnoxiously loud prudes that should be asking themselves hard questions before they start complaining about other people's preferences IN A MADE UP WORLD.

Either way. I don't know the intention behind the writing so I can't assume too much. I feel like the author needs to take a breath, and help the reader live in the world. Everything is described so quickly and sparsely that the world feels over simplified for expediency. The reader never gets to settle, and not for the sake of the moment... but just for the sake of movement. You CAN still inhabit the world and move through it quickly. They definitely tried to be more descriptive in this book but it was like comic book style. Where the characters moved into a space and were removed from it but still gazing at it and the most ephemeral of ways. "Look at all of this stuff... welp, gotta go... Wow... look at all this stuff... welp... gotta go..." Rinse, repeat.

Anyways... I can see being forgiving and being into it... but I have run out of forgiveness juice for the time being.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A couple of times I said "OH SH**" out loud...

Revisado: 02-10-22

Well written cyberpunk mystery.
A complete departure from the first book in tone and characters, but within the same world and has other relations to Planetfall that become more clear with progress and enlightenment.
Some of the aspects of the main character's life do not seem too far off from speculative future reality.

Like the title of this review, I expressed some real emotion while listening. Emma Newman drops some bombs on you when you're not expecting it and you don't get to turn away or close your eyes.

Definitely looking forward to the next in the series.
I recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt that things were unfair and they had no way out... or done that thing where you have to stop what you're doing, take a deep breath and physically/mentally push out the negative with your hands.

Well done.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Anxiety & Trauma aspect given a voice.

Revisado: 02-10-22

I kinda loved this book. Unreliable narrator, but not for the reasons you think... and I'd just like to thank the author for taking that difficult path and making it work.

There are also some beautifully realized memories expressed by the main character that really resonated with me.

Sci-fi survival with an introspection mystery that takes it's time and hits hard. There's a devastating lie that festers, multiplies and grows. As the narrator/listener, you watch that rotten flower bloom and the fallout is as bad as you would expect, but when it's over, there are no heroes, there are just people driven by their trauma or egos. Just like real life.

Well done.
I recommend this book for anyone who has ever not been able to let something go when they knew they should have.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña