A Texan 2

A solid, if bloated, entry for the series

Revisado: 04-10-25

A solid, if somewhat bloated entry in the adventures of Carl, Donut, and company. The long awaited "Faction Wars" floor that has been teased from nearly the beginning finally gets a sprawling narrative to bring it to life.

Overall, the story works well and allows Dinniman to wrap up some major story arcs and provides something of a hard reset from which to launch future stories.

If I have one complaint it's that there were a lot of characters to keep up with this time, some of whom had similar names that were harder to remember who was who and what they were doing when we last checked in. As usual though, the audiobook narration by Jeff Hays is superb.

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Deeper we go, in more ways than one

Revisado: 02-03-23

Another very solid entry in what is becoming an addictive series. As I'd hoped, Dinniman is introducing us to more of the universe that the game takes place in. Factions, governments, massive debts, cheating and corruption - all the good things in life.

Carl and Donut continue to face new and tougher challenges while growing in power, skill, and character.

And a bag full of Checkov's guns. Can't wait to see how they get fired in these next books.

Please sir, may I have another?

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Deeper we go, in more ways than one

Revisado: 02-03-23

Another very solid entry in what is becoming an addictive series. As I'd hoped, Dinniman is introducing us to more of the universe that the game takes place in. Factions, governments, massive debts, cheating and corruption - all the good things in life.

Carl and Donut continue to face new and tougher challenges while growing in power, skill, and character.

And a bag full of Checkov's guns. Can't wait to see how they get fired in these next books.

Please sir, may I have another?

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A wild new adventure

Revisado: 01-25-23

This is my first venture into what is known as the LitRPG genre. The general premise is the story follows a protagonist playing his/her way through a literal role playing game, including the kinds of interfaces, level progress, and game mechanics that folks who have played table top or computer based role playing games will be familiar with.

This ones takes place on Earth, in a twist on the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" global cataclysm. In an instant, 99% of Earth's population is killed off and the remaining few millions are lead into the first level of what will ultimately be an 18 level dungeon into the depths of the planet. The kicker is that this is all done for the entertainment of the greater universe's population - essentially "The Running Man" on a grand scale with millions of players at a time.

While this is available as straight text on Kindle or hard copy, the audiobook really brings the story to life. The narrator provides distinct voices to the characters and the production provides a variety of enhancements to the sounds of the computer based AI interfaces that the protagonist deals with along the way.

While this book focuses Carl's initial shock at the situation he's been thrown into and learning how to play and survive, there are hints that we'll get exposed to the greater socio-political situation of the universe as future books come along. I'm hopeful we'll see something like Scott Sigler's GFL series, where the early books focus on Quentin's development as a football player and the later books focus less on specific gameplay and more on Quentin's growing place in the galaxy. Looking forward to finding out.

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A wild new adventure

Revisado: 01-25-23

This is my first venture into what is known as the LitRPG genre. The general premise is the story follows a protagonist playing his/her way through a literal role playing game, including the kinds of interfaces, level progress, and game mechanics that folks who have played table top or computer based role playing games will be familiar with.

This ones takes place on Earth, in a twist on the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" global cataclysm. In an instant, 99% of Earth's population is killed off and the remaining few millions are lead into the first level of what will ultimately be an 18 level dungeon into the depths of the planet. The kicker is that this is all done for the entertainment of the greater universe's population - essentially "The Running Man" on a grand scale with millions of players at a time.

While this is available as straight text on Kindle or hard copy, the audiobook really brings the story to life. The narrator provides distinct voices to the characters and the production provides a variety of enhancements to the sounds of the computer based AI interfaces that the protagonist deals with along the way.

While this book focuses Carl's initial shock at the situation he's been thrown into and learning how to play and survive, there are hints that we'll get exposed to the greater socio-political situation of the universe as future books come along. I'm hopeful we'll see something like Scott Sigler's GFL series, where the early books focus on Quentin's development as a football player and the later books focus less on specific gameplay and more on Quentin's growing place in the galaxy. Looking forward to finding out.

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Compelling case, terrible narration

Revisado: 08-27-22

Bonekemper provides solid evidence taking down all of the "Lost Cause" myths - most of it thanks to Confederate sources themselves.

One thing I think he could have done better was attack the arguements and evidence that the Lost Cause apologists used to build the myths. He does a better job in the section regarding Total War at the end, citing the claims from some sources and then countering them. Whereas in the chapter about the myth of Lee as the greatest general, there is plenty of evidence presented that he was actually a terrible general, but not much from the apologist side as to the basis of their claims.

Still, overall, it's a devastating piece upon what are too many of us who grew up in the South, cherished "truths" that we grew up with. This should be required reading to every high school history class.

However, this book is, without a doubt, the worst narrated thing I have ever suffered through listening to. I pretty much just has to steel myself and power through what is the most lifeless, passionless and tiresome reading of a book I've ever encountered. Alexa could have read this book better. I honestly thought at the beginning that this was narrated by a computer. In addition, so many mispronounced words and several repeated sections make for an overall terrible audio production.

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A butler? For a wizard? YES!

Revisado: 10-08-21

his space based "solar clipper" stories avoided the usual tropes of space navies and warring empires to instead introduce characters of a civilian nature that populate a more commercial world telling generally more laid back stories with more "normal" characters.

So now Nathan Lowell gives us an urban fantasy that isn't full of angsty vampires at war with werewolves or grand schools of Wizardry and Magic.

Instead, we enter a world through the eyes of a down on his luck young man whose background in the military and as an EMT leads him to take on a job as a....butler?

Yes! And as the title gives away, a butler to an ancient house inhabited by a single elderly fellow who happens to be a Wizard.

The story is once again fairly laid back and the story isn't about saving the world from an invading dragon or anything so high stakes. It is an enjoyable ride and a good introduction to a new world that I look forward to learning more about.

Mr. Lowell's writing has greatly matured and I appreciated his ability to describe this world and it's people with good attention to detail that avoids getting bogged down in just details.

I listened to this audiobook version of this and found the narrator, Tom Taylorson, to be a great choice for bringing these characters to life. I don't believe I've listened to his work before, but he does a great job capturing both the wonder and confusion as the new butler discovers just what all he has gotten himself into.

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A most disappointing book from Feist

Revisado: 02-11-21

All in all, a pretty forgettable effort. Now that all of the Riftwar books are finally available through Audible, I've taken it upon myself to finally finish Pug's grand story. Though, books like this certainly make it difficult. I can't remember if I've actually read this book previously, or if I had stopped with Exile's Return.

Ultimately, this story is a pale imitation of much better books that Feist wrote earlier in his career, especially Prince of the Blood, the first grand adventure into Great Kesh. The boys, Tad and Zane, are the least interesting and most poorly developed pair of best friend/brothers that Feist has introduced yet. The recycling of old locations and old villains also really makes it hard to gear up for a "new" series.

I'm going to keep going, in part because I became invested in the original characters almost three decades ago and because the earlier books of Midkemia and Kelewan that Feist produced in the 80's and 90's still hold a special place for me. I hear they do get better toward the end, and I dearly hope so.

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Disappointing "conclusion"

Revisado: 05-23-20

Feist was one of my early introductions to Fantasy back in the early 90's, in part thanks to the ground breaking computer game "Betrayal at Krondor". And, up through the previous book "Rage of a Demon King" Feist's writing style and skill improved and the story naturally built from what had come before.

This book really doesn't feel like it should be part of the Serpentwar Saga. The culmination of "Rage" really brought a conclusion to several threads that had been building on a foundation going back all the way to "Magician: Apprentice".

Had this been a stand alone book focusing just on the adventures of Eric von Darkmoor and the Jamison boys and the efforts to reclaim the Western Realm and the rebuilding of Krondor - it would have made for a solid story.

But, it suffers badly from the Pug problem - by this point, Pug has become almost a force of nature and Feist has to level up the powers of the big bad that he must be occupied by. Where in the previous books of Serpentwar, everything builds and we see perspective of other players and demons. With this, the "big bad" is an all new macguffin that doesn't really get revealed at all until the very end and requires a whole separate info dump by Nakor after it's over to make any sense at all.

It's all just feels tacked on and rushed and these characters deserved better.

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Big improvement over book 2

Revisado: 08-03-19

This final book of the "new" Thrawn trilogy (or maybe it should be "new Thrawn") is a big improvement over the second book with it's ill suited team-up between Thrawn and Vader/Anakin. This book sees Thrawn back in form and gives us a good look into the Chiss Ascendancy from which he originally came. This time, there's no involvement with the Rebellion, but instead an external threat to the Empire that Thrawn has to deal with.
Still, while I enjoyed it and found it an overall satisfying conclusion...it still lacks somewhat compared to the original Thrawn trilogy of the now Legends time line. I think the biggest reason is, back then, Timothy Zahn was essentially blazing the new trail for the post-ROTJ Star Wars universe. At that time, there was nothing and Zahn was free to take us into an uncharted future with Thrawn as a great successor nemesis to the New Republic after Vader and the Emperor were to the Rebellion.
Now, bringing him back into that pre-Death Star timeline, Thrawn is reduced somewhat to being just another major player like Vader, Tarkin, Krennic, etc. subservient to Emperor Palpatine.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad we get to have Thrawn back in the new canon, especially in the Rebels TV series. But, I think this iteration doesn't quite live up to the menacing mastermind that challenged the New Republic back in the 90's.

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