Kevin R.

Great story, wonderful narration

Revisado: 11-26-23

Lets face it, Ashley Eckstein is the voice of Ahsoka. She brings the character to life. Her narration is top notch. I looked for other books she has narrated but I can't say I am interested in any of them, which makes me very sad.

The story itself is well done. It's not the best I have heard, but understand, a 4* means I am happy to have purchased the book. It doesn't mean the book is bad, it means I have read/listened to better. Though, the story is good enough, I am now checking out other books by the author. If you are a Star Wars fan, this is an easy 5*. If you are a Clone Wars / Rebels fan, this is an easy 6*. ;-)

The plot is fairly simple, but I really wish Lucas would release more books on Ahsoka. Bring E.K. Johnston back together with Ashley Eckstein.

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Ok story. Lots of foundation setting.

Revisado: 12-14-22

TL;DR: This book push the story forward well. It feels like the foundation is being set for the next "chapter" of the over-arching story. A little slow. If you are this far in the series, it is obviously a must read. I am PRETTY sure when a few more books come out, looking BACK at this book, the story will gain 1-2 more stars.

Let me start out with the good.
1) I really liked how it jumped around to different points of view. I really liked seeing the story from different perspectives. I'm not as big of a fan of the whole books that do this (except for the two apprentices). I think this is a better way of doing it.
2) Having read the 14.5 book, seeing those "entries" through a different light was great.
3) As always, Terry Mancour does a terrific job with his world building.
4) The action is always terrific in the books.

Now, the bad.
1) It was kind of slow. This book seems to be setting many foundations for the next "phase".
2) It was kind of boring. Not as much action. Lots of world building, setting foundations. I totally understand that, but it makes the book a bit boring without the future context.

So, overall, the book is a solid entry into the series. This one, as have others before it, set up the next phase of the story. I think the previous book was just SO great, it does kind of hurt this one. I'm pretty darn sure when this book is taken as part of the series, it will be better. It felt like book 13 tied up that phase of the story, and this book is the start of the next phase with his new "capabilities". Now, I can't wait for the next book. I will admit, I jumped into the series when there were a bunch of books already, so I was able to listen to them, straight through. Having to wait now, is causing some problems. I wish there was a character/place index that would let us get back up to speed on specific characters and locations and what is occurring at the times of varying books.

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I really enjoyed this book.

Revisado: 08-12-22

This was a book that I found on discount, and sounded interesting. I know Sanderson writes a lot of good novels, though I am a little mixed as a fan. I found this series of books to be outstanding. How it is presented, the mystery of what is happening. The struggles, and more make for a great book. It's been rare for me to consume a book (let alone the three books in the series (currently)) this fast. The foundation laid in this book also helps lay the foundation for two more great books (again, at the time of this review, it's supposed to have more books in the series). This is the best one, in my opinion, but I pretty much consumed them all equally as fast.

The narrator feels "right" and sets a great tone. I really liked her. She pairs very good with this book.

If you want a fun, interesting sci-fi novel, pick this one up.

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Awesome book, with a few minor nitpicks

Revisado: 06-18-22

I want to start out saying this. This is an awesome book. I really enjoyed it. I listened to the entire book, in 6 days. It is a RARE book that holds me that tight. The narrator was really good as well. I really enjoyed him. So, next up are some critiques and observations, but please understand, I think this book is terrific, these are minor things.

The book is a little more intrigue and thought centered, rather than action centered, so understand that. There is action, but I honestly wanted more. I felt like the pacing was a bit "off". I felt like the protagonists were overly powerful when they didn't need to be, and surprisingly weak at other times. It adds tension and adds problems for the characters in the story, but it felt inconsistent (and I think the pacing I mentioned first, is affected by this).

Like I said, pretty minor things. I enjoyed it overall.

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Another story in the world of Spellmonger

Revisado: 05-21-22

I enjoyed this book, more than the previous two. I am not sure why.

The YA aspect I find more than a little annoying. There just isn't much action in the book, which is unfortunate. I like how Dara is being rounded out better. I like the relationship that is shown between her and her father.

The hardest part of the book, is that I am very used to John Lee. Finty is a fine voice actress, but when I have heard certain pronunciations for years, and these books they are pronounced very differently, I find it very jarring and it takes me out of the story. Then, certain characters have a "voice" I am used to, and Finty (obviously) can't accomplish that voice since she isn't John. (Both of these points, I don't associate with her as a fault, but an unfortunate side-effect of using different voice actors for different series. I had the same issue with the Gatina book.

I would definately say the Cadet books that have been released are the weakest of the "Spellmonger" series world. If you enjoy the Spellmonger books, then you should pick this one up. If you are not a big fan of the series, this can be a pass.

Ultimately, this is more world-building, through the eyes of a young lady. It's helpful to see the world the Spellmonger lives in from differing perspectives. I give this book 4 stars overall. The performance is only 3, because of the deviations from what I consider the "voice" of the series. The differing pronunciations, etc. Like I said, every time a location with a different sounding name or person is called a different name (pronounced differently) it pulls me out of the story. Again, this is not on Finty. As a voice actress, she does a terrific job of bringing Dara to life. I'd honestly love to have her voice Dara's lines in the main series.

The different direction this story goes being a Young Adult focused novel does make me less of the target audience. My daughter would probably like it... if it wasn't a book. :-) I also dislike how much shorter these are from the normal stories.

If you are a fan of the Spellmonger, this would be a 5* overall.

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I really enjoyed this book.

Revisado: 10-21-21

And the story was great. I really enjoyed it. I have enjoyed her character quite a bit in the main novels and I love that she is getting her own story. There are a few characters I would like to see this occur with.

This story was a very different take on the Spellmonger world, that is filled with intrigue and politics (While the rest of the Spellmonger storyline has a lot of it, I don't feel like it is quite as front and center as it is in this book). I REALLY liked that. I really can't wait for more books in this series to come out.

-- This part is more in response to several other people's reviews
I think I am lucky in that my memory is a little shaky. So, I don't have all of the names from previous books locked in right now. I think I noticed a few differences, but they were not that odd. (this is commenting towards a number of other reviews). I'll admit, it did not detract from the story.

The problem with this book (and Hawkmaiden) is I am used to a certain narration. With new narrators, words change, cadence change, the books change some. While written the same, even characters change. That is a problem, though, I feel it a lot less in this book than Hawkmaiden (I think it is because they are so far apart while Hawkmaiden's story intertwines with the main storyline so much).

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Enjoyable - LONG (amazing value)

Revisado: 08-24-21

This is a great series of books. There are rough spots, with 80 hours of audio, how could there not?

But, that doesn't mean I didn't really enjoy the books. I'd say the weakest were some of the add-ons. The .5 series of books. But, they gave us more depth, which I appreciated. (The last one, was an awesome send off, and I loved that .5 one)

I started out with Mercy for hire and realized after a few missions, I should start here. I'll be going back to Mercy now that Galaxy Outlaws has come to an end.

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These were the stories I didn't know I wanted

Revisado: 05-22-21

I really do enjoy the Spellmonger series. I like it quite a bit. I get a little frustrated with these side anthologies, but at the end of the day, they flesh out the world and the characters. This is, by far, my favorite. I loved the little interactions of the stories as they went along. I loved how they tied into bigger events from the main story line, but were not told as part of the main story line. This was just a terrific set of stories that I didn't know I wanted, or needed to hear. While I still want to know more about Spellmonger, I am happy to hear these. The other ones I really liked were the stories about Tyndal and Rondal.

It's great to hear stories about other personalities in the books. It gives them depth that the books just don't allow for. It gives them more purpose. It introduced a few other characters I now want to find out a little more about.

I really do want to find out more about Minalan and the main story line, but this is a fun interlude to break things up, and is as good as the main series.

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Overall, I enjoyed the series

Revisado: 05-14-21

I enjoyed the series. I'd love to see Alex use his other form more, but over all I enjoyed it. I'd love to get a short story anthology talking about threads from other books. What happens with Lupo? What about the Elves? The characters that want to become adventurers. So many short stories that I'd love to read/listen to. I really liked the narration on this book as well.

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Good... Not great

Revisado: 12-05-20

Something was off on this book. It was not as good as previous ones. Glad I listened to it, but it was hard. I'd listen to the previous books late into the night. This one, it was a struggle to listen any time.

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