Kai

Nothing new here

Revisado: 03-21-23

I'm gyessing this is simply a case of 'not my cuppa', and my not being the target audience.

It isn't bad per se, just that I found the subject matter exhausted of any new ideas. Thus, expecting any new ideas from this novel seems unreasonable.

If you are into Warlocks, elves, dragons and whatnot then this certainly is a book for you. Those and magic you will find aplenty.

Plus, there is romance, and a love triangle of sorts there too. Oh. And of course the protagonist drives a 70s cluncker of with 'Sam & Dean' potential.

Should any or all of those be your thing, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one.

This makes me think it likely this is Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy section with every and all the tropes that go with it. That definitely rules me out as one of its target audience. That said, it was written well enough and or narrated well enough for me to finish it while waiting for my monthly credit.

I guess that means it ain't half bad. Just not original in any significant manner. The narrator is pretty spiffy though.

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Better than the sum of its parts

Revisado: 12-22-21

Scalzi has written the strongest volume of the Old Man's War series since the title one here.

Once one gets used to William Dufris as narrator in stead of Will Wheaton (who has of late been the one to do all the narration Scalzi's writing) you start to appreciate his style in ever growing quantity.

I will not go to the specifics of the story here, but it is placed within the Old Man's War universe, where humanity is only one of many races fighting each other for viable planets.

The pace and brutality of the juggernaut that is the story of the interplanetary, inter-species war on the ground level from the perspective of a Colonial Defence Force soldier, has somewhat slowed down through the books so far. (mind you I 'read read' them as in I read the actual print books in stead of listening to them, and the pace still felt breathtaking) This story is a part of a slower, bigger and more cerebral story arc that's kept me interested thus far.

In this book we change the focus from the cast of the preceding books in the series. But I grew to like and care about most of them within the span of this volume enough to want to know more.

The one thing that substracts points is Scalzi's mannerism of "he said", "she said", "it said". It is especially highligted in the fast-paced narration of the professionals that read audiobooks. (not quite as much in the glacial pace of my own inner voice narrating when reading)

This is the one thing holding back Scalzi's form. He has the gengre content and clichés covered to a tee. Now if he only could rud himself of his one - really quite annoying - mannerism, he might belong to the sharpest end of sci-fi writers. At present his content belongs up there with Banks for example, but his literary form lacks compared to Banks' mastery.

I'd give it four and a half stars, but Audible only thinks in integers.

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Meh!

Revisado: 11-24-21

Plot ain't worth mentioning. Certain tropes and gaping holes in logic that I managed to overlook in the first one really began bothering me in this one. Also the weaker narrators were getting more annoying too. Not worth the time I spent on it. Almost.

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Made me feel warm and fuzzy

Revisado: 09-27-21

Sorry for the terrible pun. Couldn't resist even when I realised how bad the joke was.

Which reminded me veery slightly of the protagonist of this book. Yeah. I wish. Why do we mere mortals oh so seldom compare to the heroes and heroines of scifi-literature.

Anyhow Mr. Jack Holloway the main protagonist of this book is an asshole. licky for us he turns put to be of the somehow slightly likable kind. This is mostly due to there being a good man underneath the abrupt rogueish surface.

Scalzi has done a good job modernising and bringing this existing story by H Beam Piper into a more modern setting. An update in a sense. Or maybe a reboot is more accurate description since pretty much everything got updated or upgraded: tech, gadgets, diverity and social issues etc. etc. the whole nine yards.

What I like about this book may seem obvious, but I'll list it anyway. I nedd to after having been subjected to a "YA novel" that had some glaring omissions in some of these categories.


1. A cast you give a toss about. A relatable, at least semi-believable gallery of characters, that have been fleshed out with enough resonance in some real-world archetypes that one can relate, care about their fate. Root for them, even. You know your basic, flawed human beings, albeit a bit above average education. Anyway. Humans, you know. And some non-humans, too...

2. A plot. This seems obvious but isn't. So glad there is one here. Not the best one I've read but a fairly good one. There is some thought put into developing it. I recently endured something that haf replaced a believable plot with an incredulous jumble of every unbelievable tv, fantasy and bad comic-book trope thrown into a cement mixer and rolled into one, and then having the audacity to call that a plot.

3. A narrator with a bit of pedigree. I'm not saying Wheaton isban excellent narrator, no. He does like to do a very animated, somewhat exaggerated kind of narration that sometimes gets a bit annoying even.

However, his narration is clear, and easy to follow. One can tell the different characters apart for example. There are no confusing moments where you go "Which one ofbthe male caharacters is speaking again?" and have to rewind ro try and figure that out. Or female ones either, for that matter. So that's a plus.

If you know Wheaton's style and don't mind that he sometimes over-does it, you're likely to like this one as well. Personally I like to play his narration at .9 speed, makes it feeö a bit less like a sporting event and does not leave you feelkng quite as out of breath as his hard-charging style might do played at full speed.

So to sum up. This is a standalone strory with likable and believable cast. (Plus some baddies to boot) A huge plus right there.

There is struggling author (well, maybe not anymore) that does a professional job by writing a story with a solid, interesting plotline. It is sn actual story, not an aspiring script for a shitty Netflix adaptation. And it has been narrated by a professional, who does a solid job performing and fleshing put the story and the characters in it.

All in all, a very Scalzi book with a very solid Wheaton performance.

Recommended.

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Sheesh! I wish I could give negative grades -5/5

Revisado: 09-23-21

Without ever getting into the galactic-sized troubles with even the most elementary internal logic within the story, and even allowing for the maximum amount of suspension of belief this is... ...is... ...below par. Let's just leave it at that.

From ridiculous to incredulous through to nauseating, this 'story'' just keeps getting worse.

Unless you are a die-hard fan of teenage lit (aka YA), and/or Harlequin'ish trash about kids with magical powers, steer clear of both of the volumes in this 'series'.

Eugh! Yuck! I feel dirty for finishing it.

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Radio theatre is not dead

Revisado: 09-05-21

I decided to give this a try as a bit on a whim and was plaesantly surprised. I proves that with a quality cast (Serkis the notable exception here) you can make an engaging listen out of pretty much anything.

The choice was interesting, since Gaiman's work isn't known as a standalone novel, but a graphic one. At least half of a good comic -or even a glorified one aka "a graphic novel" - is the qualoiy of illustration.

What is obvious is that the choice of format and stripping away the graphic from a graphic novel lays naked all the possible weakness or failings of the original story.

Much like in cinema it is posiible to make a fairly good one with a mediocre cast, excellennt direction and fantastic cinematography plus the works (you know sound, esiting, vfx all the doodads). Call it the Visual element.

Now, here we have something that has a heawyweight cast and I find it difficult to fault the audio and tech part either. Direction is obviously working, since even Serkis isn't overdoing his part quite as catastrophically as he tends to.

And so we are left with the interesting bit. Since Audible has made the decision in a way to separate the inseparable and disassociate the text from the illustration that is widely held to be of the highest quality Gaiman finds his text facing its toughest test to date. Does it stand as a standalone text? I'm not sure. Had I read this as a book, I wouldn't think so.

The episodic format of short stories with some loosely connecting bits doesn't lend itself well to mere text unless the novelist is very, very skilled indeed. Undoubtedly Gaiman must be a good one, one doesn't usually get as published as he is without some talent.

So here in a roundabout way we are. Does this text stack up to scrutiny? As radio theatre it was entertaining enough. As a novel? Meh.

I may have done myself a disservice by satisfying my curiosity here. I - despite a lifelong love for the sequential art - have yet to read the much vaunted Sandman series by Gaiman et al. So is a radio play the format in which one should get to know this work? Probably not, but hey why not then? I fear I may have taken away something by leaving out the graphic from a graphic novel. The literary bit is often the weaker of the two in a graphic novel.

To sum up. The voice acting (for that's what it is) is excellent. Especially McAvoy is delightful. Gaiman as narrator very good as are Dennigs, Neuwirth and Ahmed too.
Superstar cast then.
Maggs directs as steadily as one could expect and Hannigan has done fine work with the music here.

So despite this being a bit like watching a movie with the projector broken, but the audio still functional I liked it.

Much like an action movie will work ok even with a bit weaker text if the other components are high quality, this audiobook/radio play works just fine. I just wish I had read the actual printed volumes first.

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Ivan does have a brain!

Revisado: 08-11-21

Ivan Vorpatril, the womanizing village idiot. The hopeless, but handsome git that everyone who knows him, thinks a simpelton, is retconned into a witty, smart, kind and empathic hero who gets the girl.

To continue along the generational line of not settling for a home-grown Vor girl, or God forbid, someone of regular background he manages to lure a galactic girl of very high status in the end.

Meanwhile does he not only save the damsel in distress, but her whole family. And as a happy accident, he happens to uncover a treasure of immeasurable worth.

i would have found this a lot more interesting if he had pursued his previous relationship with Comtess Vorrutyer. Oh well, vanilla is nice, too...

Speaking of Vorrytyers By has somehow turned from the village gossip girl into a semi-respectable spy and into a way less sleazy character than previously.

A slight change in course turning two minor characters into the protagonist and his sidekick and 'Presto!', giving them abilities that none of the dozen or so previous volumes hinted at at all.

Oh well. Why not. I keep listening to these, but I'd never read any of this
Harlequin(ish) pulp with rivals among Central American telenovelas. Only because Gardner has some serious talent.

Yay! The rich schmuck wins again! And Bujold is laughing all the way to the bank.

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One of the better ones

Revisado: 08-04-21

If you can look past the romantic Harlequin(ish) bit about admiring and romanticising a class society, with literally counts and countesses, liegelords and the like, it is a nice space opera for a change.

The three previous volumes have been less than good, to be honest. They have almost made me give up on the series altogether.

However, The Hugo Award given to Bujold for this series has kept me going. No. Not quite. That, and the excellent narration by Grover Gardner.

This is another volume that requires the suspension of belief. One person just isn't likely to encounter this many crises in every possible turn. Just. Does. Not. Happen. But if one is willing to look past the Harlequin angle, and the incredulity of the James Bond of this genre, you will find an entertaining mystery full of turns and twists.

And we get reacquainted with some of Bujold's most interesting supporting cast.

Perhaps if Bujold were simply to change the main protagonist from time to time, my latter gripe would not exist.

As a standalone book it is a most entertaining one. As part of a series that has jumped the shark a few volumes back already, this is one of the better ones.

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It's a wedding story

Revisado: 08-03-21

Miles gets married and Sgt Tara makes a friend. Don't give a hoot about Miles et al, but Sgt Tara gets all my empathy.

A kind-hearted story and a sympathetic new(ish) back-country protagonist overcoming his narrow-minded upbringing.

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Another incredulous & entertaining Miles adventure

Revisado: 07-05-21

▪︎ Plot, Star Trekky. Besides, who needs one anyway?
▪︎Usual amount pf incredulous incidents and accidents by Bujold
▪︎Miles' razor-sharp wit, near omniscient capabilities of deduction and anticipation are here again. As entertaining as ever.
▪︎The Dendarii are here. Need I say more?

So. To recap. This is as incongruous, incredidble, entertaining and oxymoronic a Miles Vorkosigan/Admiral Neismith story as they come.

Enjoy.

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