Sarah Schoenfeld

Not for me

Revisado: 01-07-25

I don't remember being amazed by the first book, but at least enjoyed it. This one, not so much. I'm not sure if it's relying on the feelings for the characters from the first book and it's just been too long, but I found myself not caring about any of the characters much. And it didn't help that the book spent so much time being sappy and introspective and is written in such an annoyingly sentimental, kinda pretentious and occasionally even preachy tone. Add to it that much of the book didn't feel like it had enough real conflict, just the facade of conflict, which would conveniently solve itself. I can't say for certain it's a bad book or anything. But it's certainly not for me.

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Solid, but not stellar.

Revisado: 04-21-20

The cast of characters is solid. The story is interesting, although not the most groundbreaking. The world building is fabulous and by far the best thing about the series.

As for the audio, I was neither impressed, nor disappointed. I'm not sure if this was originally one of those books on cassette/disc recordings, but it had that dated feel to it. If it was, it wasn't unbearable, like some of them I've listened to. But, it did take time for me to adjust to and, again, it did really feel dated. I also didn't realize who was narrating and just thought that Mogget was the narrator doing a really mean Tim Curry impression for that character which was a fun brick joke on myself.

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Near perfection

Revisado: 02-11-20

Loved it. The star lost for performance is because no one can seem to figure out what accent Jesper has. Even with that flaw the audio is still really good, though

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A solid darker retelling of the Little Mermaid

Revisado: 01-07-20

Overall, pretty dang good. The pacing was fine, I liked the characters, I loved the weird psychopathic mermaid stuff. There was lots to enjoy. There were some aspects that could have been improved. Like, why are all these countries just countries of hats? And, while I like the main characters as individual characters and as friends, it never felt like they quite developed much in the way of romantic chemistry. But, in the grand scheme of things, they weren't unforgivable issues.

The audiobook loses a point on the narrator, though. The guy narrator does a great job with male characters. But his female characters sound like 80 year old men or chain smokers or both. The woman did great.

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Good but felt incomplete

Revisado: 06-28-19

The concept itself is great. And the audiobook in its entirety was enjoyable. However, it felt like the concept and world warranted a story longer than 2 1/4 hrs. It ended up feeling very much like eating a very nice dinner with great food, but with ridiculously small portion sizes. I left the table a bit unsatisfied.

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Dated?

Revisado: 02-17-18

Super predictable with annoying characterization and poor handling of the the concept of sexism. I'm not sure how much of it was thanks to how old the book is. Nevertheless, it could have been a gem if the writer was more skilled.

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Eh... Nope.

Revisado: 06-30-17

This did not work for me at all. Mostly because it suffered from so many annoying romance and vampire novel cliches. Insta-love! Blandly perfect love interest and main character! Vampires with random powers! Oh noes I don't want to bone you because I might bite you!!!11 Actually, in a lot of ways, including the aforementioned cliches, the book was reminiscent of Twilight. It also had the same overly simplistic good vs bad vampires and a general disdain towards humans. (Seriously, Alec. You got over the 'My forced boyfriend eats my fellow humans' thing pretty fast. And have all of zero respect for those pesky human laws you swore to uphold by becoming a cop. What's up with that?)

There is a plot in this though! And it doesn't show up late to the party after stopping at the bank and getting McDonalds! (Freakin' Twilight.) It just suffers from not being fully fleshed out in the "show vs tell" department in favor of our lovebirds making bedroom eyes and awkwardly hitting on each other. It's pretty gross and eye-roll worthy since they have zero romantic development or chemistry by the time we start getting beaten over the head with it. Alec takes the whole "fated" forced insta-love thing waaay to easily for someone who has just lost all emotional agency. He pays a little lip-service to the whole ordeal, but it always seems like just that- lip service. He never seems truly conflicted about it, making the whole relationship seem further forced and hollow. I liked the weird alternate history stuff, though, but wish it was incorporated more gracefully than giant info dumps.

As for the narration, I seem to be the odd one out here too. I hated it. Alec's voice in particular and the stuff that was not in any specific characters' voices were super annoying. Everything seemed to end up said in this overly dramatic husky way that made it feel like the narrator was trying to convince you that something dramatic or emotional was being said or happening, even when it wasn't. For example, in the beginning Alec is surprised that he is not freaking out over the strange turn his life has suddenly taken. The way his voice is done, though, makes it seem like he really is about to have a mental breakdown, even though the text does not support this.

However, there was a silver lining to the narration. His accented voices were actually really good. They were pretty thick, without sounding cartoonish, and added variety to the narration. So there's that.

I'll probably pass on the sequels though. :(

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Aptly titled

Revisado: 06-17-17

A bitter sweet, harrowing, very unconventional love story with a well rounded cast of characters and lovely writing. However, the uncomfortable subject matter leaves this one not for everyone. So proceed with caution.

The audio was, overall, good. My only issue was that there were parts where it sounded like they had to go back and reread something, but then the parts were read in the wrong voice. For example, there would be a line that sounds like it should be in Kellen's voice, but then it was read in the default voice. Or Wavy's. The issue was not frequent, however.

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My all time favorite Star Wars Book

Revisado: 03-04-17

Complete with great audio! This novelization does a great job of fleshing out many of the movies' problem areas, especially with regards to why characters act a certain way. In particular, exactly how Palpatine is manipulating everyone is much more accessible in this format, than in the movies, where it seems to be more vaguely implied and, therefore, more likely to be interpreted as a poorly conceived, convoluted mess of a movie plot. It also greatly helps flesh Anakin out and make his actions, particularly towards the end of the movie more understandable, as opposed to simply being the actions of a bratty, psychotic spaz.

Despite my unrelenting love of this novel and my across the board 5 star rating, it wasn't perfect. For one, this novel doesn't try terribly hard on developing Padme and Anakin as a couple. The relationship isn't particularly irritating. The book simply relies a bit on you knowing other source material or on you being willing to just accept how passionately the two love each other, instead of feeling the need to sell the relationship to you. I consider this a flaw of the medium (that being a novelization) more than that of the book itself, though. All the time spent on those two characters' relationships with Obi-wan more than make up for it, anyhow.

On another note, I'm not sure I entirely agree with the author's interpretation of Mace Windu. (Though, his interpretation is, by no means, uninteresting.) The author is also significantly more interested in light saber fighting styles than I am. However, even if you don't like any of these aspects, they never overpower the book.

Anyhow, I fully recommend this one to everyone with a pulse. Unless you, like, have an irrational hatred for all things Star Wars or something. In a lot of ways it made the prequels more enjoyable for me. And anything that makes you not hate Anakin is good, right?

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A solid listen

Revisado: 02-26-17

Very engrossing and fast paced. The narrator's accents were sometimes a bit campy, though, and so took some getting use to. By the end I was okay with her, with the exception of some of her villainous, male, german characters, who sounded straight up cartoonish. (Here's lookin' at you, Hitler.)

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