Maggie

Riveting.

Revisado: 11-25-21

If you like gritty fantasy and warrior poets, get into this series. You won't regret it.

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More Than Just a Scary Story for Late Nights

Revisado: 05-12-21

This book will not convince you that ghosts exist, if you do not already believe. But it also will not try to dissuade you, either. This book explores the cultural significance of ghosts and their context and I think that makes this book a complete gem. Great performance, intelligent writing, no bull crap. One of my top 3 books on Audible.

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Fun and Wild Supernatural Noir

Revisado: 05-12-21

My first time consuming any of Klavan's work. The narrative was gripping, suspenseful and funny.
I stumbled across this book on accident and had no idea it was a noir, in a sense, but then, aren't most cop stories? If you like supernatural melodrama, procedural crime trappings, and a bit of romantic intrigue, you'll probably love this book. I had a great time with it and couldn't put my headphones down until I'd finished it.

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Story Is a Natural Next Step, Poor Cast

Revisado: 05-07-21

Cast performance lets this one down. I hate to give the returning cast flack, but they really have never been voice actors. The voices feel flat and take away from the story, even the new cast. I never felt completely immersed. Sound design is great, though it could have used a bit more clarification in places. If you're an Alien fan and want to see what Alien 3 could have been, it's worth a listen, but only if you can listen for free.

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Good With Whiskey and a Storm.

Revisado: 05-03-21

This one is beautifully written and performed. It'll chill horror fans and keep its hooks in you until the end.

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Addictive, Twisting and Very Funny

Revisado: 09-27-20

I have been a long-time listener of Mr. Croshaw and his Zero Punctuation segment. I find his work there to be wonderfully witty, gross, and strangely poetic, all the while very informative.

I knew he was a writer and yet, I never thought he might be as exceptional a story-teller.

This book is pretty much a love letter to pulp sci-fi lovers everywhere. It's ridiculously absorbing in the way those books tended to be, i.e. something I picked up just because I'd heard of it once, sat down to read it to kill some time, and by the first chapter, you'd be barking abuse at the first person who tried to take you away from it. I actually listened to the first half of the book in one sitting.

If you love sci-fi adventure, this book will feel like an old friend you haven't seen in a while with some new tales to tell and just might surprise you.

On one last note, this book is strangely devoid of Yahtzee's usual cursing. He gets around it very cleverly in a way which actually added a ton of atmosphere. So people who tend not to like cursing will be pleased to know there's not many real swear words present.

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Excellent Story, If a Bit Confusing

Revisado: 09-20-20

I originally got this audio to listen to while I do housework, but there's a handful of things that gets in the way of that.

Firstly, if you're wondering if this book is worth your time, it certainly is. It's witty, a little crude, very funny and immensely absorbing.

Sapkowski is very much deserving of the praise his books receive and has a unique and compelling authoritive voice.

Peter Kenny has a marvelous voice and translates some unique life into these characters. Anyone who played the games first will be surprised to hear Geralt speak with a thicker, commoner accent, but I think it actually suits his public persona quite well and better allows him to be deceptively witty. Dandilion is hilariously well voiced and Kenny actually sings some of his lines as Dandilion which was a real treat.

It would be remiss of me not to list the faults of this audiobook, however;

Firstly, Sapkowski likes to imply many many things, rather than tell you outright. He trusts his audience to implicitly understand his brand of wit and can be a bit difficult to follow if you're not giving him your full attention. Certain major points of this story can be completely expressed, and missed, in a single sentence. Whether either due to his own taste in writing or due to some form of context being lost in translation, this can prove frustrating or confusing to listen to.

My second issue is, as an American listener and someone who does not always hear well, I can be confused by some of the thick brogue accents or quiet breathy voices. The biggest offenders on this front are the elves Chireadan and Filavandrel and dwarven Captain Dennis Cranmer. I love all of these voices, I love the breathy, sibliant accents of the elves and rough brogues of dwarves, BUT sometimes this makes their wording hard to understand and can make the story completely derail as I rewind several times to understand what was being said. I wish that these voices had been reworked just a little, since some of the consonants are completely lost and somewhat spoils the experience and coherency of the story.

Lastly is a small but spoilsome issue which made me buy the book physically and made me read along while I listened: there is not always clear cues when changing chapters or when text breaks occur. This story jumps around a lot in time. Following what we can assume is present tense in all Voice of Reason chapters and backtracking into the past in all other chapters. It makes it hard to remember or tell what was going on between chapters and sometimes within the same story, as early on, there were few or poorly engineered sound cues to let us know we have changed timelines.

That combined with the above issues dropped this from a five star review to a four-and-a-half star one.

I would like to end with this:
Anything I didn't criticize or didn't mention gets complete praise from me. The audio is well mixed and doesn't leave me clutching my ringing ears or leave me straining to hear, the narrator mostly creates character voices that are fitting and easy to understand (apart from a few which have some issues), Sapkowski is witty and respects his audience enough to let us be trusted to follow along, and this book is all around fun and interesting to read for those of you who like folklore, like soft-spoken smartass heroes, or who like listening to a narrator who really puts his all into voicing a very large cast of characters. Very much will be listening to the next book tomorrow, with the physical book in my lap.

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A Rare Treat For Morbid Historians

Revisado: 01-04-20

This book covers political poisonings and mysterious deaths from the dark ages all the way into modern Russia and North Korea.

It is, by turns, darkly hilarious, ghastly, moving and utterly fascinating; a riveting listen from start to finish.

The narrator has a dry, dark and sometimes snarky intonation making what would, for some, be a horrific listen into a tale with enough distance to intrigue and enough stark humanity to enrapture.

If you enjoyed books about plagues, rabies, mortuary work and such others avaliable on this platform, you'll want to add this one to your library.

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Dinomite!

Revisado: 07-19-19

Dinosaurs still exist and we can tell what color ancient dinosaurs used to be. Good enough reason for me to have gotten this book.
It's a short read, but thoroughly interesting.

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Ravenous Reading for the Morbidly Curious

Revisado: 06-30-19

Narrator Gabra Zackman paired with Jennifer Wright's smart snark made this book a true companion while I worked and relaxed.
I tend to like books which excite and scare me and I am a life-time fan of mysteries, theater, horror and adventure novels. For those interested in real, not-boring, history, this is a book you can't miss!

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