C. J. Daley
So this is my fourth time reading Eragon, (Eragon, Eragon/Eldest, Eragon/Eldest/Brisingr...) this being my first time listening to the audiobook. To put it simply, Gerard Doyle is fantastic. His character voices and narration fit perfectly, and I loved the job he did. I'm actually going to continue on with Eldest now because he does them all.
I obviously fell off for some years seeing that Inheritance was released 9 years ago, but what can you do...
I'm sure there's a hundred reviews on here talking about how this all started when Paolini was fifteen so I'll just say–WOW.
He takes so many things from others (in terms of influence) and handles them all so delicately that he created this wonderful, lush, dense lore that continues to grow throughout the rest of the novels. He was like a mini-Tolkien with his languages and flushed out geographic ideas. He created the Urgals and Kull instead of just recycling the typical Orcs and Uruk-hai. I found multiple points of similarity between Martin's ‘Game of Thrones' dragons and Paolini's, and yet past those he once again branched off and created his own world and lore for them in a refreshing way. I think the training and wiseness from Brom most similarly matches the ideas of Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker, including the necessary death of a mentor/father figure that thus propels the main character towards greatness. I suppose you could also easily argue that it is also like Gandalf/Frodo, however I think it's a harder argument to make that Frodo actually grew based off lessons from a knowledgable mentor (HE IS A HERO, JUST A DIFFERENT KIND!). Or, you could also point out Harry/Dumbledore–I'm sure we've all seen the memes about needing an old man mentor and a young hero to make a successful series–even though Dumbledore hid questionable important details from Harry, he still fulfilled that role.
I'm sure there are also countless ideas and influences that he drew from the million and one dragon rider series that exist in this world. However, I first read this book in the sixth grade, so as an eleven year old I hadn't much experience elsewhere, and afterwards this was more my basis for that kind of story than any other.
I understand that his writing style, and seemingly his incessant need to write bible length books, is not for everyone, but this has been a 5*/100% novel since the first time I read it. Now after finishing it for my fourth time I really still don't have any complaints. I love it and not just for the nostalgic feel, it's amazing.
So I think this top portion will be the basis for my review for all five of the Witcher series (excluding The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny–Kind of, you'll see...)
I feel like it took me a long time to read these, when in actuality, I started the first one in January so that isn't really all that long. Some of the way I'm feeling may be based off a lapse in memory though because I read around 95 books around the reading of these so I may be hazy.
For starters, I think Andrzej Sapkowski is a phenomenal writer. Secondly, I think David French did an absolutely wonderful job translating these to English. And thirdly, I think the Gollancz paperbacks were amazing–great cover art, nice quality–I actually managed to read them all without breaking the spines.
Sapkowski has such a way about his writing that the dialogue in the novels can be truly captivating. He wields it so well that he has honestly created such a wonderful lush lore within his world that really carried the hundreds of pages he wrote. I think that overall, this attention to detail within every word uttered may actually have been in some ways at a detriment to his overarching story.
So to speak, his great characters, the companions of the Witcher, and even the enemies, all have this way of leaving you wanting more. However, if you were to pull away all of that and the world's lore, the series itself is kind of about... nothing. I did find myself more than once getting to the end of one of the novels and being like wait... nothing happened? Destiny has brought the Witcher and Ciri together, and yet they are also destined to never be together... it's just the kind of realization that stings. If you read the first book you can skip to the final book for the ending because the others are just more of the same. Luckily for me, as I've already stated, I enjoyed the dialogue and the world building, I drank that sh*t up. It's just kind of weird/funny to realize negative things like that about something you've rated pretty well. Despite all of that, I really enjoyed them.
Speaking of The Time of Contempt specifically, I really enjoyed the use of political movements in this one. This is a writer that really understands the world he was building and manipulating in this time of war. With that being said, I did find the attack of Thanedd Island to feel a little too convoluted. I know that it was in part to show how the characters are experiencing it, ie. they have no idea what's going on, but I do admit to finding myself more confused with what was going on than I would have liked.
Geralt giveth Ciri, Sapkowski taketh away...
The Wizard of Oz is one of my father's favorite movies, so it's something I've seen a million times since I was a kid. I feel like the first novel in the series, albeit missing all musical numbers (making me miss “if I only had a brain”), still holds that wonder and childlike naivety that has made people love the movie for so long.
I will say that some of it was pretty dark though, especially in the sense of what was acceptable back then for “children's stories.” Like the tin man describing each and every part of his body getting chopped off by his own axe slipping, just making me imagine his bleeding stumps gushing as he pleas for help from the tin maker.
Or how, due to his lack of heart, he finds it necessary to help and save all those who are in need of help. Therefore, he takes it upon himself to lop off the head of a wild cat simply for hunting... which is something the cowardly lion had already offered to do with a deer for Dorothy.
Or how Dorothy had to wake up to 40 shaggy, beheaded wolves?!!
I liked this book a lot though and I'm definitely going to continue on to the others at some point. Everyone gets there happy ending, so now I'm wondering if he goes back and takes it all away!
As far as my mystery experience goes I've only recently gotten into some Hercule Poirot, and most recent, Sherlock Holmes.
I feel like this collection really lacks any guidelines and rule building for the Father Brown world. He is a practicing priest that also has a hand at detective work, but mostly he solves crime through his intuition rather than deductive work? I found that a lousy reasoning. And I'm sure in the character history there's more to it, but it certainly wasn't in this collection of stories.
Not to mention most of these stories jump directly into it without anything else and more than one ends with something along the lines of, “that's it, there's nothing more.” It is mostly for that reason that I found these lackluster and really struggled to enjoy.
To be honest I did myself a disservice because this book is the third installment into Sherlock Holmes and I chose to listen to it anyway. Most of these stories lack in the same way the Poirot shorts do—their lack of description and exposition. Having known so little about the literature Holmes it definitely took my enjoyment down a notch.
4: A Scandal In Bohemia 3: The Redheaded League
3: A Case of Identity 3: The Boscombe Valley Mystery
3: The Five Orange Pips3: The Man with the Twisted Lip
4: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle 4: The Adventure of the Speckled Band
3: The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb3: The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
3: The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet 5: The Adventure of the Copper Beeches: this one was so close to being scary/horror I wish it had gone even more so into it
I have read more than one Dickens' novel and liked those much more so than this. I have also read many other novels of the period and had better or similar luck. However, I found this so longwinded as to not be the slightest bit enjoyable. At points the dialogue was so long and drab that I genuinely forgot who was speaking it in the first place. I didn't particularly enjoy these characters and I felt that I had to fight to absorb every single word. This sounds overly harsh, but as I've said, I have liked other works of his much more...
The audio I chose was also not an A-grade caliber unfortunately and that did not help.
I think this is one of the coolest things ever that in 2020 I can not only read something written by a Roman emperor, but can also listen to the audio recording of the translation. I've read that these were his own musings, that he never intended them to be published, so in that sense I give him/it even more credit. However, this was (one of?) the first (?) of it's kind and it lead pretty obviously to the genre of self-help books which are my absolutely enemies. It is in that sense that this falls short for me. Regardless if you're a philosopher-emperor or a modern celebrity or self-made millionaire, I just genuinely don't care for it.
So I think this top portion will be the basis for my review for all five of the Witcher series (excluding The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny–Kind of, you'll see...)
I feel like it took me a long time to read these, when in actuality, I started the first one in January so that isn't really all that long. Some of the way I'm feeling may be based off a lapse in memory though because I read around 95 books around the reading of these so I may be hazy.
For starters, I think Andrzej Sapkowski is a phenomenal writer. Secondly, I think David French did an absolutely wonderful job translating these to English. And thirdly, I think the Gollancz paperbacks were amazing–great cover art, nice quality–I actually managed to read them all without breaking the spines.
Sapkowski has such a way about his writing that the dialogue in the novels can be truly captivating. He wields it so well that he has honestly created such a wonderful lush lore within his world that really carried the hundreds of pages he wrote. I think that overall, this attention to detail within every word uttered may actually have been in some ways at a detriment to his overarching story.
So to speak, his great characters, the companions of the Witcher, and even the enemies, all have this way of leaving you wanting more. However, if you were to pull away all of that and the world's lore, the series itself is kind of about... nothing. I did find myself more than once getting to the end of one of the novels and being like wait... nothing happened? Destiny has brought the Witcher and Ciri together, and yet they are also destined to never be together... it's just the kind of realization that stings. If you read the first book you can skip to the final book for the ending because the others are just more of the same. Luckily for me, as I've already stated, I enjoyed the dialogue and the world building, I drank that sh*t up. It's just kind of weird/funny to realize negative things like that about something you've rated pretty well. Despite all of that, I really enjoyed them.
Speaking of Blood of Elves specifically, I enjoyed that this was the start of the war with Cintra. I had ordered the books after really enjoying the Netflix adaptation so to finally get into the war stuff was nice. The way they chopped the show kind of has you reading through the two short story collections and book one to really connect everything strewn throughout those eight episodes.
I also liked the opening training with Ciri in Kaer Morhen, much like the opening to the Witcher 3 game, however it did go on for just a little too long (it ended up dry).
One negative for me about entering the actual overarching part of the series was losing out on those nice cut and dry short stories from the two previous collections. Not to mention the overall loss of monster hunting over the following 4 books. As a fan of the games this hurt for me.
Norse mythology is weird as hell (the content, not this book).
It's mostly Thor being stupid. Ie. “Me strong, me have hammer, me drink beer.”
Or Odin being wise. Ie. “I gave my eye for wisdom but literally stop zero of these incidents.”
Or Loki being a genuine POS. Ie. “I continue to “prank” people when I'm bored/annoyed and people die but it's whatever...”
With that being said I only really had experience with Greek and Roman mythology so I enjoyed learning these stories and as Gaiman said, the way he outlined this book really did feel almost like a linear storyline.
Listened to this via audible and Neil Gaiman has a pretty sick voice if anyone is wondering.
As with all books written with a singular plot, it's filled with incessant repetition, however it's such an interesting subject that I ended up not really minding.
It seems incredibly well researched and obviously there's a ton of different sources for it.
I liked learning about all of the deaths and whether or not modern scientists can prove if they were actually poisoned.
This book, unlike the first, was like 80% murder mystery/detective story and only 20% demonic weirdness.
It still worked for me and even if they weren't related it would still work as this story. I read that this is technically like the script for the exorcist 3 and that I don't understand. This doesn't seem like it would work as a movie (I haven't seen them).
Also, the audio from audible was well performed.
I feel like it took me a long time to read these, when in actuality, I started the first one in January so that isn't really all that long. Some of the way I'm feeling may be based off a lapse in memory though because I read around 95 books around the reading of these so I may be hazy.
For starters, I think Andrzej Sapkowski is a phenomenal writer. Secondly, I think David French did an absolutely wonderful job translating these to English. And thirdly, I think the Gollancz paperbacks were amazing–great cover art, nice quality–I actually managed to read them all without breaking the spines! Although, I will say that Gollancz choice of Cahir for this cover was really weird? I get the idea of giving each main character a cover, but Cahir isn't even mentioned by name for like another 2 or more books...
Sapkowski has such a way about his writing that the dialogue in the novels can be truly captivating. He wields it so well that he has honestly created such a wonderful lush lore within his world that really carried the hundreds of pages he wrote.
I think Sword of Destiny might be my second favorite book out of all of them. I just think that short stories is really a sweet spot for Sapkowski. Even though this one gets more serious and does much more of the setting up of the overarching series with Ciri, it still has that monster hunter deep-lore Witcher feel that I loved about The Last Wish. And as this is in fact the book where Ciri is first introduced, I loved it. Obviously young Ciri goes through some terrible things with the fall of Cintra, but it was necessary to the overall progression of the story.
This story lost me at multiple points unlike the first of the series. It's attempts to broaden the world with Starsight actually hurt it in my opinion. Taking the lead away from her friends and flight really took a lot of the more enjoyable parts away.
However, the climax was big, enjoyable, and left off with enough to make me want a third.
Audible did have another 5* performance from Suzy Jackson if that's a route you would consider...
4.5* overall.
I feel like it took me a long time to read these, when in actuality, I started the first one in January so that isn't really all that long. Some of the way I'm feeling may be based off a lapse in memory though because I read around 95 books around the reading of these so I may be hazy.
For starters, I think Andrzej Sapkowski is a phenomenal writer. Secondly, I think David French did an absolutely wonderful job translating these to English. And thirdly, I think the Gollancz paperbacks were amazing–great cover art, nice quality–I actually managed to read them all without breaking the spines!
Sapkowski has such a way about his writing that the dialogue in the novels can be truly captivating. He wields it so well that he has honestly created such a wonderful lush lore within his world that really carried the hundreds of pages he wrote.
The short stories collected into The Last Wish were my favorite out of all of the stories/books. I loved the surfacing and the creation of the Witcher as a whole. Geralt of Rivia, to me, is a wonderful character. I think the addition of the overarching Melitele flashes really helped glue everything together. I think that this collection more than any other is really the basis for the games and their success. Monster hunting for life.
Not to mention some of these stories made for incredible episodes in the Netflix adaptation.
I'm disappointed I decided to pick this up on audible. I should have known that with Atwood's work it would need to be read.
With that being said it was a perfectly enjoyable performance on the audio, it's just that it was very muddied with the amount going on. Reading would have been better to follow along. At one point I actually had to google the story because with the audio I was having trouble grasping that it was a story within a story, that had a story within that story.... (crazy).
I would certainly buy this book and read it instead of listening one day, there were plenty of things I really loved in it.
So 3.5 stars with audio, if you're interested in this book, PLEASE READ IT.
So unlike several of the other reviews I glanced at, I actually was excited about it being a story about Nimue. That is in the sense that I did not want an “imagine if Arthur was a girl!” story, because simply, he wasn't. I'm all for a female lead-reimagining I just don't think making it a woman-Arthur is what I'd be looking for.
Throughout reading this I thought it was great for the most part throughout the first 300+ pages, even stating that it was a 4 or 5* book depending on the ending.
Where it lost me is that it is an incredibly long YA book for its style, however they did not specify that it was the beginning of a series? A new saga? I still don't think there's word on another book?
So that means it was always meant to land on some kind of cliffhanger, and I am not opposed to series whatsoever, but if they had lead with that information it could prepare readers for it in terms of expectations. Therefore, for me, a 403 page book that has very little resolution or payoff, is kind of just ridiculous. It missed all the marks for me because of it...
Also at several points in the book I was surprised by how the artwork imagined a somewhat womanly figure for this 14 year old? In a bad way... kind of creepy.
Otherwise the surprise appearances from well known knights of the round table was handled very well and I enjoyed them all.
Note this is not a fair rating.
You may wonder what I was doing listening to this audiobook when I have nothing to do with acting and I don't aspire to be one. Truthfully, from the moment I started it I was wondering the same thing, but I rarely ever stop once I've started something.
I had just finished the Bassoon King and Paddle Your Own Canoe so I guess I thought maybe this would be more of an autobiography/self-help kind of book like Rainn Wilson and Nick Offerman's. However, I wasn't such a giant fan of theirs either (this kind of thing isn't really my type anyway) and seeing as I gave their stories 3, and personally I believe they are better written, that is why the 2 rating.
If you are an actor or aspiring maybe this will be a wonderful guide for you, I would not know.
So this is technically a collection of YOUNG READER level short stories. However, considering this book cost me $8 (for the hardcover too!) and is compiling 6 of the 27 Disney canon short stories I decided to give it a go. They're all short, fun, quick reads.
High Noon On Jakku: 3This story was a cool western like police story with a samurai looking constable and his two cousins as his (apparent) only deputies. The desert of Jakku, a robbery, the deserted town involved, and the mental calculation of how quick of a blaster-draw Zuvio could get off all lent to the western, cowboy-esque feel. A Recipe For Death: 4
This story was silly, fun, and even horrid?
It takes place in Moz's castle and is both a funny cook-off and a murder mystery slapped into one. It's also a pretty in-depth look at cooking in the galaxy far, far away—which is such a strange, minuscule thing to pursue. What could be better?
All Creatures Great and Small: 4This story is probably the strangest and silliest thing I've read from Disney canon? An old Nu-Cosian is a walking-talking zoo and he carries them all on his back. When he visits on Jakku the old and young alike flock to him for stories. The creatures love him and can understand him and they have the ability to get him out of an old and very familiar situation... The Face of Evil: 5
This story is a SW universe retelling of Frankenstein. However, retold at its finest. I genuinely wish these spin-off movies would focus on different things like this while still being “in-universe.” Imagine Dr. Frankenstein but as two minion like puff balls. Portrayed like the evil scientist style from films. There's even an Igor like assistant, a castle, a monster, and a lightning storm.
The only downsides for me are that it was a young reader, because this could so easily have been a full on horror, and the fact that now that we've seen TFA, we know this could never have happened in Moz's castle.
True Love: 3This story feels kind of like a SW universe version of Her mashed with traits of Ex Machina and unlined with robbery and other hijinks. An AI is programmed to get information and trick someone who I believe is the ugliest creature to make it into a SW story/movie, Unkar Plutt (But also, F YEAH for Simon Pegg). He's supposed to be disarmed by a female fawning over him in a SW makeshift dating site Turing test. Plus some double crossing... some double-double crossing??The Crimson Corsair And The Lost Treasure Of Count Dooku: 5
First of all... what a sick name for a short story I mean really
This story was a great attempt at giving a SW story a real world pirate feel. A Corsair, captains, first mates, barges and skimmers. A sea (of sand?), storms, and monsters too. Rigged barges and boarding parties using hand-weapons for close combat? These are all things I like to see and read.
Not to mention ties to the Clone Wars and Count Dooku? Need I say more?
Maybe even a few other familiar references too... high-FIVES all around amiright?
Let me just start by saying that this rating is in no way due to the overly disliked TLJ
(I love The Last Jedi)
2 stars? 2.5 stars?
When I saw expanded edition I was excited. Especially when I started my SW Disney canon journey in 2018 I bought so many of them in one big chunk. However, after reading the novelization for TFA that included BONUS content, I realized this was just Disney's way of publishing a book that wasn't fully edited. And this novelization is even worse.
It's important to say I don't think this is any fault of the author. My aim is not to bash the writing in any way, it's more of a disappointment in content.
It's really cool to me that the extended novelizations include the deleted scenes and have additional thoughts and fears and ideas from characters—that is exactly why I read them as well as watch them. But added stuff to Canto Bight that isn't a deleted scene? WHY
Reading this felt like Disney allowed the author to use like the 3rd to last edited Rian Johnson script. The dialogue was off or longer or completely lacking the actors intonations and finesse (ie. DJ practically having no personality??) The climax of the film had Kylo and Luke saying things that weren't 100% from the finished film? To me that ruins my experience as that is not then a novelization? I am of the purist sort that want everything exact, rather than receiving something that feels more like a dramatization.
I will also note that out of all the ones I've read this had the highest number of typos... what the hell Del Ray?
I truly think this was the most unbearable out of the 47 (?) SW canon novels I've finished so far.
Let me start with the audiobook so that you won't have to read more or spoilers if listening to the audible original is what you're aiming towards...
The audio, in my opinion, was the best part. A 4 out of 5* performance. If you can get the audible original for free... even better.
This book seemed to me to be written in the style of a writer's first book where they aim to impress, rather than just using their voice and making it their own style. Some of the platitudes and filler sentences truly didn't fit, or were so far reaching, that it honestly baffled me that they didn't get edited out.
Otherwise the idea of the story seemed good to me. I liked it and was intrigued, but the longer it went on the more damage was done. It wasn't long enough to become boring, but it was confusing and strange. I am not a huge horror or occult fan and I find that this story fell into the realm of seeming to be a bit dumb with the occult happenings coming off as silly. It was fully flushed out enough to make me believe it and some of the sillier things are never explained or never appear again anyway.
3 out of 5* so a 60% production. Worth a quick listen or a read though, not a full miss.
Still not sure if this is 2.5 or 3.5 stars to me.
The writing and the stories are perfectly fine and I enjoyed them for the most part. However, this was such a miss that it was frustrating to read. We have so many gaps in Luke's story and I was really hoping for some stories that I could hold as true even if they're just “in universe legends.”
If you're thinking about buying this book for some serious Luke action then it's not what you're looking for. He's either hoping to learn about the force or the stories literally hold no worth whatsoever...
So the Amazon Classics version is definitely the complete Robinson Crusoe narrative. If you've ever wanted to listen/read (Kindle/Audible) and you have prime you can get it for free, so that's good right??
I would say RC #1 was enjoyable and I liked reading his survival. 3.5/4s Then I would say the Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe or RC #2 was mainly about this dude having an issue with sitting home and being practically rich?? And then an absolute ton of information about a French priest and “savage” wives? It was insufferable. 1.5/2s
Best to avoid the second, you're all welcome...
