Mer Barr
Made it to the 20% mark and still cant figure out why this is classified as science fiction or fantasy. This part is strictly fiction with a desire to talk about translation and the life of a young person in a foreign land.
And where's the plot that this huge tomb is supposed to be conveying?
What an abuse of a reader's and narrator's time! And if in paper what a waste of trees and chemicals!
I'm not a solid fan of sword and dragon topics so the heraldry, jousting, and melee details I zoned out on and the same with the political intrigue.
I did love the 2 main characters and their adventuring and many of the secondary characters. The stories weren't too short and each plot moved along nicely.
Finally got this read! It took me 5 years to get thru this but so much good information about the women only hinted at in my very male biased, and opinionated, education.
There are ALOT of women in this book! Many are related to each other by birth or marriage, and many interact with each other. It can get really confusing if you're trying to keep everyone straight across all the time covered by the book.
A nice addition to the Enderverse and I”m happy to see it's not a big overlap of Ender's Game. People don't see the same events the same way so why should that happen in a book?
Although there's alot of time spent in the mind of Bean, it's not so much that it gets boring and slows down the movement of the story and thankfully not any wandering off into ideas and thoughts that don't have anything to do with the main storyline. In the last chapter of the edition I listened to, the author mentions he's written plays and participated in the screenplay so he knows how to keep the presentation focused.
I don't think I've seen this form of presentation, the literal relay of a pocket diary, and what a great way to catch thoughts and activities mid-day rather than trying to remember things at the end of the day. The only draw back is there are whole sections of his story that go missing, for example how did he come to be the director for ‘The Winter Guest'? What was he working on at the start of the book? He didn't say [or I missed those few words while I was focused on something else].
I listened to the book and the narrator did a great job of translating words to the language of nuance and tempo, which where you truly hear Alan Rickman.
I felt the beginning a bit confusing because the scene at the start was so different from the scene that followed. I eventually figured out the moment my focus had shifted to my own world was when I would have caught that the 2 scenes are for the same woman, just her present and her backstory.
The characters were interesting and unique, I enjoyed getting to know them. The storyline moved along nicely, a few sidetracks that added new characters and moved the story along in some way. Well done author! I think the sidetracks are a tricky edge to walk.
If this is the first in a series, I'd read the next.
Oh boy! This was a challenge to follow, even reading the textual version! Don't let your focus stray and don't read too fast or you miss the change of scenery [literally].
And for some reason I continue to get Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg mixed up. How I can do that with two incredibly different women, I do not know but I do.
Great storyline and it's always wonderful to see characters I love from other books on the Discworld. And new characters like the trees and the storm with no name keep me coming back for more.
The theme of the chapters is amazing. Each memoir chapter is based on an element of the musical structure called fugue. And there are several other chapters all called Intermezzo which are on the sciences involved; acoustics, physics, frequencies, violin design, etc. In the hardcopy these intermezzo's are a different color of paper to the memoir chapters.
The memoir is well written with only a few backtracks or jumps ahead in time with an overlap in a later paragraph or chapter. I found it interesting that the author clearly devoted alot of time to researching Mrs Hutchins but spent a good chunk of the book pointing out with some pretty negative choices of words, how Mrs Hutchins neglected her family to focus on her craft with Mr Hutchins being the saint. I'm glad the author called out the imbalance between family and career but it was the strength of the dislike by the author I homed in on.
A couple different storylines running in parallel which the author likes to do cliff hangers of when switching from one to the other. And the last quarter of the book is unusual in the fact the who dunnit is answered and then the storyline continues for quite some time with the nail biting resolution rather than a quick wrap up of any loose ends. I liked this book.
This particular edition contains the writer's notes on 1 page and the graphics on the next [without the text on it]. I found the writer's notes intriguing for only 2 pages then got tired of having to glance at the graphic's first, then back to the text, for every page.
The graphics were very nice! A few panels per page, simple imaging, and assuming not to cluttered once the bubbles and thoughts were added. The storyline is really 2 and I'm not sure I understand the whole interconnection even when done reading. I'd prefer that, to guessing the ‘who dunnit' too soon.
I threw the penalty flag with emphasis, several times during the second half of the book. How can you whip out something magical in the plot and not give any infrastructure to its existence?
How the heck do these places come into being? According to the plot, they just are and the characters, I have to assume, are ok with that.The author mentions individuals can recognize these places when looking at a map and yet give no details as they do it. Is it something about these individuals? Their mindsets? Comparing 1 map meticulously to another edition of the same map? What?
To the positive, I'll say I've not run into a plot involving map mysteries so this was interesting, and the audio narrator does a good job of making her character voices distinct enough for me to catch when there's a shift in speaker.
Very good book for seeing the negative interactions today, from another perspective. The author presents not only her personal opinions, and she does state they're her own, in a respectful and thoughtful way, as well as findings from studies and conversations from several viewpoints.
I plan to reread this one.
Not sure how many Miss Marple's I've read but I was always surprised at how she picked up on things. I know she's imaginary, but still.
I found the plot complex enough to keep me focused on the story at the moment, and I don't think I figured out who it was until the last few paragraphs, which is how I like a mystery. And I'm so thankful the story isn't as dark and gory as many of the more recent authors are!
I would give this a 4 for depth and breadth of information and the quantity of native words. It seems like a very good book if you're already have some familiarity with the people and their culture and are looking to dive in a bit more.
I give it a 3 because the book is more scholarly than I would prefer for an introduction to the people.
Wow! So much technology presented I couldn't keep up. This will require a second read to grasp some of the concepts. Alot of it is hard to see in one's mind; the ships for example.
The story moves along nicely. There are cuts back-n-forth between history look-back and current day that does trip you up a bit and leave you wondering who is talking and how did they get on the ship! Then you figure out a character is remembering something that adds depth to the story.
Picked up this multi book just for [b:The Fortress of the Pearl 594574 The Fortress of the Pearl (The Elric Saga, #8) Michael Moorcock https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1265756984l/594574.SY75.jpg 1479741] in audio format.About the same pace, I believe, as the original book in the series. I believe this book is #7 in the written sequence but definitely #2 in the chronological storyline. Which I think is strange that the pace and style of writing is still similar.I thought the quest dragged out, I would have been happy with 2 less portals to travel thru although each realm had its merit.A nice wrap up and epilogue.