Rob
Another solid entry in the Grishaverse. Not as good as the Six of Crows duology, but better than the original Shadow and Bone trilogy.
I initially found Nina's story slow, but it built up pretty well as the series went on. Zoya had some pretty good character development in this book I thought. I'm looking forward to jumping right into the second book.
The narration for this is really good. I think Lauren Fortgang did the previous ones as well, so if you liked those in audio, you should like this too.
It was ok. I didn't love the “rating system” gimmick. The ending was fairly predictable. Some of the world building was interesting, but that's about it. I hope the other books from the Kickstarter will be better.
I'm generally a Michael Kramer fan, but he didn't feel like a great fit for this book. I'm not sure exactly why. His narration was fine.
Similarly, Kate Reading narration of the inserts was also fine.
A fun start to a new series. I was initially a bit disappointed his next book was this and not [b:Waybound 61397047 Waybound (Cradle, #12) Will Wight https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1662233493l/61397047.SY75.jpg 96861387], but now I know I have something else to look forward to once that concludes.This is definitely space fantasy and not really sci-fi at all. It has a similar feel to the cradle series in terms of pace and tone, but this borrows more from Star Wars, Kaiju movies and Sentai stories instead of shonen or wuxia stories. All things right up my alley.Travis Baldree once again does a great job with the narration. I've been reading Cradle in ebook (which is rare for me these days) but after doing older novels by Will Wight in audio, I'll pretty much be sticking with that format for the foreseeable future.
I enjoyed this, especially the last few chapters. I ended up just sitting around listening to this for like an hour just so I could finish it. I thought I had it all figured out pretty early, but was pleasantly surprised I was only partially right. If not for a bit of a slow start (it didn't seem to grab me right away), I might have given it a 4.5.
I still probably enjoy her Six of Crows series better too. This is a blend of fantasy, mystery and I guess horror. There are certainly some horrific things here. I think I prefer the heist type story, but I do like this better than her Shadow & Bone series.
The narrators are both fine, but nothing special. They read in their own voices which works well enough for their respective POVs. There is nothing particularly special about the audio book, but at this point it's my preferred format, and is a solid choice.
I rather enjoyed this one. Not a whole lot of plot, but fun characters that I just enjoyed spending time with. Very low stakes. I see a lot of people call this “cozy” I think of it more like a slice of life anime style story. I found myself making excuses to keep listening. That's always a sign of a good book.
I guess he's doing a prequel. I may pick it up eventually, but I don't feel like there is a need for that. Or a sequel really. I think this works really well as a stand alone. Maybe I'll change my mind later though.
The book also came with a second short story that was a bit of a prequel. It was fine, but not as enjoyable as the main story.
I knew Travis Baldree from his audio narration, that's what first put this book on my radar. Normally I'm not a big fan of authors narrating their own books (with a few exceptions). You can add him to the list. He's a great narrator and there was no way I'd do this in any other format.
This one kind of frustrated me. It's overly long at times, and there are sections where I feel like Andrew Rowe wants to express his personal opinions, but for me it just pulled me out of the story. I don't have any issue with authors who want to use fiction to discuss real world issues, but when it ruins the immersion like that, it just doesn't work for me. But the good parts are really good and keeps me invested in the series.I've long felt that Mr. Rowe is better on ideas than writing and maybe that is starting to overwhelm me more in this series than it has in the past. I still like the characters and world building and I'm still interested in knowing what comes next. However I feel like the pacing and writing could still be better. It's one of the main reasons I didn't continue on with the related stories. While I'd like to know the details of those books, I just struggled with [b:Six Sacred Swords 43902687 Six Sacred Swords (Weapons and Wielders, #1) Andrew Rowe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551600782l/43902687.SY75.jpg 67973755] too much to go on.I will give this next book a go, but I hope things don't keep trending in this direction.The narration is fantastic as always. It being unabridged can feel bad at time due to some of the detailed descriptions of things that your eyes would probably skim over if you were reading it. However Nick Podehl always seems to handle it as well as he can. I will definitely continue on in the audio format.
It's been a while since I read volume 9, and I didn't really have the time to go back and re-read. It took me a bit but I think I remember the key details from the first 9 volumes. Either way, it's nice to have more Saga to read again. I really enjoy this series a lot.
Once again Fiona Staples artwork is great too.
I'm looking forward to picking up volume 11 once it's out.
3.5 stars.
Much like it's predecessor it largely ignores PC games in favor of console gaming. It has a single mention of Valve and Steam, despite how integral that has become to modern PC gaming. Blizzard gets more coverage than it did in the first book, but it's mostly in the context of the rise of Activision.
It is still a solid book on the last few generations of console games. However it's far from “ultimate”.
3.5. A bit longer than I'd prefer, spending too much time on minutiae about the game balance and competitive scene than the creation of the games themselves. While this book is supposed to be the first of a series, it covers all the history of Mortal Kombat that I care about. 1 book is enough for me.
Decent ending to the series, but I just kind of lost interest at times. I'm not sure if this is because of the narration but I much preferred Isoka's chapters to Torrie's by far. It could also be that I love the supporting characters around Isoka, especially Jack and Meroe. Apparently I said this in my review for the last one, but I don't really get why this book needed 2 different narrators. I would have probably just preferred Catherine Ho read the whole thing. I felt like the pace of the narration by Nancy Wu was a bit too fast for my liking.
Another solid entry to this series. I wish we got some more answers in the book. There was some promising setup that made me think we'd be learning more than we actually did about the publishing company. There were also a few places where it felt like it could use some editing, but overall enjoyable.
The audiobook was really good as usual. Roger Wayne does a bunch of voices that make it easy to know who is talking and really adds that extra something to the book with his reading.
Despite owning the ebook for some time, it took audible releasing new audiobooks that were included with my membership for me to give this series another try.
I'm glad I did. I ended liking this more than the first book (which I liked more in audio and/or on a second read). I still find some of the characters unlikeable, but Simon and Kai have both grown on me. I'll be moving right on to the final book (and not just because the included with audible timeframe is quickly dwindling).
The audio is good. I really like Travis Baldree. I will probably do Will Wight's Shadow and Sea books in audio because he narrates the Sea books.
3.5 stars. A bit cookie-cutter at times, but still pretty enjoyable overall. There were some interesting overarching developments in this one but for the most part I don't feel like this book covered much new ground. I still enjoyed it enough that I'll pick up the next one, but I'm hoping for something different in terms of the book structure and plot, kind of like how Dresden Files stopped being focused around a specific case each book.
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith continues to be the highlight of the series for me. He does another fantastic job with the audiobook.
