Joe

Great Story, Wrong Accent

Reviewed: 02-13-19

I love Kate Reeding but she misses the mark on this one. The characters live in or are from New Orleans, not Boston. They're supposed to have southern accents, not east coast accents. It's weird how far off Kate was on this one. However, if you can ignore that, then it's a great book.

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2 people found this helpful

One Dimensional Character Abound

Reviewed: 03-16-18

What disappointed you about The Things That Are Not There?

The simplistic, stereotypical, hollow characters. Lisa is your standard weak, helpless, worthless damsel in distress. Spuds is perhaps the worst character I've ever come across in a fantasy book. What's the point of him? All he does is blubber and whine. He doesn't represent the "everyman" or anything like that. He serves no point except to act like a baby. And the main character? Seriously? The fact that he sometimes eats vegetarian food does not mean he is multifaceted. Ted is a ridiculous meat-head.

What could C. J. Henderson have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Make the story less predictable. Make the characters interesting. Have the female main character actually DO something.

What character would you cut from The Things That Are Not There?

All of them.

Any additional comments?

Don't waste your money or your credit on this book.

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2 people found this helpful

Pointless and Terrible

Reviewed: 05-17-17

Any additional comments?

This book negates everyone we learned about Raven in the first 5 books, making all of that meaningless and a waste f time. Raven goes from being one of the world's biggest bad asses to getting his ass kicked by a nobody child molester. Did. I mention one of the main character is a child molester who gets to one happily ever after, presumably continuing to molest children for the rest of his days?

The characters are mostly deplorable. The story reduces Raven to a worthless mundane before doing "blank" to him. Also, the narrator is pretty terrible. I doubt I'll read the rest of the series because this book was so terrible.

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1 person found this helpful

Worst Name FFor A Main Character. Ever.

Reviewed: 02-03-17

Any additional comments?

Not only is Dewey the worst name for a main character I've ever read, but he also acts like a 11 or 12 dar old, despite the fact the he's supposed to be 18 or 19. No 19 year old boy is that stand offish with two dutiful girls who are both relatively his age and are openly attracted to hi. Geweu is supposed to have lived on his own for a while after the death of his father, successfully running a farm and business, yet he acts like a adolescent who pretends to hate girls and whine when he doesn't get his way.

There is zero tension in the first book. Or, I should say, zero tension that doesn't seem forced and contrived. Dewey is a god he can get stabbed in the chest and be healed in a manner of days. I never once felt concerned for Dewey in the slightest bit. He never felt threatened or in peril throughout the entire first book. And what's the point of reading a story when you know nothing bad is going to happen to the main character. Even with suspension of disbelief, I still never once felt worried for Dewey.

I suppose it's a fine book if you're just looking for a super light read, something where you won't have to worry yourself about feeling anything for any of the characters, then this book is the one for you.

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8 people found this helpful

Rife With Mispronunciations

Reviewed: 04-15-16

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the text version of this book, not the audio version, to a lover of the Malazan world. This mispronunciations made the book almost impossible to get through.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Daniel Philpott?

Either one of the two narrators for the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Or someone who at least bothered to listen to the 1 audiobooks of the series already in existence so that they could learn how to pronounce the word Tist, considering they are the main characters in this book.

Any additional comments?

The word is pronounced Tist (rhymes with list) and not Tiest. It is inexcusable for a narrator to mispronounce the name of the main race in the entire book. As I mentioned before there are 10 audiobooks in this series read by two separate narrators that this narrate could have listen to so he could learn how to pronounce the words if he was unfamiliar with them. Also, his selection of voices for man of the characters is just ridiculous. The narrator makes many of the characters sound like fools and/or winners. In addition, with the potential for so many stories coming out of the Malazan world, I feel that a better tale could have been told. There are so many amazing characters to focus on and I wish Erickson had selected something other than the Tist to write about in this series.

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3 people found this helpful

Good Story, Poor Narration

Reviewed: 12-23-15

Would you try another book from Hugh Howey and/or Minnie Goode?

Yes. He is a very imaginative author. His stories are unique, his characters are dynamic and deep, and his imagery is gorgeous.

Would you be willing to try another one of Minnie Goode’s performances?

I doubt it. In this performance she gives the "bad guy" the most generic and stereotypical voice. Also, she gives the characters different accents. In such a generation long, close knit community every person would basically sound the same. There would not be people with southern accents, New York accent, and Texas accents.

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2 people found this helpful

Amazingly Insightful And Ingenious

Reviewed: 10-14-15

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'm not sure. A lot of my friends aren't readers and you're not a reader this book won't make any sense to you. DFW was so far ahead of his time and he was so much smarter than most people it can make his books SEEM hard to follow. However, with some careful reading his books, including this one, are perfectly understandable and follow a clear path. The path may not be straight by any stretch of the imagination but it is there.

Any additional comments?

DWF's insights on the human condition are simply breath taking. is ability to craft character of such depth and complexity is simply unmatched. His talent for names is astounding. One can only imagine what other stories and characters we would have now if he was still around. His loss was a loss to the entire world. He was one of the greatest writers of his generation without a doubt and probably one of the greatest writers of all time. He will be forever missed.

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So Much Worse Than The 1st Book

Reviewed: 10-07-15

What would have made Critical Failures II: Fail Harder better?

Getting rid of the lame moral quandary theme. I don't think many people read these books for moral lessons or anything. It was weak and poorly executed and took away from the fun of the first book.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jonathan Sleep’s performances?

No. His voice for Cooper is ok but his Julian voice is crazy annoying. Any of his females voices are simply ridiculous. His performance is made even worse by the fact that this book is no where near as funny or as interesting as the first book. A sub par performance combined with a bad books makes for a terrible listening experience.

Any additional comments?

I was wildly disappointed with this book even though I went into it with very low expectations. I read the first book and laughed a couple of times and thought that it was an OK story, though noting special. I figuredI'd give the second book a try for some light, humorous reading and got slapped in the face with a boring story about morality and fitting in. All the joy and fun had been sucked out from book 1 to book 2.

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7 people found this helpful

A Few Funny Parts But Not Much Else

Reviewed: 10-06-15

Any additional comments?

The story had some promise but the author didn't pull it off. There are some basic mistakes that any editor worth their salt should have picked up. For example, at the beginning of the story Mordrid tells Julian that he can't have a sword because he doesn't have the gold for it but after on, Julian stabs the leopard with his sword. Where did that sword come from? There are inconsistencies scattered all throughout this book.

I was kind of thinking this would be like the book NPC's but it isn't even close. I was fairly disappointed with this book.

The narrator doe nothing to add to the story. Some of his voices are just awful. I'm sure he meant well but a few of the voices are just flat out annoying as all get out.

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3 people found this helpful

Super Goth Magic

Reviewed: 10-06-15

What other book might you compare The Cycle of Arawn to and why?

In another review someone compared these books to the heel of Time series and that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Cycle of Arawn has nothing in common with WoT and, in fact, is a very original story. The characters are unique and interesting. The magic system is fresh and cool. The story is a little recycled (no pun intended) but the author does a wonderful job of making it feel brand new. I can't really think of a series that I would compare the Cycle to.

Any additional comments?

I thought this series was super fun and totally cool. As I mentioned before the magi system is super rad and wicked goth. I love the whole wide of blood powered shadow magic. The characters are well written and develop over time. There is a surprising amount of humor in all three books which made them that much more fun to read. I highly recommend thiss series and to get all three book for only one credit is one hell of a deal!!! Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!!!

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7 people found this helpful