John

one little thing

Reviewed: 12-27-22

I adore Sanderson's work. I wonder, however, if he honestly thinks Lopen's viewpoint chapters are funny or if he's just trolling us. Journey before pancakes? This is some Nick Jr. tier non-joke stuff.

anyways, yes, this book still rocks. keep reading. it only gets better.

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great second installment

Reviewed: 09-26-20

quite a satisfying continuation of the first novel. the grimdark genre, such as it is, is a bit hit or miss with how the grim gets piled on, but Abercrombie does a great job in ensuring we know that all the nasty things that happen to our heroes are, at least mostly, as result of their poor decisions which, at least mostly, appear to be great ideas at the time.

Steven Pacey once again turns in a stellar performance as narrator. this series wouldn't be complete without him.

the only reason for the four stars is because this audiobook has quite a few noticeable glitches throughout the novel. not sure how that got past the QA people at audible.

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I mean... not bad

Reviewed: 09-13-20

I can't pretend to know what was happening in the background, but something tells me the ending was a bit rushed. spoilers ahead:



the story is grouped into two main sections: the main protagonists attempting to end the threat of the demons in the titular Core, and the supporting characters struggling against the massive assault the demons are throwing at the rest of humanity. just as the final battle is in full swing on the surface, we cut to the core. eventually we have a... somewhat satisfying ending to the adventures in the core, but when we cut back to the surface it's two months later and everybody is all like 'whew! that was crazy. glad we all survived!"

the book is enjoyable up to that moment. Pete Bradbury puts in a great performance and theres a wonderful exploration of blind faith versus blind atheism in the core scenes. obviously if you're here at the final book, I'm not going to say you one way or the other. its not like its the ending of the sword of truth series.

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At Last!

Reviewed: 04-07-18

what can I say? I am a gigantic fan of David gemmell. I may have read every single one of his books and he is the only author who I keep around for future rereading. when I saw that basically every one of his books was now available on Audible I knew instantly the book that I wanted to download First.

his retelling of the Iliad is amazingly written as we see various characters from myth grounded in reality yet still emerge heroic, Brave, and worthy of the reverence so many students of literature and history bestow upon them. David gemmell has a reputation for writing simple stories with simple characters. That may have been true for some of his early novels, but this Trilogy represents him at the height of his skills. his characterization of Aeneas and andromache give them both volition and motivation despite being trapped in their respective roles in Bronze Age Greece.

after listening to an audiobook version of one of the stone Berrington novels by Stuart Woods, I thought to myself that some books just weren't made to be read aloud. while they are good books, and the dialogue is fine, the style of some authors just doesn't translate well to an audiobook format. I feared this for David gemmell. I wondered if this might have been why his books had never been made available in an audiobook format up until now. his dialogue is often very on the nose and when I Tried reading it out loud to my wife it didn't sound the same as it did in my head. the narrator of this book does a splendid job of making every line maintain the tone the author intended.

I fully intend on getting the next book and the next, and then moving on to the rest of his collection. And I highly recommend that you do the same.

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12 people found this helpful

wow!

Reviewed: 12-19-17

minor spoilers

what an amazing first installation. while you go through the book not realizing what the end game, the series arc will be, you're drawn in by the characters. Abraham lends each person a degree of sympathy and understanding as you slowly realize that you might just be reading the story from the "bad guys" perspective. it's an artful character study that ends with an impressive hook and a colorful world. I can't wait for my next credit to come in. more please!

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a grand second entry

Reviewed: 06-06-17

a wonderful book that puts our heroes into both real and magical dangers. a must read!

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Every Series Needs a Stinker

Reviewed: 04-20-15

The series called "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" takes a break from talking about the Malazans. Granted, there are large chapters of this series that feature people far removed from the Empire. But they always came back to main plot of the machinations of the Empress, the army, and the part they play in the war with the Crippled God. This book is basically a prequel to the previous novel (where Onrack, the T'lann Imass meets Trull Sengar, a banished Tiste Edur). It sets up later novels and is, generally speaking, hard to skip without missing some key elements for the remainder of the series, but it mostly feels like we're taking a break from the real plot for an irrelevant side story.

It's got some of the funniest moments in the series (featuring Bugg and Tehol), and it certainly has some flashy magic happening, but a few things bug me:

The Tiste Edur don't act like immortal beings. They act like morons. The Tiste Andii have the perfect immortal thing going on: totally bereft of excitement for anything. They've done it all. Any humanity, as we might see it, comes when they interact with humans. It usually brings sorrow (Beren and Luthien style), but it's beautiful in its tragedy as they remember what they once had, and how sweet it is to feel. But the Tiste Edur. What, do they live normal human life-spans? They get angry, petty, and most seem young. What does that mean, young? 50 years? One hundred?

The whole "capitalism is bad" storyline. There's little about this society that points to a liberal economy. If anything this is a feudal economy complete with landowners, sharecroppers, and a rigid caste system. The Bugg-Tehol plot seems like it's trying to be Wall Street drama without explaining what's going on. Only that the "greedy" are getting what they deserve and that society will be turned upside down.

Finally, this is the second book since "Memories of Ice". What is going on with everybody we left behind? What about the Bridgeburners? What about Felisin and the Whirldwind? Paran and the Deck? What's going on with all the characters we fell in love with? This book was a bit jarring. And while there were some enjoyable moments (Bugg and Tehol were, of course, hilarious), all in all it felt like a lot of this could have been told within the constraints of other novels featuring more of our favorite characters.

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4 people found this helpful

Another Great Tale with Some Odd Narration Choices

Reviewed: 04-20-15

Obviously writing a review of the ninth book in a series is going to be preaching to the choir. If you've kept up this long, you won't be stopping now because of anything you might read. But for those who haven't picked up this series yet, I'll tell you: it's still good after nine books! There's only one book left after this, so pick this series up now. By the time you get to this one, the last audiobook will have been released!

As far as the book itself goes, it's a fantastic read. I can't say it's my favorite of the series (Memories of Ice) but it's not my least favorite (Midnight Tides). The one big difference here, of course, is that this was never meant to be a complete book. Each previous volume ended with a conclusion that pulled together the loose threads and wove something meaningful out of them. This is - by the author's own admission - halfway through the final volume which was split for publishing costs (and for the sake of the readers, according to Erikson). So perhaps when I finally get around to The Crippled God I'll be able to further appreciate this story which was - all things considered - a good listen (minus a few unpleasant moments in the book that might be hard to stomach for some readers).

A few minor complaints about narration: Steven Erikson writes that this novel uses the original pronunciation of names, peoples, magic, etc that he intended when he first wrote them down. And that's fantastic that this audiobook can reflect that. But there have been 8 previous audiobooks that have Quick Ben's full name pronounce Ben [a-DAY-fon-DEH-lat]. Now it's pronounced Ben [AH-deh-fon-deh-LAHT]. When Ralph Lister performed Memories of Ice, "Hetan" was pronounced "HEE-ten"; now it's pronounced [heh-tan]. The word "Mhybe" was pronounced [MY-bee] now, it's pronounced [muh-HIBE]. It took me a second to figure out what they were saying when I first heard it, this being a word from a fictional language.

I get that Erikson wanted the audiobooks to be, well, books read out-loud, not dramatic adaptations, but after nearly 400 hours of audio I think it would have been easier on us, the listeners, for the pronunciations to have remained consistent.

Finally, while Michael Page does a stellar job reading this, he has this generic eastern-European-meets-Arab voice that he uses for a lot of characters. There's literally nothing I can hear that distinguishes Kalam from Gall (a supporting character we're introduced to in this book). It doesn't ruin the book by any stretch, and Michael Page was just following his director, but it was jarring enough to lose a star (I bet Messrs Page and Erikson just fret about that at night).

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7 people found this helpful

Fantasy Popcorn at its Best

Reviewed: 11-08-14

I first read this book in 2008, and perhaps have listened to it 3 times since. The characters are all wonderfully fleshed out and the culture and history of the isles the book is named for has a depth and detail I dont think I've seen in anyone but KJ Parker's novels. The only thing discerning readers might gripe about is the magic and the way it's used to solve basically every problem the characters face, invariably without them understanding precisely how they manage to get past every obstacle. but the internal monologue afforded to each character, their overall proactive approach to the events they face, and the deft narration all work towards a satisfying and entertaining story of good vs evil where the heroes triumph in the face of catastrophe and tragedy. I recommend the entire series to anyone who wants a good read. Drake's best work!

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12 people found this helpful

Meh.

Reviewed: 01-19-13

I enjoyed the first two books in an escapist kind of way. Not much ever seems at stake and nobody ever seems to be in SERIOUS danger. I mean, people are hurt, abused, and killed, certainly, but nobody we really know or like is ever in any real danger of losing anything. There just seems to be no limit on Bazhell's strength and Brandark's wit and Kaerith's skills with a staff. There's basically nothing they can't do, no one they can't beat, and no scary situation they can't make light of. Honestly it was entertaining for a couple of books, but now it's getting old.

David Weber is a good writer. The action is strong, the dialog is clever and funny, and I enjoyed Oath of Swords and The War God's Own. But now that Harnak is dead and his people are cleansed of evil influence, this race of super-strong, super-gallant, and super-misunderstood emo-fox-man warriors has become a little too perfect and flawless.

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