E. J. Boston

Didn't age well

Reviewed: 01-27-22

Helpful for filling out your understanding of Undermountain if you're going to run a campaign there. Helps to kickstart some thoughts and ideas about encounters, traps, exploration, and NPCs. As a story ... it didn't age well. It is somewhat interesting, but suffers from a number of Deus Ex Machina. Most of the twists and turns are pretty well expected. it's overstuffed with dialogue when the action should have been described instead. The sequence of time is unrealistic for the amount accomplished. The literary tropes and design are somewhat outdated. The characters are a little flat. Overall, it's okay. I'm sure it was really good when it was first published... I'd love to read a rewrite from the same author now that the world has been further development and pulp fantasy literature has improved.

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Need divisions

Reviewed: 11-19-21

Only a single chapter division? Extremely unhelpful in the aid of memorizing. Shall I listen to a second hour before hearing the same word a second time? I firmly believe that delay is helpful for memorizing--creating the mental struggle to remember, but this is too much. break the chapters into each section you actually provide and is be happy to use it again, but putting 1000x words in the same section as 99x words is unhelpful.

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Good Content, Hard to follow flow and narration

Reviewed: 06-08-20

Interesting, but hard to follow. The narrator does not distinguish dialogue and narration well. The story jumps around a lot, and seems to have missed portions that should have been exposited, but are instead later just explained away. The meandering style proves how interesting each pericope is, to be able to hold your attention and keep you listening, but makes it hard to follow the progression and properly understand/be affected by the literary devices used. It seems almost that Greenwood was enjoying writing so much, that he hit the 400 page mark and thought, "Oops, time to draw this to a conclusion." One character seemed to be developed well over the pages, but it never fully came to fruition. Again, narration is hard to follow. You have to deliberately pay attention to avoid being lost and having to backtrack minutes.

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Monotone

Reviewed: 02-28-20

The content of the book was great, but unfortunately the monotone of the narrator made it difficult to follow. I'm sure he did it because he didn't want to insert his own interpretation into such a renowned work of Christian history, but instead of helping me "see the words on the page" as it were, it made me miss some of them altogether. I found myself having to rewind section after section, and think I'll just have to read it on the page soon.

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2 people found this helpful

mis-accenting

Reviewed: 12-20-19

Bevine seemed to struggle a lot with the distinct voices this time around... occasionally confusing one character for another, changing a characters voice throughout different parts of the book, and (who could blame him for this, though...) giving different voices from his past narrations.

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The Father Tolkien and His Love for His Children

Reviewed: 11-13-17

First, I think it's important to state that I think this is a good children's fantasy story--period. There's no need to summarize since the publisher's description does that for you. And while I generally write analytical reviews of fiction, this time I want to offer something a little different--something of which listeners may be unaware.

This small story reveals the love and heart Tolkien had for his children. While most of his stories were conceived in the midst of his family, Roverandom has particular interest because they had just lost their dog, Rover. He had run away from home, and (I imagine) in the midst of the tears that his children shed, Tolkien sat them down and said, "Now let me tell you about Rover, and where he's gone off to, and what he's been doing all these days." And thus commences a fantastical adventure in Tolkien-fashion with small tidbits of mythological explanation that bring our own world to life. It is clever and comforting.

A note on the narration: well done. Occasionally when the voices of particular persons/creatures come into my ears I cringe because of the pitch or the extenuated 's' sounds, but I have sensitive ears. I recognize that these voices bring the characters to life in a way I imagine Tolkien himself did around the fireside.

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4 people found this helpful