Bill

Deus ex Machina

Reviewed: 04-22-25

Vague spoiler alert:

For the life of me, I can't understand why authors do this. It's so incredibly disappointing when a character who has spent an entire book thinking, planning, and solving problems suddenly in the most important moment is dumb, impulsive, and then saved not by themselves or thier ideas but by some weird previously unknown/unseen power. What's the point? I'll save you the trouble and time...there isn't one. In fact, it robs all the hard work previously put in by the writing and story. Pair that with a performance that is riddled with awkward pauses and melodramatic tone and volume changes, and you have a book that deserves the ire it inspires.

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Good writing, bad performance

Reviewed: 03-19-25

I genuinely don't understand how people can listen to this narrator without cringing. Im sure he's a nice guy and he works hard, but his volume is erratic, his enunciation weird, and his diction/pace is just wrong. Example: a huge pause between words where it's clear there is no period or comma (it was all.....over the place).

The writing itself is good, if you can get past the first tired tropes. it starts with the same dumb coming of age stories you've already read a hundred times. After that, though, the characters grow and the prose matures with them into some pretty interesting moments. I do wish it weren't so predictable (you know protagonist hero isn't actually going to die), but the inner dialogue and tone keep you invested.

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Tied for best performance I've ever heard also fun

Reviewed: 09-23-24

The title says it all. The book is very good, the story is hilarious, the dialogue sharp, and the performance is incredible. 9.5/10

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1 person found this helpful

A good start...and quickly falls off from there

Reviewed: 10-28-22

I started off interested and excited, even if the detective protagonist early on was a walking stereotype, the puzzle was interesting enough to keep me going. By halfway, though, I was tired. Most characters are fairly see-through, the plot get further from my ability to suspend disbelief, etc. But it gets so bad at the end, so bizarre and unbelievable, so cliche and teenage-boy-over-the-top, that I really felt let down. Read the negative review on Amazon that got so many upvotes for further details.

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Is this YA?

Reviewed: 10-28-22

I honestly can't tell if this is meant to be for younger audiences. If it is, I suppose I would withdraw the rating, as I don't feel qualified to give a review of YA fiction. If not, though--the writing is pretty thin, the characters mostly walking tropes, and the plot is...less than exhilarating. I've certainly read worse, and the truth is I would give this a 2.5 out of 5, its right in the middle of what I see a lot of fantasy doing these days.

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I am rarely surprised...

Reviewed: 10-28-22

...but I was in this book. Not once, but twice, the book caught me totally off guard. No specific spoilers, but there is a death that really blew me away--as a decision Lee made and how she made it, really impressive. In addition, all of the characters reflect not only an inner life, but a cultural and social one, externally facing, that ties the narrative together. That's not easy to do. And if the prose isn't always brilliant, it's at least solid, with some great moments. There are a couple of times I had some small issues with pacing, but again, small. The only thing that worries me is that the main antagonist seems to border on Deus Ex Machina at times, and I worry that in the second or third book, it will get out of control. I want my "bad guys" to be believable, real, and already they push the envelope here. All those things aside, this is very good work, I am glad to recommend.

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Some good moves, but also some missteps

Reviewed: 10-28-22

Gwynne has some good stuff--he's a talented writer with a solid grasp of plotting and character. There is also some good image work here, and at times the scenes really pop. That said, he makes a couple of big mistakes. Firstly, while I'm a fan of action, and Gwynne knows his way around an axe and seax, it's a bit much here. By the end, I no longer cared about the fights, because I knew what the outcomes would (roughly) be, and though there are small surprises, nothing big. It's one trick, and it gets overplayed.

More importantly, there are internal logical failures and inconsistencies which really bothered me, and at least two deus ex machina moments which really ruined it. I don't believe in spoilers, so I won't mention specifics here, but sufficed to say, they are pivotal plot and character points. I was very excited in the beginning, but by the end, I was mildly disappointed. It's still better than 3/4 of the fantasy out there, and I still give it 7/10 for the quality of the prose and the general sense of an author who knows their business.

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Character driven, but at times hard to believe

Reviewed: 04-24-22

I know it sounds weird, but I want to believe my speculative fiction. I don't mean I want to fool myself into thinking it resides in the same actual that I do, but rather, I want to be able to suspend my disbelief for long enough to immerse myself in the story. And this story struggles to help me do that. It's thick on character, but thin on world building/setting. If you like books where you can really spend time with one person's thoughts and consider what it means to view the world in a different way, check this out. If you want an interesting plot or world, skip it. I personally think it's worth it, even if it is at times overdone--but mileage may vary.

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It's good, not great.

Reviewed: 04-24-22

Look--if you liked the first one, you'll like this one. It has all the same cool elements--interesting and thoughtful POV of 'aliens', worthwhile takes on technology and advancement, and a sort of socio-cultural critique that lends itself well to sci-fi. It has some flaws. Pacing is an issue, and at times as a reader I got bored or frustrated. The craft work isn't the highest, and its amazing how unlucky some of the characters are--or how stupid, depending on how you look at it. But overall it's a worthwhile venture, and I'll probably read/listen to a third if it comes out. The performance was much the same--no Pacey, but better than many.

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He's become predictable

Reviewed: 04-24-22

Let's get this out of the way: Pacey is incredible. If I ever publish a novel, I'd sell a kidney to have Pacey read it. And Abercrombie still does some things very well. His pacing is impeccable--everything happens exactly when it should, which, if you've never written a novel, is a really hard thing to pull off. That said, I saw literally every 'twist' coming a mile away. It's the same shtick he used in the first trilogy, and sadly, I'm now bored.

I'll probably read another one, if it comes out, but I'm low on last chances for Abercrombie.

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