Amy

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Reviewed: 01-05-19

I recommend this book for anyone who has questions about whether the Bible is always historically accurate, whether it contradicts itself, or any questions of those natures. Pete does a great job of respecting the Bible as the inspired Word of God while explaining historical and human contexts in the way it was written

This book was a little more textbook-y than I anticipated. It systematically goes through sections and stories of the Bible and explains Pete's view of why it isn't contradictory or whatnot. It's a very different view than the Evangelical tradition I grew up with but it made a whole lot of sense to me.

If the paperback version has a good index of the Bible passages, I think owning that version would be a helpful reference tool when questions arise. The book is pretty dense, though written clearly and in layman terms, so a single listen didn't familiarize me with the interpretation approach as thoroughly as I desire. But perhaps that has more to do with my cognitive limits than with the book's limits.

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4 people found this helpful

Disturbing story

Reviewed: 07-03-18

This was fairly well-written and kept my interest with building tension and quite a few twists at the end. But the slow reveal just kept building in disturbance, with the dysfunctional family getting more twisted as it went on. I was left feeling unsettled and unsatisfied.

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Interesting

Reviewed: 05-19-18

The paper folding magic is very clever with a wonderful idea behind it. But then the book took off on a romp through another character's heart (literally) in a way that seemed disconnected with the rest of the story and rest of the world that had been set up.

It was okay writing and fine narration. I was a bit thrown by how different the reader chose to make the internal dialogue and narration voice compared with the main character's speaking voice--they had completely different accents. Otherwise the narration was pretty good.

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Disappointing

Reviewed: 05-15-18

I enjoyed listening to a story set a generation after Genghis Khan, but otherwise this story fell flat. I didn't feel very connected to the large number of characters spread over several settings, and many of them never did connect to each other.

At the end of the book the story did not end in any way. Not even slight resolutions in any of the storylines. Yet it really wasn't compelling enough for me to find the next book in the series.

The narration was fine and the writing wasn't bad. It just was... meh.

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excellent story with depth

Reviewed: 07-23-17

Patrick's characters have such a realistic depth as they struggle to do right (and to decide how far over the not-exactly-legal line they are willing to cross) in the midst of a race to prevent all-out war. Just the right lightness of banter gave me a giggle before things got too intense.

Even the foes are not one-dimentional, but have their own stories and their own shades of light and dark.

The reader was just as amazing as the writer. Her accents were spot-on and she does "voices" perfectly with just the right inflections and pacing.

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Fun companion to Le Morte De Arthur

Reviewed: 07-04-17

The first book in this series is almost a children's book, focusing on Arthur's childhood, Merlin's teaching via transforming him into various animals, and some fun and very silly antics of people like a befuddled king's lifelong search for The Questing Beast.

The last book returns more to this light-hearted feel and the conversations with animals, learning from their world views and politics.

The in-between books are more serious, grappling with morals and write and wrong choices and how they affect those around you.

This book mentioned Mallory's Le Morte de Arthur many times, saying it wouldn't expound on this or that because the other book already had. In that way it seemed very much intended to be a companion series, which was slightly disappointing for me since I haven't read the other and only know vaguely the legeons, so there were gaps in the stories. But I was still able to follow okay.

I got a bit tired of Lancelot's ongoing affairs and continuing to give in to the temptation. But there were other thought-provoking ideas about morallity, especially in reguards to war.

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Great premise but not great writing

Reviewed: 06-07-17

This was such a fun idea, and the story held up fairly well, but the writing was so annoying. It's ironic because part of the point of the book is to not be lazy in your job just because you can get away with it and I felt that was exactly what happened. (Maybe that was the point? but it didn't really feel like it.)

Scalzi wrote "(s)he said" in almost every single sentence. That isn't much of an exaggeration. As a writer myself, I was taught to avoid dialogue tags as much as possible and use description instead, but Scalzi went out of his way to add in tags even when they weren't needed at all. It was extremely distracting.

There were other parts of the writing that felt like it needed another content edit, as well.

All that said, the book was still enjoyable enough for me to get through it in a few days. As a Star Trek lover, I found it highly amusing.

The format of the novella and three codas (short related stories) at the end worked for me. They were different and fun.

The narrator, Wil Wheaton, has the perfect sort of dry, ironic humor in his voice that fit this story perfectly. I was slightly disappointed that he doesn't really "do voices" but I could still tell when a different person was talking.

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Very curious

Reviewed: 05-18-17

I love the world this is set in with all the very unique races. Very creative! The assassin "princess" and wise furry kings are very different from the norm but work well.

But as lovely as the fantasy creatures are, this is not a children's book. It contains some rather graphic violence and quite a bit of talk of sexual desire. It is handled fairly tactfully and is not senseless but intertwines deeply into the questions of good and evil, power and weakness, free will and slavery with many thought-provoking ideas.

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1 person found this helpful

Very fun

Reviewed: 03-20-17

This book is very fun and silly, though it touches briefly on the more serious concept of fate vs free will. Though a very different mood from the first book in the time travel series, I enjoyed both and look forward to the next.

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1 person found this helpful

entertaining

Reviewed: 01-25-17

This is an interesting look at the struggle within each of us between good and evil, and how we each have at least a little of each. I loved the gnome character and wished he'd had more scenes, but the kender was fun too.

As in the first book, the narrator mispronounced many basic words, making some serious scenes laughable. He also lacked the proper inflection at times, making some parts fall flat. But he was understandable and I got used to him enough to enjoy the book all right.

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3 people found this helpful