John

Le Guin overly concerned with philosophy

Reviewed: 12-31-24

As a lover of the Earthsea Cycle I was excited to get into Le Guin’s sci-fi canon but as with The Dispossessed this book bored me to tears. It is deeply philosophical which, in theory, I would applaud but the story is completely subservient to Le Guin’s philosophical approach resulting in a dry and somewhat tedious read (listen). It seems the characters exist only to make Le Guin’s philosophical points, not to enrich the narrative tapestry, appearing flat and unrealized. There were elements of literary flourish that I found charming but not enough to carry the story. I hate to poopoo a beloved author’s seminal work but I was pretty disappointed by it.

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Surprisingly disappointing

Reviewed: 12-20-24

Loved the Earthsea Cycle but this was so dry and plotless and pedantic. I was bored to tears. Will try again with TLHOD and hope for a more interesting story with three dimensional characters I can actually care about.

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Terrible storytelling

Reviewed: 12-11-24

The first book was ok as in mediocre but just barely interesting enough to keep listening. Had hoped it would get better but this one is a total snooze fest. No urgency to the plot. The stakes feel removed and unimportant. A large focus seems to be placed on characters I don’t care about. I know it’s bad when I don’t even know who is talking. Can’t believe there’s 29 more installments of this bland and generic storytelling.

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Fire the narrator

Reviewed: 10-29-24

I am enjoying this series overall, the characters and the world-building, the stakes feel palpable. It’s sometimes difficult to follow what is happening in audiobook format. There will be a subtle shift from one scene or perspective to another or something will happen in a very understated way and I will have no idea what the characters are reacting to because I zoned out for the exact 10 seconds during which the thing happened. I don’t know what the solution is, or if there even is one other than going back and re-listening to chapters or sections to piece it all together, something I also had to do a lot in the first book as well. But I don’t mind too much because ultimately it means more time spent with these characters, in this dazzling and engrossing story. Was a little underwhelmed by the anticlimactic ending but it’s not completely unexpected for a middle installment of a trilogy. The one thing I loathe about the audiobook adaptation is the narrator. Her voice is ok for some of the characters but some of her character voices are absurdly cartoonish. Like full on chewing the scenery, some of the worst over-acting I’ve had the displeasure of forcing myself to listen to. It’s sad because I’m really into the series and will just have to endure the cringe inducing joke of this woman’s absolutely terrible voice acting. Whoever is casting the narrator for Tchaikovsky’s books is really missing the mark as I had very similar complaints about Children of Time. The materiel needs a sober and dry narration to counterbalance the wild and crazy things that are happening, to make them feel more grounded. Every time she launches into an over the top character it completely pulls me out of the story. It’s a real shame and a disservice to the material.

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Amazing storytelling

Reviewed: 10-22-24

I loved this first entry in The Final Architecture series. It is difficult to follow in audiobook format. I had to re-listen to the first 10 chapters multiple times to figure out what was going on and who the characters were. Once I got there it ended up being really good. The narrator isn’t my favorite with cartoonish voices and over the top voice acting. Diving right into the next one gotta see what happens!

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Loved this

Reviewed: 09-26-24

Where I found children of time to be a slow start though ultimately very rewarding, this hooked me right from the start. It has a lot to say about the world of here and now from a remote and alien vantage point. There was a moment in the middle where I felt a bit lost and thought maybe I had missed something but it all worked out. Really compelling characters, layered and flawed and relatable even in the most unknowable circumstances, except that we come to know them through Tchaikovsky’s marvelous writing which transports and transcends. Well narrated too. Grateful for the audiobook.

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Not my favorite in the series

Reviewed: 09-11-24

The first third was me trying to remember all the various callbacks to the previous novels, occasionally having to google things and hope to avoid spoilers. As all the narrative threads emerged, some I enjoyed more than others, I felt they never really wove together into a whole. The pacing felt rushed and the ending abrupt. I would have appreciated a more fleshed out novel with fewer sub plots as none of them really took the lead until the very end. The dragon world would have made a really good stand alone novella in between the last two books in the series. I don’t think Ray Porter’s narration helps things. Sometimes I think Miller’s writing, in all its subtlety, would benefit from a drier delivery, but Porter always leans in.

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Favorite of the series

Reviewed: 08-25-24

Some entries of the Revelation Space series have been harder to penetrate than others. This one I fell right into. When Reynolds is good he’s really good. Some of the prose are truly sublime with staggering yet subtle observations. This author knows his world down to the Planck length. The characters are somewhat understated (as is his style) but not for lack of emotional depth and motives that crystallize as you are pulled forward. The pacing was good. John Lee has been a great narrator throughout. I’m sad to be at the end of this series but it really went out with a punch. I can see myself circling back to the beginning and starting over in a few years.

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The most dull

Reviewed: 07-17-24

I can’t fully convey how boring this book is. The dialogue is pretty flat and stilted. The “this man thanks you” manner of speech does nothing for the world building, just an uninspired affectation that feels forced. Wanted to like it because of a non-binary take on gender but it’s overshadowed by an equal amount of homophobia that wasn’t worth suffering through. By chapter 32 I had to give up. Bored to tears I couldn’t even keep track of the characters and storylines. Some truly dreadful writing.

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Boring snoring

Reviewed: 06-06-24

Dear god, how much banality do we have to get through to get to the story? I really enjoyed the first book, Carry On. But this follow up is excruciatingly dull. Halfway in it seems there is no plot, it’s just been a litany of mundane and pointless scenarios that do nothing for character development, like step by step instructions on how to drive a manual transmission for instance, or miss the emotional mark when it seems they’re supposed to. Where’s the magic? Where’s the gayness? Where’s the momentum? This book moves at a tedious pace. And I’m all for subverting genre norms but when you take away your main character’s magical powers in a fantasy series that people are calling the gay Harry Potter, then you’ve dealt yourself a serious disadvantage that Rainbow Rowell seems incapable of overcoming in this 2nd installment of the Simon Snow series.

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