Sylvia

Immersive, accurate, and inspiring!,

Reviewed: 11-14-21

The author brings to life an inspiring piece of history. I enjoyed how immersive and personal all the stories were while staying true to the facts and connecting them to larger movements of scientific discovery and civil rights.

I also enjoyed the movie, but I see now it's just one snapshot of a much larger tale and I appreciated how this book focused on the breadth of inspiring black women who's histories and experiences all connect.

Thank you!

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Bland, superficial, predictable and rushed

Reviewed: 10-22-21

This was the worst book I've read. The plot of both stories was very superficial, with the second one being only slightly better. The characters are flat and have no additional depth other than the bare minimum to move the plot along. There is no real character development - it's so unrealistic how one moment one character doesn't like the other and a moment later they have strong feelings of affection. Most of the time the story is predictable and the plot is rushed. There's no interesting setting or situations other than the character drama.

I also really dislike how the female characters are pushed around by the male characters. Some of their thoughts indicate they don't like it, but they don't really do anything about it. The romances feel very fake, without any real foundation. This is not how relationships should work.

The book had a nice title and cover, and a curious premise but unfortunately that's all there is to it.

For those of you raving about this book - if this is your bar for a good book then you'll be amazed at what better titles are out there.

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Fantastic!

Reviewed: 10-09-21

Great mystery on the moon with wonderful and diverse characters. Couldn't stop listening all the way through the end.

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Interesting science, not enough plot

Reviewed: 01-29-21

What I liked was the near futuristic take on what technology and society might be like as well as the commentary on psychology, empathy, and animal.

Wish there had been a lot more to all of it though. The main character spends more time doing drugs than using his empathy skill. Also felt a bit unrealistic - knowing real people who truly have great empathy I did not see any of that in the main character and their interactions with others. The plot was not very developed and other than flying around a lot and commenting on the culture in all the places, not too much really happened. All the characters were interesting caricatures but fairly flat otherwise.

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Endearing story and great narration!

Reviewed: 01-23-21

Really enjoyed this slow paced but endearing story set during the holidays in a peaceful town with lively people. All the characters began with struggles and through their connection found new meaning. I liked the varied ages of the characters too and their voices really came across in the narration.

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Could have been so much more!

Reviewed: 10-04-20

The narrator was fantastic and made everything better!


This series itself has many things going for it - interesting and witty writing, a complex and realistic world with some creative ideas for story and characters, references to fairytales and familiar tropes, and more - it could have been a really epic series.


And yet it just failed to come together in any meaningful way. Characters didn't seem to have agency - things seemed to just randomly happen. As a reader I was not able to plot alongside the characters or hope for particular outcomes and enjoy the ups and downs of the journey. The author often used alternative ways of telling the story, which while interesting a lot of the time, sometimes ruined the suspense of the story because the outcome was then obvious. Often felt like many of the characters and story arcs were disconnected from each other and any brief moments of connection were contrived.


The ending really did not feel like an ending. The saving Ciri encounter seemed totally contrived - she could have gone about her goal a lot differently and the timing of the other characters was too coincidental. Ciri's special powers to save the world didn't come up to save the world - which made the whole story arc around them feel kind of moot - I guess the implication is that they'll be there in the future? The whole time she's been talked about as the princess of Cintra but things never really circled back there - that felt very disconnected. The Nilfgardian emperor was also a thin character yet they had a lot of impact on the whole story - would have been great to see that develop more.


Overall I was hoping to experience stronger feelings about the character's stories and I didn't. I really wanted to see for myself the connections between Ciri and Geralt and also Ciri and Yennifer further develop, but all I was given was a summary that it had happened and the constant need to go save each other. It could have been a really powerful story of finding a new family.


The author seems a lot better at telling shorter stories where the little details of random characters coming together in a realistic world is enjoyable, and the outcomes of the stories are okay to be scrapped in favor of future stories.

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Fantastic Narrator

Reviewed: 09-06-20

Great continuation of the first book with more stories from Geralt's adventures. In contrast to the first book these felt more connected or at least seemed to work more towards a larger story.

The narrator really makes the characters come to life, with distinct voices and clear feelings. The singing was an unexpected delight! Whether it's our favorite bard Dandelion charming us with a ballad or mermaids communicating in sing song, it was quite enjoyable!

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Defaults the hero and the writer to male

Reviewed: 08-26-20

Very practical and useful book for anyone wanting to tell a good story. Energetic narrator made it even more interesting.

If only the author didn't always assume the hero and the writers are all guys. Ex: "how will the hero redeem himself", "what do we want him to be", "how a writer pitches his story." Although there are some good examples of female heroes and writers the use of male language in every other case made it seem like those were rare exceptions. We need stories of all people for all people and hearing bias in a training course is not a great way to start.

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3 people found this helpful

Not as good as Rosetta Stone

Reviewed: 06-26-20

It was ok. All the random combinations of similar words got me confused and each lesson only covers a few. I learned a lot more with Rosetta Stone, which also helped me learn to read and practice pronunciation.

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So inspired!

Reviewed: 06-25-19

A beautiful and moving story of grace and integrity. Fascinating learning about the Obama's background and how hard work and aspiration can take you far yet when they got to the highest highs they remained down to earth and humble in so many ways.

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