ChocolateChipCookie330

Well written sci-fi.

Reviewed: 08-15-24

I recently reread the other marine corps sci-fi series by J. Brazee. I found it amusing to read the VERY similar description of the findings on a captured civilian liner in this book as in one of the books in that other series by Brazee. It’s well written content and completely applicable in both settings, just odd to notice.

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Didn’t remind me much of stories by Agatha Christie

Reviewed: 07-18-24

Several of the stories were quite entertaining but none of them reminded me much of the Miss Marple stories by Agatha Christie. The ending of the last story was completely out of sync with stories written by Agatha Christie.

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Too many stories just stopped without being done

Reviewed: 06-25-24

I WANTED to enjoy this book. I listened to the entire thing. A few stories were pretty good but more of the stories just stopped leaving me hanging with no idea of how even the shortest of the stories ended. Did the main character live or die? Were the dragons willing to coexist with humans or not? Not my kind of stories.

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Story OK; narrator pretty awful

Reviewed: 05-28-24

I enjoy reading some kinds of fantasy so wasn’t bothered with the “voice”. The story was interesting but I could have done without the repeated references to passionate sex. An occasional mention was probably necessary to advance the story, but reporting on it for every night after the first night wasn’t necessary. The narrator was awful. His narrative reminded me of hearing a young child who has just learned to read — every word carefully pronounced with little evidence of any attempt to vary cadence or emotional content.

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Where did the author find his information on the treatment of a fractured hip?

Reviewed: 03-22-24

The story was pretty good, though much too long. I skipped some of the middle chapters. However, I can’t imagine that there was a hospital in or near Portland, Oregon, in 2006 where a middle aged or older person would be put in a cast to wait for a fractured hip to heal. Such a fracture would, based on the exact location of the fracture, be either repaired with rods or plates and pins or the hip joint would have been partially or completely replaced. It is of utmost importance to get older adults up and walking as soon as possible after such an injury. In 2023 healthy middle aged adults sometimes have hip replacement surgery on an out patient basis. However necessary the author found a prolonged period of bed rest to the plot, its inclusion makes the story unbelievable.

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Virtual narrators don’t do fiction well

Reviewed: 03-15-24

The virtual voice
1. Makes no adjustments for different characters
2. Only adjusts for emotions based on the text, not on the context
3. Is limited in range and volume and so does not convey what’s happening in the book.

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Spoiler alert!

Reviewed: 03-07-24

I do hope Ms. Lackey spoke to Dolly Parton about the last chapter of this story before publishing it. I enjoyed the song and the book as fairytale fodder.

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I prefer narrators who try to use different voices for different characters

Reviewed: 02-15-24

The virtual voice was clear and I only noticed a few errors like straight as instead of straight As. But there was no effort at a Latin American accent, no real way to tell which character was speaking other than from the text and no effort to express emotions, for instance when the author tells the reader a character yelled something. The story was OK, but I found it difficult to finish the book.

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It’s as if the author hadn’t read the previous books

Reviewed: 11-22-23

This book is so poorly written it’s hard to describe. With no explanations of why things have changed, Kelvren has gone from a brash young adult to an oddly mature being. In the previous books in this series, only Tercel, the king stag of the dyheli herd can give languages to others; in this book Firesong is suddenly the one performing that task. There are additional examples. The plot feels contrived, somehow contorting to pull in characters from various parts of the world. Then there’s the cliffhanger ending. I’m a long time fan of the Valdemar books by Ms Lackey, but this book is very disappointing.

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2 people found this helpful

Implying that the relationship is normal?

Reviewed: 10-29-23

The underlying premise that a truly empathic woman can have a wonderful relationship with a man who hacks all of her electronics and puts a GPS tracker in one of those electronics so he can always know where she is so very wrong. Add passionate kisses at the scene of a murder they are investigating and the tale wanders so far into lala land that it’s off my map.

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1 person found this helpful