Oliver

Thoroughly enjoyable!

Reviewed: 04-05-2019

A hard boiled sci-fi detective novel - excellent premise, excellent execution and excellent narrator. Definitely worth listening to!

Childish when I was expecting nuanced

Reviewed: 27-02-2019

The plot was a bit slow and had some minor holes but what really annoyed me was the childish one dimensional characters. There was no nuance or exploration of interesting motivations or anything other than what I'd expect from an early teens fantasy.

Other than that, an interesting premise and a fairly so-so narrator.

4 people found this helpful

Doesn't live up to the Final Empire

Reviewed: 09-12-2018

I loved the Final Empire - brilliant story, brilliant narration - with one of the best most satisfying conclusions to a trilogy out there. It left me hungry for more.

This was not nearly as good. Almost farcical in the end with the commitment to logical storytelling thrown out the window. The epic scope and well thought out plot is gone - replaced by a popcorn thriller. One not good enough to entice me to the second book.

1 person found this helpful

Intriguing beginning that went nowhere

Reviewed: 09-06-2018

After reading an online review that put this in the reviewers top 25 fantasy books of all time and described it as "Harry Potter for adults", I thought I'd give it a go. The sample and then the first couple of hours intrigued me and held my attention. The premise and the characters were original and interesting. Unfortunately, it just never went anywhere. I found myself increasingly disliking the protagonist with his whiney, depressed and depressing attitude. He started the novel as an interesting character with quirks, good traits and bad but but they end was a caricature of a depressed teen - the opposite of good writing. The other characters weren't much better.

As with the protagonist, the story started quite well and I was looking forward to how the story might develop. In the first half of the book the author dangled many possible story threads which would have made for quite an acceptable story arc - none of which were taken. Instead by the midpoint, I was totally at a loss as to where the story was heading - and more importantly - why I should care. I could (should) have stopped right there as there were only a few unimportant loose ends. If I had, I would have finished only mildly unsatisfied. But I didn't and the second half takes a turn for the worse. The books actual story arc was weak and uninteresting.

The narrator managed quite well with the material he had - and the only reason I have given it two stars.

In the end was I glad to have finished the book so I could stop listening.

The epitome of the prefect audiobook

Reviewed: 09-12-2017

Great story, great writing and great narrator. This one actually deserves five stars for everything.

A great Gothic romance!

Reviewed: 13-06-2016

A well written and performed audiobook. It's almost a play in its style and dialogue - but works really well in a novel!