Rob

Executive Summary: I can't get enough of Video Game and Computer history books. As a huge fan of Blizzard and Diablo this book was no different. I would have liked some more information from some of the Blizzard folks, but this book still felt well researched and written.

Audiobook: I'm a bit torn on the narration. Normally I like a narrator who does a variety of voices. However this is non-fiction. Every time Mike Rylander did a different voice for someone in this book, I got distracted from what they were saying thinking about if that person sounds even remotely like the voice he gave them.

I think he does a good job with his volume, inflections and speed but this really kept throwing me off and I think I'd have preferred he simply read the entire book in his own voice.

Full Review
There are mainly two companies that got me hooked on video games: Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment. I played a lot of PC games growing up, but no other companies put out games that have sucked up more of my time than those two.

I was introduced to Blizzard with a demo of Warcraft 2. I've bought every game they've released since. World of Warcraft has sucked up more of my time than I'd care to admit. Until that game came out however, my favorite Blizzard game had to be Diablo. I spent so many hours both alone and with friends clicking until my fingers were numb.

I knew a little bit about David Brevik and Blizzard North before this book. I bought his (largely failed) attempt to release Diablo 3 under a new IP/company Hellgate: London when I found out he was behind it. For me however nothing beats the original. Most people will probably list Diablo 2 as the best/their favorite but for me it's still the original.

The first half of this book covers the early career of David Brevik and the Max and Eric Shaefer, who would go on to found Condor Games (which was later renamed Blizzard North). It also spent some time talking about the foundation of Silicon and Synapse (which was later renamed Blizzard). He spent some time talking about the development of Warcraft 1, much to my delight, but most of it focused on the Blizzard North folks.

The second half of this book is mostly about Diablo itself. I found a lot of this absolutely fascinating. There were a lot of good interviews, primarily with the Blizzard North founders and what I assume are all former Blizzard employees. It seems that none of the (at the time) current Blizzard employees were willing (or allowed) to be interviewed for the book.

I would love to see Blizzard put out a book of their own (especially if it focused on Warcraft) but I thought Mr. Craddock did a good job despite this limitation.

I have a few other books by Mr. Craddock on my radar as he seems to have written several non-fiction books after my own heart. I'll definitely pick up some of those books in the future.

Executive Summary: I struggled a bit with this one. I liked it more than the Rincewind books, but it's probably my least favorite of the Witch books so far.Full ReviewI own a lot of the Discworld books and I've enjoyed some of them quite a lot, while others I find to be just OK. The Witch books thus far have been better than most, although I'd probably rank them behind both the City Guard series (although I've only read 1 of those) and the Death series.I started this on a plane last month returning from PAX and kind of got bored and switched to watching Netflix instead. There were parts I enjoyed, but often I'd find my attention drifting when reading it and I was never really itching to pick it back up.Like all discworld books it has some great jokes, and I love the cameos by Death. However my favorite witch book continues to be [b:Equal Rites 34507 Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1) Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1407706800s/34507.jpg 583611], which as I understand it is the one least like the others. Maybe once Tiffany Aching shows up I'll like them a bit more.There are still a ton more discworld books for me to read and I hear [b:Small Gods 34484 Small Gods (Discworld, #13) Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390899426s/34484.jpg 1636629] is one of the best. So far I haven't had great luck with the stand alones though, and this is one of the few I don't own because I hasn't been on sale yet. I'll probably pick it up later this year, but for now I have other things I'd rather read instead.

Executive Summary: After [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696] this book almost had to be a let down. It's still enjoyable but not nearly as much. It does offer you some insights into the supporting cast that we haven't had until this point however.James Marsters Audio book: All is now right with the world. Or at least the Dresdenverse. They are “retiring” the John Glover version and releasing a new version read by James Marsters. I was lucky to get an early review copy.As expected it was waaay better. Anyone who was upset at the change can now get this new version and be content. This 3rd reread of the book was easily my favorite, and I'm sure that's largely thanks to James Marsters.John Glover Audio book: I sort of feel bad. John Glover seems like he could be a decent Narrator. He does a few voices. He's got a reasonable voice for Harry. But he's just not James Marsters. He doesn't put in the same passion. He doesn't yell out when Harry's casting magic. His voices all sound wrong. I wouldn't mind listening to him read another series, but not this one.Full ReviewThis book is pretty much impossible to review without major spoilers from [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696], so if you're not up to this point of the series my review may not make a whole lot of sense. :)NOTE: All spoilers are for previous books in the series, not THIS one. I hate reviews that spoil the book and normally avoid spoilers of any kind in all of my reviews.So at the end of [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696] Harry is dead. Or is he? I spent an agonizing year wondering just what the hell was going to happen next in the series.The result was a book that could be both frustrating and fun. I liked to see what everyone does with Harry out of the picture..It's also frustrating because Harry's been accumulating power as the series goes on but with him being dead, all of his powers are gone and we have to sit by with him and watch things go to hell without him being able to do anything.This does offer a chance for everyone to step up their games, and we learn a lot more about Mort whose only been a very minor and rarely used character to this point.The pace of the plot is still pretty fast, and the second half of the book is really good, but I found the first half to be be a bit slow/frustrating.Overall I think this is one of the weakest of the later book, but still much better than a few of the early ones. The main problem is, it really feels more like a transitional book after all the changes of well, [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696].It's 3.5 for me, rounded up because I love this series.

Executive Summary: My first by Mr. Bradbury, but won't be my last. Then again since I'll be reviewing [b:Something Wicked This Way Comes 248596 Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2) Ray Bradbury https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409596011s/248596.jpg 1183550] for SFFAudio later this month..that was probably going to happen anyways. :-DAudio book: Mark Boyett's voice reminds me a bit of Rod Serling, which as I get into a bit below seemed a perfect fit. I know there are multiple versions of the audiobook. I'm not sure how easy they are to get a hold of, but this one seems like a good option.Full ReviewI've never read anything by Mr. Bradbury before. I'm not really well read in the “classics”. There is too much modern stuff I want to read, and in general I prefer fantasy to Sci-Fi. But when Brilliance Audio was releasing some of his better known works on Audio CD (although the production itself was done by Audible) last year, I jumped at the chance to finally give him a try.I've been in a bit of a reading funk this year, and was trying to figure out what to read AFTER this book to get me out of it. Since it was short though, I wanted to listen to it sooner rather than later, write up my review then move onto something else.Apparently I just needed to listen to this. Apart from one story (Way in the Middle of the Air) which made me really uncomfortable and showed it's age. It appears to have been eliminated from several of the more recent editions of this book, and I wish I had skipped it as it really adds very little to this collection.Everything else was enjoyable. A bit depressing, but enjoyable. Mr. Bradbury paints a bleak picture of a future that thankfully never came. This isn't hard sci-fi by any means, but more like dystopian space opera.I would have never thought something bleak would lighten my mood, but the stories were that good, and the prose are excellent. They reminded me a lot of the Twilight Zone, although I know these stories predate that show. I think The Silent Towns could easily have been an episode of the show, as could several others.I think my favorite of the collection is Usher II. I can't pretend to get all the references apart from Poe and Lovecraft, but his tale of revenge for censorship is quite good. I'll have to check out the Poe story [b:The Fall of the House of Usher 175516 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387708966s/175516.jpg 15570703] that seems to have influenced it.Overall this is an excellent collection of stories, and if like me you haven't read it/anything by Mr. Bradbury, this seems like as good a place as any to start.

Executive Summary: A satisfying conclusion to an enjoyable series, albeit not quite as good as the previous book.

Audiobook: Another fantastic job by Tim Gerard Reynolds as usual. Any book that is narrated by him automatically moves

Full Review
I rarely do an entire series at all once, but more often am juggling numerous series at a time as each book comes out. I like to support the authors I enjoy and there is always plenty of books to keep me busy while I wait.

That said, it's far easier to read an entire series all at once. I became a fan of Mark Lawrence thanks to his book of the Ancestor series, and I read those books as they came out. Now I've gone back and binged on first his Broken Empire series and now this one.

I enjoyed this one far more. Both share really intriguing world building, but this one had far more likable characters and a much more intriguing plot. Oddly enough I found the second book the strongest of the three, but all of them were quite good.

I didn't like this series quite as much as Book of the Ancestor, but it cemented Mark Lawrence's new books as must read for me. I'd be very much interested in reading another book or series set in this same shared world, or pretty much whatever else he puts out.

This was the first book that I've gotten on audiobook. I'm not sure if there are multiple versions, but I got the bbc one. It was well done. There were multiple voice readers, one for each of the major parts.

To the book. I thought this was a descent book, though I still think Ender's game is the best in the series. There are some twists and turns, but its very long in parts. I think it would have been much harder to read than listen to.

I enjoy pretty much everything John Scalzi writes. This one was fun, but nothing special. I probably liked it better than his last book, but not as much as some of his others. It was slow at times, and the dolphins were a bit too much. The cats were great though.


As usual Wil Wheaton's narration is a great fit for Scalzi's snark.

Executive Summary: There were parts I enjoyed more than others. I think I like the way they used the core of this as the basis for parts of the 4th season of the show more than the story itself. 3.5 starsAudiobook: I was never a huge fan of Jefferson Mays until he was unavailable for [b:Cibola Burn 18656030 Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405023040l/18656030.SY75.jpg 26109318] and they replaced him with Erik Davies. They have since had him re-record that book, but not this novella. Mr. Davies is fine, but I'd rather they had Mr. Mays redo it. Maybe when the collection comes out they'll have him redo this one.Overall it's fine in audio, but nothing special.Full ReviewBobbie and Avasarala are my favorite Expanse characters. So it's kind of shocking I hadn't read this already. Any excuse to get extra Bobbie Draper, even if it was mostly in a cameo fashion should have been up on my list.Sadly though it mostly focuses on her teenage nephew, who kind of got on my nerves for most of the story. That was probably intentional, but it didn't help me love this book.I think they did a much better job with the seed for this story in the TV adaptation. That version was much more enjoyable to me. That said, I thought it was worth reading. You get some more glimpses of Mars than you have in most of the novels because the action has largely been happening elsewhere.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this more than [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417350958l/18405221.SY75.jpg 26039753] but not nearly as much as [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421573407l/13569581.SY75.jpg 19148922] or [b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382486392l/18138189.SX50.jpg 25481154].Audiobook: I was happy to see Steven Brand return to narrate this book. I really liked his narration of the original trilogy and was disappointed when he we replaced for books 2/3 of Ryan's The Draconis Memoria series. He did a great job as usual, so I'm glad they didn't go with someone else.Full Review[b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421573407l/13569581.SY75.jpg 19148922] is one of my all-time favorite fantasy books, and [b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382486392l/18138189.SX50.jpg 25481154] wasn't far behind. It was for that reason that I felt like [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417350958l/18405221.SY75.jpg 26039753] was a letdown. Everything felt so uneven. Slow at the start then rushed at the end.When his new series came out I was a bit reluctant to give that a shot. However that turned out to be pretty good from start to finish, but still not at the level of [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421573407l/13569581.SY75.jpg 19148922].When this book was announced I had similar mixed feelings. Could he recapture the magic of his earlier books, or would it be more like [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417350958l/18405221.SY75.jpg 26039753]? The answer turned out to be somewhere in between.I probably should have reread the series as much of the details have escaped me so many years (and so many books) later. Eventually I got my bearings, but probably not as much as if I had reread.This book has a lot of setup, and we get a bit of perspective from the preludes to each section. Thankfully like his earlier books all the chapters are from Vaelin's perspective.Vaelin is older and wiser, but given where the series had previously left off, he's not quite the warrior he once was that earned him his infamy. Faced with a new threat, we get a bit of a different approach than in the past.Overall I enjoyed this book a lot, and there were parts of it where I was finding excuses to listen, but there were a few slower parts as well. Either way I'm happy to report that my concerns were mostly assuaged. I'm optimistic that this continuation of the series might help to redeem some of my disappointment from how the first trilogy was wrapped up.

Executive Summary: This series has been up and down for me, but Mr. Weeks really stuck the landing with this book.Audiobook: Simon Vance is one of my favorite narrators and does another excellent job here. Not only does he have a great reading voice he does a variety of voices that really make an audiobook above and beyond for me.Full ReviewI'm still not sure how I feel about Mr. Weeks as an author. After nearly rage-quitting his Night Angel series, I wasn't sure I wanted to read another book by him again. However the recommendation of friends and the cool sounding magic system made me consider giving him another try to...mixed results. I loved the magic system but [b:The Black Prism 7165300 The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1) Brent Weeks https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327921884l/7165300.SY75.jpg 7534979] felt very juvenile throughout.Despite that, I continued on and liked the later books a lot more....until I didn't. I thought the series took a step backwards with [b:The Broken Eye 12652457 The Broken Eye (Lightbringer, #3) Brent Weeks https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1376583941l/12652457.SY75.jpg 17766175]. I could never drop that feeling of a juvenile tone.So while I was looking forward to this book, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it quite this much. Anyone who follows my reviews knows I don't give 5 stars lightly. The easiest measure for me of a 5-star book is one where I'm finding reasons to listen to just “1 more chapter”. I'll do a bit of extra work or just sit and stare at a wall for a few minutes if it means finding out what happens next.There was a lot of that here. And this was a loooong book. I'm still not sure how I feel about Mr. Weeks as an author. I don't recall being annoyed in this book as I was during the past ones. Has he finally turned a corner? Should I try out whatever series he puts out next? I'm still not sure yet.I am however glad I gave this series a try and stuck with it.

Executive Summary: Started and ended really strong with a few lulls in the middles that cost it from possibly being a 5 star read for me.

Audiobook: I'm a huge fan of Tim Gerard Reynolds. He does a fantastic job with every book I've ever listened to him narrate, and this one is no different. He does a variety of voices and always is easy to understand and hear.

Full Review
I got this one as a gift a few years ago, but it was pretty long and the second book doesn't seem to be coming out soon so I was in no rush to pick it up. I found myself at a point where I was trying to pick out an audiobook of the about 30 hours waiting for a new release on April 5th and this fit that bill nicely. I'm glad I finally picked this one up.

I'm a sucker for the fantasy school trope. This isn't quite that. In fact there is very little magic to speak of in the book for the most part. Instead what we get is more like Ranger school.

Aedan at times seems like your stereotypical chosen one, but it turns out there is a lot more going on than meets the eye initially. I thought the supporting cast was really good. You have your typical school bullies and enemy turned ally tropes, but I seem to just eat that up. I liked his lab partner in medical class the best, although I don't recall her name because I'm terrible at names.

As someone who loves puzzles and tends to favor rogues and rangers when roleplaying, I loved the idea of the school with it's training of both the mind and the body taught in a school that seems full of mysteries.

There is enough different going on here that kept me listening to an extra chapter here and there throughout most of the book. I did find a few lulls at points in the middle however.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and will definitely pick up the second book on release day. Based on his website maybe that will be by the end of the year or early next year. I sure hope it's this year!

Executive Summary: This is one of three books from the Dresden Files series I've given 5 stars to, and if you follow my reviews, you know that's something I try not to do lightly. I really enjoy it start to finish.Audio book: I could just copy paste this section from book to book. James Marsters is great. If you've been reading my previous reviews or listening to this series yourself you know that. Highlights in this book include him actually yelling during one scene and this crazy french accent.Full ReviewSo I finally arrived to what was for years my favorite Dresden book. I'm still not quite sure, but I think [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696] edges this out for best in the series.This is the book that turned me into a herald for [a:Jim Butcher 10746 Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1205261964p2/10746.jpg]. I couldn't shut up about this series for awhile. I would tell anyone who would listen they should read this series. (NOTE: This happened a second time after [b:Cold Days 12216302 Cold Days (The Dresden Files, #14) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345145377s/12216302.jpg 17189468] last year.)Now this isn't a life changing book or something. It just one of those books I have trouble putting down. Page-turning fun. In fact I spent at least 2 hours doing nothing else but listening to the ending. Normally I'm driving, riding my bike, running errands or doing stuff around the house. I ran out of stuff to do to keep listening, so I just sat in my easy chair and finished it.Gone is the stranger coming to Harry's office. Gone is the introduction to some new characters/aspects of Harry's world. Mr. Butcher simply takes all the building blocks he established in the previous books to tell a really fun story, with a truly awesome ending.I'm probably overselling this book. Only one of my friends I've since recommended this to seems to love this book as much as I do, and he stubbornly refuses to admit [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696] is a better book. Still, if you don't thoroughly enjoy this book, why are you still reading this series?Murphy calls Dresden to check out a crime scene off the books. A woman is dead. It turns out a lot of them are. They appear to have committed suicide, but something just seems off.If you know this series, you know if there is one thing that turns Harry Dresden from well reason detective to charge in first ask questions later neanderthal, it's when someone is hurting women. Especially in his town.Harry is going to do whatever it takes to put a stop to it, even if it kills him. We finally get to see Harry be a true badass in this book. There have been glimmers before, but nothing quite like this. With my vague memory of the next few books, it's something we won't quite see again until [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696] either.This book shows that both Harry Dresden and Jim Butcher have both matured into something more then when they started.

Executive Summary: Another enjoyable entry in the series. He mixes things up a little bit and I enjoyed it more than the last entry, probably because of its connections to tech. Audiobook: One of the things I love best about this series is the narration of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. He does his usual fantastic job here, that really makes this series a must listen for me.Full ReviewI was late to picking up the Rivers of London books because I didn't have a great track record with Urban Fantasy. As such I'd been slowly consuming the series whenever I was in the mood for something light and fun. It took me about 3 years before finally catching up late last year. When this one came out earlier this year I didn't pick it up right away more out of habit than anything else. I ended up saving this for a time when I just wanted something short and fun and this fit the mold.Looking back at my review for [b:Lies Sleeping 36534574 Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London, #7) Ben Aaronovitch https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517326409l/36534574.SY75.jpg 58260751], I enjoyed it far less than my friends seem to. I don't really remember the details anymore, but I apparently felt it more of a stand alone story. This one fits that mold as well, but enjoyed it slight more.I found the first part of this book a bit confusing at first and then a bit frustrating as he kept shifting the focus when I wanted to know what would happen next. This is something I'm used to in multiple POV stories, but not from this series with its single POV.As someone who works as as Software Engineer, but not for any of the Big Tech companies, I can only assume he does a good job in portraying the kind of environment that they often work in. For me I've never had that “we have all the amenities on sight so you never want to leave thing” going on. I did find some of the supporting characters very familiar however.I loved the inclusion of Ada Lovelace and the Babbage machine. I've actually seen a working Babbage machine at the Computer History in California and I've been fascinated by them ever since. I loved the blend of technology and magic in general of this book.I think that for me is why I ended up enjoying this one more than the last, because it is also pretty stand alone. There was some pretty interesting new world building elements. I'll be curious to see how that plays in future novels.I'm now once again caught up on the series. I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next one on release day or once again save it for when I need a fun, light read, but I'll be picking it up either way.

Executive Summary: I struggled with this one at times, but ultimately found it as enjoyable as I probably could in the year 2020.Audiobook: Steven Pacey does his usual excellent job. Not all of the American Abercrombie books have had him as a narrator, but I was happy to see him used for this series. He does some voices and generally just reads in a way that gives the audio that extra something for me.Full ReviewI've largely been avoiding darker stories this year because there is enough darkness going on. So I didn't jump on this one right away given Mr. Abercrombie's tendency towards dark fantasy.There were parts of the book I found a bit slow. In particular, he used a literary style or technique in this book (not sure of the correct way to describe it) that I first encountered in [b:The Heroes 9300768 The Heroes (First Law World, #5) Joe Abercrombie https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375671200l/9300768.SY75.jpg 12879765]. I'm not sure if the novelty of it wore off, or if I generally cared less this time around but I found it kind of dragged a little by comparison.Much like his other books it can be difficult to have anyone to root for, since most of the characters tend to be pretty self-serving. If anything I'm rooting for Rikke, and I found her part of the story pretty enjoyable.Overall this was a solid entry in this series, and I'm looking forward to reading the next one. Hopefully the world is a lot less dark by the time it comes out.

Executive Summary: A decent lawyer/mystery/thriller story that I enjoyed more than the movie. I'll likely continue on in the series at some point.Audiobook: Adam Grupper does a really good job. I'd never heard of him before be he does some voices and reads with good inflections making him the kind of narrator that makes listening better than reading for me. I will say however the audio obviously comes from a CD because there are the tell tale audio cues for the end and beginning of a disc, often in the middle of a chapter. That could make it annoying at times, but at least they made it so the chapters were intact rather than simply ripping the CD to whatever breaks they originally had. Knowing how much time is left in a chapter is something I find very helpful and I hate it when older books aren't properly split.Overall I'd say the audio is a good choice and I'll likely try to get more of this series in audio if I can and (hopefully) with the same narrator.Full ReviewI was a huge fan of [a:John Grisham 721 John Grisham https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1583932591p2/721.jpg] growing up. He tends to write about lawyers fighting for the little guy standing up to big corporations or defending the innocent from injustice. Mickey Haller is a different kind of lawyer. I remember watching the movie awhile back and thinking it was good, but not great.I didn't realize that not only is Mickey Haller written by the same author as Harry Bosch (which I've also been reading lately) but apparently they are set in the same universe. Reading this book you never would know that either. I assume those connections come later on.It'd been so long since I've seen the movie I no longer remember any details beyond Matthew McConaughey played Haller. So for me it was a bit of a surprise as things unfolded. Mickey is likeable despite his clientele. He generally gets along with not one but two ex-wives. He's not going to win lawyer of the year, but he does care about doing the right thing. Just so long as he makes a buck while he's at it. The animosity with him and very cops did get a bit old at times though.Without getting into details, I felt that the ending of this was pretty elaborate. So it wasn't too surprising to me that they largely rewrote it for the movie. As is typical I liked the book better, but I thought both version were pretty enjoyable. I plan to revisit the Bosch series (which seems plagued with inconsistent narration) and will likely return to this series as well. I tend to like legal stories but I kind of got tired of Grisham awhile ago. If nothing else, these kinds of books are nice to break my usual habit of nothing but Sci-Fi and Fantasy books.

It was ok. I didn't love the “rating system” gimmick. The ending was fairly predictable. Some of the world building was interesting, but that's about it. I hope the other books from the Kickstarter will be better.

I'm generally a Michael Kramer fan, but he didn't feel like a great fit for this book. I'm not sure exactly why. His narration was fine.

Similarly, Kate Reading narration of the inserts was also fine.

A fun start to a new series. I was initially a bit disappointed his next book was this and not [b:Waybound 61397047 Waybound (Cradle, #12) Will Wight https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1662233493l/61397047.SY75.jpg 96861387], but now I know I have something else to look forward to once that concludes.This is definitely space fantasy and not really sci-fi at all. It has a similar feel to the cradle series in terms of pace and tone, but this borrows more from Star Wars, Kaiju movies and Sentai stories instead of shonen or wuxia stories. All things right up my alley.Travis Baldree once again does a great job with the narration. I've been reading Cradle in ebook (which is rare for me these days) but after doing older novels by Will Wight in audio, I'll pretty much be sticking with that format for the foreseeable future.

Executive Summary: Just as I was starting to really enjoy this book, it turned again and I was just happy to be done with it. That kind of sums up my feelings on the series as a whole too.

Audiobook: The audio is honestly the best part about this. It's fantastic. If you're going to do this book/series, audio is definitely the way to go. Once again you get a full cast, and their are fantastic.

Full Review
I wanted to like this series more, but it just kept letting me down. It's not bad, but based on how many people whose opinions I trust liked it, I expected to like it more. I'm not sure if it's because I'm too old to read this, or if I just fundamentally disagree with some of Mr. Pullman's ideas or what.

I was hoping/expecting a fun series. What I got instead was often frustrating and depressing. I'm not in the school of belief about sugarcoating everything for kids, but this almost seemed to shove the notion that life isn't fair down their throats. Unless you lie. Lying will get you ahead. This book did finally have some consequences for lying, but not nearly as much as their should be. It seems to glorify lying.

Oh and religion is awful and anyone who believes in it is awful too. I'm not even religious, but I have many friends who are, and they wouldn't be my friends if they weren't great people. The level of preaching present in the last two books ramped up to a whole other level.

The part that I liked the best was the middle, and the traveling to the land of the dead. I thought that was a really cool idea. This series had a lot of really cool ideas, but the execution of them just didn't work for me.

The book, like the series wasn't all bad, I think my high expectations played a role in my being pretty underwhelmed. I'm glad I finally read it, but it's not something I'm going to recommend people go out of their way to pick up.

I finally finished this book. It was very tough to read. If I wasn't already invested in the story and the characters from the previous 3 books, I would never have finished.

Most authors I've read seem to grow in their writing ability and style as they go on.

Paolini doesn't appear to have grown at all. I'm not sure if being so successful at such a young age went to his head or if he never went on to get a formal education in writing techniques or what.

His dialogue is just painful in places. I'm not sure if he's trying to dumb things down to a younger reader level or if he just can't write proper dialogue between adults. The book touches on very adult problems of love and loss. Of war and redemption, but the dialogue feels childish in most places.

I wouldn't recommend this book unless like me you want to see how it ends after already reading the previous books. I also wouldn't recommend this series as a whole to a new reader. There is a lot of better fantasy series out there that you should read instead.

Overall the series could have been much shorter. He goes off on tangents at several points in the 3rd and 4th books that don't seem to move the plot forward. This is often an issue with many fantasy books however.

I find it particularly frustrating here because despite all this extra pointless detail, he seems to leave a lot of things unanswered. I hope he doesn't plan to add a 5th book to the series, and that he simply wanted to leave some things to the reader's imagination. I feel like he could have explained a few things better while still accomplishing that however.

Read on if you want some more specific examples of problems with some light spoilers.

1. Roran is sent off to win some battle in place of another commander for a city that seems to have real point to the plot apart from growing Roran's reputation and to allow for him to be promoted to a Commander in the army.2. There is an over abundance of Dues Ex Machina. In particular Angela showing up and solving huge problems at critical moments. Angela's character is never sufficiently explained as to who she is or how she is able to do what she does. She mostly seems to be a plot device Paolini to write himself out of the corners he puts himself in. Another example is some mystery woman who shows up at a critical moment to save Roran from certain death who presence/background is never touched on.3. The complaint of Paolini's copying from popular works (LotR, Star Wars) is not a new one. I'd forgiven some/most of it as simply popular themes in fiction/fantasy (ie the poor young being thrust into a grand adventure with the mysterious mentor). But his ending is almost identical to the end of LotR. The battle against the great evil won, the heroes move on.

Another solid entry to this series. I wish we got some more answers in the book. There was some promising setup that made me think we'd be learning more than we actually did about the publishing company. There were also a few places where it felt like it could use some editing, but overall enjoyable.

The audiobook was really good as usual. Roger Wayne does a bunch of voices that make it easy to know who is talking and really adds that extra something to the book with his reading.

Executive Summary: This book has some good parts, and is enjoyable if you've gotten this far in the series, but in my opinion it's the weakest of the 7.Audio book: Not much to say about this that hasn't been said in my previous reviews really. George Guidall is a pretty good reader, but I still miss the voices of Eddie and Susannah that Frank Muller did.Mr. Guidall does have an excellent voice for the narration of the story, and Roland, probably better than Mr. Muller, but I find him lacking on the voices for all the rest of the characters.Full ReviewThis book is one of the shortest in the series, and it shows. It feels more like a transition and staging book for [b:The Dark Tower 5091 The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7) Stephen King http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348208581s/5091.jpg 6309701] that follows. By itself, I don't think it would stand up very well.Thankfully Mr. King released the final 3 books over the course of about 2-3 years, so I wasn't stuck waiting for the next volume quite so long as in the past (I waited 5+ years for [b:Wolves of the Calla 4978 Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5) Stephen King http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348608372s/4978.jpg 2754911]).I feel like very little happens in this book, and it's more about putting things into place. Maybe that's why it's so short. Of course some might disagree with my calling a 400 page book short.After the battle with the Wolves the Ka-tet is split, and most of the events in the book take place almost entirely in our own world.This book starts running rather than inching in the direction of what I would call Deus Ex Machina in most other books/series. It also gets incredibly Meta. For me however, it just works.The series builds on the idea of multiple worlds/universes/levels of the tower and Mr. King takes that to an extreme with this book.I can see this being polarizing. In fact my friend who read it recently was very upset by that part of the story, but I think it fits the story of the tower. Or is it just a story? Say true, and I say thank ya.