Adnan

This story has a potential to become a very high quality epic fantasy. One of the great things about the book is that events take place at a very rapid pace and story moves very fast. I thought that author would spend a lot of time at certain points, but story moved on to next chain of events which was surprising.

Narrator did a great job, and I hope the same narrator is used for future books by same author.

Author builds the world carefully, and provides a lot of details. One of the interesting aspect of the story is the handling of elf which are pretty much are second class citizen in human society.

I didnt enjoy a story about thieves as much since 'lies of locke lamora'. Book has pretty good sense of humor and just the right amount of dark.

The struggle between wizard and a religious order is very interesting and it is not entirely clearly which one is less brutal.

I highly recommend this book for reader looking for good epic fantasy.

There is not best way to review it without comparing to the first book. First book started with the selection of youth to participate in hunger games which is shocking, and grabs on to reader’s attention. Second book however starts with the president having interest in Katniss. This topic takes up a good chunk of time in book sometimes being redundant.

Also, Katniss’ character does not seem to be as self assured confident young lady as we have come to know her in first book.

Story moves on to how her act of defiance for her love actually sparked a rebellion. President, in effort to crush the rebellion, tries to crush the symbols of rebellions which are represented by previous winners of hunger games.

So eventually, there are another set of hunger game involving all previous winners. There is a good time spent discussing clothing / make up / tv commercials .. etc. The games themselves do not seem to hold the same sense of life ending seriousness as the first book. In fact, there is a time when participants seem to be having a picnic during the game.

One of the weaknesses of the book is that it is mostly told from Katniss’ perspective. In first book it worked out ok, but stage is bit bigger in this book and book does not provide enough perspective from other characters that are taking significant actions. Therefore, at times, a lot of event that already took place just come to reader's attention when Katniss character learns of them. It is ok, but it seems a bit hand wavy strategy in author’s part.

Narration is acceptable at best. This book would have been great in Kate Reading’s voice that Carolyn depiction of Katniss does not seem to convey the range of emotions that author trying to convey. Worse yet, other characters’ portrayal sometimes seem cartoonish.

This is a 3 star book as a whole.

This is the last and best book of the series. Book starts with Drizzt living in cave trying to make sense of an alien environment. At this point, reader knows enough about the character to really understand how one might feel and experience when face with such circumstances. Author did a great job of actually going through a lot of detail about how surface / light / environment impacted Drizzt. A small thing such as weather change, which we might take for granted, was not well understood by Drizzt.

Since a reader could feel for the character, book provides a great sense of adventure as if reader itself is walking out to the world for the first time. For seasoned readers, it is a sense that does not easily achieved and I really appreciated it.

Once somewhat comfortable with his new environment, Drizzt tries to establish relationships which really back fires. These attempts and his appearance / race lends him in trouble. There underline theme of pre-conceptions people have and how they are quick to judge based on appearance.

His attempts to establish relationships eventually bare fruits, and his adventure continues in a different direction.

All in all, this is a good book with a great sense of adventure. Narration seems correct for this type of book, and story zips along at a brisk pace. It is a good 3.5 to 4 star book. I liked the book enough that I will be picking up the next book from the author about the character.

This is the second book in the series, and book begins with Drizzt's exile where he has chosen to exile himself due to differences with his family as well as drow society in general. Time away from any social interaction takes a deep toll on Drizzt's psyche which is discussed in a lot of detail. Author continue to flush out the character, and readers gets to know Drizzt at a deeper level. His thought process, his principles and decision making is been discussed in more details that book is more focused on Drizzt than his environment.

Book introduces new races and their cultures which provide more contrast to the drow society. Drizzt's interaction with these races provides good action and entertainment. Drizzt's friendship explored in this book also provides good depth that it is put to test as dark elves hunt Drizzt to appease their deity.

Narration is the same as the first book. Though, not the best, It is well done and does add to the experience.

I find this book to be better written and more enjoyable than the first one, so I recommend this book. I look forward to pick up the next book when it is out.

It is a quick easy listen with intriguing concept. The story is about a dark elf (Drizzt) upbringing in a society that seems to have a lot of unique elements. Story arcs around the struggle between various leading houses. Each house is led by a female cleric. This society seems to be dominated by females where males sometimes thought of as less capable and usually subservient to their female family members.
The struggle between the houses is not about a throne, but it is about being favored by their deity. Back stabbing between houses is actually promoted as long as it is done with certain precision. In general, it is described to be a very paranoid and cynical society. Drizzt growing up in this environment struggle with his inner voice and expectations from his family and society.
Book has enough elements to keep things very interesting from over all story perspective, but a lot of hack and slash along with strange dialogue between characters keep the book less than great. For instance, a female who use to be in leadership position will not have to put male in their place all the time. I would suspect a command would simply be accepted as a matter of fact.
Also, book lacks any sense of humor which is understandable that story takes place in a very dark and in an alien environment.
Narrator does a good enough job here. Narration is at the edge of being too dramatic, but it is tolerable. Overall, I enjoyed the book and I will pick up the next one to see where the overall story takes us. It is a good book, but not a great one. Recommend picking the book up when waiting for your favorite authors to complete their book :)

Book is entertaining, but it is not as focused on the demon war as the title indicates. In my opinion, things didn’t progress much until 7 hours left in the whole book where before it was about the political intrigue and cultural, religion, and cultural differences. It was interesting for little while, but then it became repetitive. I think that book could have been shorter by 5 hours or so. Also, I do not sense the scope of this book as large as it could have been that story discusses few cities. I didn’t get a sense that demons were a global threat (honest word).

On the positive side, it is well written, and narrated. Characters been flushed out and reader gets to know about them and their families (who sometimes do not add much to the story).

Fighting with demons seems to get organized from both cultures, and there is a slew of new type of powers / methodologies to fight the demons which keeps things interesting.
Readers do get to know a bit more about demons, but the book is mostly dominated by humans and not much more is learned about the demons. I feel that author missed an opportunity here that book would have been much better if demon hierarchy / methodologies / goals were discussed in more detail.

Both contenders to be the 'deliverer' finally meet on the last 30 mins of the book and then book has an abrupt ending leaving reader slightly disappointed.

Overall, it is entertaining, and I will read the next book in this saga; however, at best it is a 4 star book that narrator did a great job.

Technical details initially descried in this book about various algorithm / sw development / hw / hacking of phones .. etc are very well researched. I was very impressed how well author is able convey the information to the reader while still making it interesting. I can get into details, but it will get boring : )

Character development is great that user will get to know the main characters and their motivations by the end of the book. Book is pretty fast paced even with technical details it remains interesting. I would describe the story as very plausible fiction.

My only gripe (which is really minor) about the book is that antagonist were not as well defined as I would have liked. Mostly it felt like “they are pulling the strings”, “They are causing this”. Again, it is a very minor gripe.

Narration works well in the context of this book which has a military overtone.

I enjoyed the book, and I will be looking to pick up other books by Daniel Suarez that I am very impressed with the researched put into this book

I found this book to be very entertaining from several aspects. First, it is a really good thriller as well as a good detective book. Second, it provides some insight into the Danish/Swedish culture. Though not the same quality, this book does have similarities to the books by Stieg Larson. Book does provide some sense of humor.

The story about the abuse, mental anguish and then revenge is very human as well as very touching. There are not many innocent characters in this book, even the victim are not all that innocent which makes this book very interesting.

Steven Pacey is one of my favorite narrators and he did an excellent job here as well.

I would recommend this book, and I can’t wait for the next book to arrive on audible.

Story starts with a dwarf's (Tungdil) journey to complete a chore a wizard assigns to him (Sounds familiar?) Tungdil who is also raised by the wizard from birth knows nothing of his own kin and very curious. This aspect of the story leads into how human perceived dwarves as well as the self image of the dwarves. Tungdil, incidentally, also turns out to be an important player to resolve succession issue within the dwarfish politics. Book is a translation, but it does seem to go through a lot of details of how dwarves might interact and govern themselves as well as their long animosity against elves.

Story has a pretty evil antagonist and turns out that Tungil is the character who is willing to work purely to defeat the evil without any concerns about his own gains. Eventually another journey of adventures takes place to rid of the evil. Party consists of interesting and mysterious characters. Sense of humor is great and delivered expertly by the narrator. Over all though it is pretty standard adventure in the scheme of different books.

Only gripe I had is that in the counsel of dwarves, they knew who the schemer was, but they took no action to stem his action and schemer keep on going about his business. I find that difficult to believe and frustrating to otherwise well written story.


I would pick up the next book in series due to entertainment of how dwarves interacted with each other. Especially the twins : )

This book is entertaining like the previous four books; however, style and story lines are pretty much the same here. This book is probably more entertaining due to narrator that it would be otherwise. The voice of the hound is very well done once again. Iron Druid again mocking a powerful being and running around to avoid the repercussions of his previous actions.

There are couple of problems for me in this series. First, story pretty much told from a single character's perspective lacking others point of view. Most folks who use to reading more sophisticated fantasy books would notice the lack of perspectives from other characters.

Second, Iron druid seems to be either too powerful or other players in the book (including major deities from various myths) are not putting their powers to good use which basically is the symptom of the first problem. I cant help but think that this is fantasy equivalent of fast food that it does not seem to have a lot of substance

Regardless, it is an entertaining book and I burned through it in few days. I would recommend this book, and would happily pick up the next installment.

The best thing about this book is that it treads closer to first law series, and it almost seems that Joe is setting up next trilogy of first law. I could go into details, but that would give things away : )

Like most of his semi 'stand alone' books outside of first law, the premise of this book is simple one as well. Though it may look like it is a revenge story, but it is story about rescue more than anything. If there is blood on the way, so be it.

The setting of the book is of a western but writing remains sharp and edgy. Couple of gripes : ) One, Inquisition is not as top of their game as they have been in past. Also, book has a theme of 'old' where everyone seems to be on the wrong side of age and seem to be reflecting a lot about their younger days.
One the positive side however, when come down to action, most of these characters are top of their game and execute expertly. It makes me think, where does Joe gets these life lessons for his characters? Because some of them are very funny and insightful.


There is violence as one can expect, but in this setting, it comes natural. Writing is witty as well, and I laughed outright on several occasions. A lot of it has to do with Steven Pacey's delivery, and it is match made in audio book heaven. I wish Steven narrate all Joe's book. He does an excellent job once again.

My 5 star rating criteria is that book would made me want to take the long route or even wish to get stuck in traffic. People can compare Joe's previous work with this book all they want, this book is 5 star book.