Cayce

I've read quite a lot of OSC and I have to disagree with a lot of the reviewers. I found this one really dragged for me. The characters were interesting, as was the story, but there were endless conversations about the intricacies of time travel with the same concepts repeated over and over. I would have found the book moved much more quickly without that. If you read time travel books, you know there are paradoxes and you simply suspend those in your head and keep reading. I felt like he was trying to justify the physics of time travel with these repeated conversations and it just got in the way for me.

In addition (like many have mentioned), the narration was a mess. No individual narrator was bad, but there was no flow from character to character. It was like whoever happened to be in the studio that day did the narration. Very disjointed.

I'm not moving on to the next in this series.

I enjoyed the first book quite a lot and had high hopes for this one, but the story really bogged down a couple of times. Felurian, the sexy fairy section, went on forever. I felt like I was reading someone's fantasy. I don't like romance novels and the endless descriptions of their encounters really slopped over into that genre.

The Adem mercenaries chapters were also long and tedious by the end of them. And their world just seemed contrived. I'm no prude, but again I found the "you can have sex with anyone and there is no emotional consequences or pregnancy" aspect of their culture a little too much like every man's fantasy. I don't like to be taken out of a story by the voice of the author and I felt like that was what was happening.

All that said, I will probably listen to the last one when it comes out. There's enough interesting going on that I want to know what happens, but I was a bit disappointed and felt the book could have been better with a judicious edit.

I had basically given up on fantasy after spending 6 months on The Wheel of Time and finding nothing after that that I enjoyed. I decided to try this based on the reviews and I'm so glad I did. This is great old school fantasy with wonderfully turned out characters, a real story and lots of surprises tossed in. This is not a warmed over version of every other fantasy story ever written. And (yea!) it's not a coming of age story. Nothing wrong with a good one of those, but it's over done in this genre. In fact, the characters are adults with adult problems, strengths and foibles.

The only problem I have with this series is I want more.

They're totally back in this book after a less than wonderful prior installment (I skipped Cemetery Dance because it didn't seem to move the story forward). We finally get some background on Pendergast and his wife (who we'd only heard snippets about) and more on him in general. Aside from that it was an edge of your seat type of story and while a bit out there (they all are though, right?), I found it plausible in the telling.

So, if you're into the series, this installment won't disappoint.

I love the Pendergast books and I applaud them for their creativity in moving the series to different locals to keep it fresh, but this one didn't quite reach the level for me that others in the series have. It was entertaining, but felt like a side trip from everything we've gone through with Pendergast to date. There are a few important bits that move the story forward, but mostly it's a standalone story.

I know everyone doesn't agree, but after listening to Scott Brick's Pendergast, Rene Auberjonois was a disappointment. It appears I should get used to it, because he seems to be narrating the books now, but it's just not the same for me.

While definitely a follow up to Dance of Death, this book does bring us a measure of completion on the story of Pendergast and Diogenes. I really like these books and have listened to them back to back. This one started a little slow for me, but didn't disappoint as I moved to the meat of it.

This is not a standalone book if you really want to have a good sense of what's going on.

I love the Pendergast books, as many others do, but this one has been my favorite so far. To begin to get to the bottom of his family history that has only been hinted at in other books is riveting. There's much left to learn and I finished this one a few minutes ago and am already moving to the next one.

Do yourself a favor and read this series if you're looking for a good long term story. While you can read many of them as standalones, it's worth meeting and understanding the people who recur over the books. You won't be disappointed!

I absolutely love Karin Slaughter and as an Atlanta resident it's particularly interesting to read her take on the area. The history lesson in this one also contained some big surprises for me.

I dinged one for the performance because the narrator kept mispronouncing (for the Atlanta pronunciation) one of the largest streets in the city (Ponce de Leon). Someone should have caught that.

Otherwise, absolutely wonderful to hear Amanda's history!

I enjoyed this book and the story, but I must admit I would have liked it better if it had been just a tad shorter. There was a fair amount of repetition in the middle, although it was summed up nicely in the end.

I'm not typically critical of long books - I've been a big fan of several 30+ hour ones, but both of the books by Mr. McCammon had the same drawback for me. He's very clever and his stories thorough and well thought out. I just think a lot of the world/character building part of the narrative gets a little long. I will probably read more of his work, but that will be my hesitancy when it comes to jumping right back in.

Unless I know something is a classic, I rarely read anything as old as this. But I must say, I'm glad I did. As others have said, given the subject matter, the time it was written is not really relevant. If the world as we know it ends (not a spoiler, btw, since the book opens on this scene), then the things we've come to expect in the 21st century are gone anyway.

While I thought it was a little long, I never wanted to stop listening and I grew very attached to the characters and the outcome. It's a book that makes one consider whether we would devolve into chaos and hatred if we were forced to fend for ourselves or if good would also emerge. Probably a bit of both, but you'll definitely find yourself thinking about it.

Well worth a listen.

As an avid thriller listener and reader (I have over 400 titles in my audible library and I would say 65% or so are thrillers), I'm a bit embarrassed that I'm just now listening to Harlan Coben. This was a great listen. Even though I figured it out before the end, there were still twists and turns that kept me interested until the book was finished.

I also love Scott Brick's narration - he's one of my favorites. I never feel like he gets in the way of the story and his emphasis always seems spot on.

I'm off to find another Harlan Coben!