Heather

This is the beginning of a saga set in a fairly typical fantasy world - although there are a couple of surprises. Magic is shunned, and elves are both the enemy and a despised underclass. The two main characters are a pair of rogues who hire themselves out to nobles for odd jobs that nobody else can do. There's a real sense of camaraderie between them, as well as a constant but restrained sense of humor throughout the books.

This audiobook is really two books in one. The first book has a simple, predictable plot with overpowered main characters and two-dimensional villains...but it gets better. The second book picks up where the first left off, and now it really begins to shine. Details from the first book that seemed unimportant or incongruous come back and take on new meaning. The characters from the first book get more back story and personality. While I never quite lost the idea that I was listening to someone's RPG campaign, I ended up enjoying myself quite a lot. It's no grand literature, but what it is isn't bad - a bit like how fast food can hit the spot, but will never replace a fine meal.

Whoever called this "Jane Austen with swords" has evidently never read any Jane Austen.

I was halfway through the book before I found a storyline I cared to follow to the end. I'm giving the book as much of a chance as I can but I highly doubt it's one I'll want to re-read.

Austen is known for her wit and manners and sly social commentary.

There is nothing sly about this book; in fact, there is rather too much blatantly indecent. If your story doesn't grip the attention without sex, then it's a lousy story.

I read this series as a young adult and enjoyed it, so I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and listen to it again as an adult.

It's a rare genre that I have a soft spot for: a group of college-aged kids who roleplay together end up in the game for real, no longer playing characters but actually living their lives, with the knowledge and skills from their own lives. It's a pretty awesome idea - take your average teenager and give them the body and skills of Conan the Barbarian, or Merlin the Wizard, and you have an idea of what fun it could be. But that's not what this book is about. The fun is temporary - the book focuses on how flawed everything is - the world, its people, and even the main characters.

The characters in it are all flawed people. They're not BAD people, but they're also not without problems. The novel stresses the idea that people can grow out of childishness and into heroes. But in the meantime, you get a group of people who can be self-absorbed, petty, and rubbing against each other in the worst possible ways. There are love triangles, unresolved issues, and lots more going on behind the scenes.

The whole book is full of mistakes the characters make - some accidental, some caused by their personality quirks, some because they are seeking to become heroes - that cause bad things to happen to them, from losing their spellbooks right away to a main character dying to the girls getting raped. THIS BOOK IS DARK. Bad things happen to good people. It's not always the fault of the protagonists, but they usually contribute to it through naivete and mistakes. While the worst events take place off-screen, the effects aren't just brushed aside - the book dwells on them and how big events change people, and not always for the better.

The book gets better the more you read, but it can be slow going. The first chapter in particular was a little painful to listen to - it introduced each of the main characters as they went to their weekly gaming session. With a whole group to introduce, you can't really get to know any of them, so they ended up feeling like two-dimensional stereotypes. That may have been on purpose, though - as the characters go through strife and suffering in the fantasy world, we see them grow up and become more three-dimensional. And the heroes begin to realize that the fantasy world they are so eager to leave needs someone from our world to bring some badly needed enlightenment - at the point of a sword. Thus beginning a series.

In terms of writing style and reader performance, both were a bit lacking at first. The reader had to speak dozens of different voices from different genders, ages, and races, and did a fine job of keeping them all separate and distinct, yet some of them sounded a little too comical. However, as the story went on, I began to notice this less and less. In terms of literary quality - well, this is no great American novel, but the writing style isn't horrid, either. While it is tough to get through the first two chapters, and while the group still seems selfish and childish halfway through the book, it all starts to seem worth it once the group meets the dragon halfway through the book. Then, the book takes the rug from beneath your feet, and changes everything in the last chapters of the book.

This is a book about growing up, about losing your innocence, and about redefining what heroism means. It's also a book about roleplaying rules, roleplaying groups and roleplaying quests. if you're not into fantasy or you're not into roleplaying games, I'd suggest giving this a pass. But if you're into roleplaying games, especially tabletop ones, and if you've ever wondered what it would be like to travel back in time or into your favourite movie, this could be the book for you.

Sapphire Blue has an interesting premise: a teenage girl grows up knowing that her snobby cousin is going to be the last in a line of 12 time travelers, only to discover that -she- is the one with the gift. Now she has to learn about history, join a secret society, hide her powers to see ghosts, and decide how she feels about the handsome, charming young man who is the only other time traveler around in her day and age. Meanwhile, all is not what it seems - could there be a traitor? What is the mystery of the 12? And who is trying to kill her?

It was interesting enough to make me listen to this one and then buy the sequel. However, you should be warned: neither this book, nor the sequel 'Ruby Red' have a conclusive ending. You'll need to read the whole trilogy to get closure to the story and find out all the mysteries. That in itself is a problem for me, but not an insurmountable one.

The writing is good, but sometimes it feels like the story is going nowhere. I got the impression that the book was designed for young adults; certainly, listening to the protagonist sorting out her feelings and showing off her ignorance makes me think that. It is, however, not annoying to listen to as an adult.

The reader isn't bad, and has distinct voices for all the main characters, but sometimes secondary characters sound very similar. This can be a problem at times when they are having a conversation - I did occasionally have a little confusion over who was speaking, but it was not a big part of the novel.

All in all, I liked the book and the reader, but can only recommend it with some reservations. Go into it with your eyes open and you'll enjoy it!

I enjoyed Swarm a great deal. It wasn't a perfect novel, but it had a quality that is hard to find these days - it gave me that "just one more chapter" feeling.

The good: Many books have a main character who ends up being crucial to the fate of the world. This is such a book. But Swarm does a good job of actually explaining it, and making it seem plausible, without making its protagonist superhuman. As he explored the heartless AI that had taken him prisoner, the main character's attempts to figure things out and musings about what was going on mirrored my own. There is a definite back story going on, an incredible plot that is hinted at, but that does not quite take shape in this book. Good thing it's only book one, because I want to know more! That being said, there's also a definite (and somewhat happy) ending.

The characters seem interesting - nobody is a cardboard cutout villain, and although we don't get to know most characters very well, most seem interesting. Mark Boyett does a great job of making them come to life with different voices and accents, and I'd be happy to listen to another novel narrated by him.

There is conflict in the book, and consequences. Things are rarely black or white in the novel; instead, the author takes pains to show shades of grey, both morally (sometimes there are no right choices) and with decisions (sometimes the main character fails and sometimes people die because of him). There are also surprises in the book - I was caught off guard a couple times by directions I did not expect the book to go. Even the ending caught me off guard, and set up a wildly different book 2.

The bad: Swarm can be a pretty dark book. As mentioned, lots of people die in the novel, including several because of the protagonist's choices. His own teenaged children die in chapter 2, and while it happens quickly and moves the plot along, it was still darker than I'd have preferred. There is talk of extinction, murder, and a vague hint of rape (not by the main character). At times I found this off-putting.

In addition, the book is a book about events and ideas, not about people. Few people get much fleshing out in the novel, which makes the romance between the main character and an unlikely passenger seem slightly forced. It also seems like some of the angst that ought to be in such a dark book is skimmed over a little too quickly, although not horribly so. The new technologies described in the book are also not covered in much depth, although that's not always a bad thing - lacking a science background myself, I often find hard sci-fi to be trying a little too hard. Swarm was at least internally self-consistent, and often had good reasons for its powers and limitations.

Finally, Swarm changed directions. At the very beginning, it was an adventure, but quickly became a puzzle in which the main character had to figure things out, which I loved. But then it became a science fiction war novel where the protagonist fought side by side with marines against giant robots and talked about politics and logistics. While a great read, I wasn't expecting it (maybe I should have been, though).

All in all, Swarm was a great book, one that was gripping and plausible, but also a little dark and gritty. If you like books about war and solving puzzles, have I got the series for you!

I had such a good time listening to this that I was actually looking for chores to do as an excuse to spend more time listening! The reader does an excellent job; I could listen to her read Lord McCann's lines for ages. No, she doesn't sound like such a physically powerful man but I could never have reproduced his brogue myself and for that alone I'd be happy to sing the praises of this book. Fortunately, there's much more to rejoice in. Alexia is a wonderful character and such a nice change from young, ignorant and indecisive heroines. The plot lines hum along well, never overshadowing each other so that you get a wonderful blend of romance and action and not so much the "romance with a little action thrown in randomly" that some books do.

Fair warning, this book has some spicy scenes! Well done though and (more importantly to me) not over-done.

I enjoyed this book so much I very nearly started listening again the moment it was finished. I decided to get the next book instead. I can't wait!

Lord McCann: "Under the circumstances, I really must insist you call me Connell."

Lord McCann. She was great with Alexia and Lord Fop Vampire With The Name That Begins With "A" but I loved rogue-ish, gruff, broug-ish Lord McCann the most.

I finished it hours ago and I still feel like laughing.

If you were a kid in the 80s, this book was custom made for you. If not, you'll still enjoy it if you're a geek, but the references might be hard to get.

On the surface, it's about a dystopian future in which a combination of resource scarcity and freely available internet have led to an impoverished United States, but once you start into it, you discover that it's really about the world inside the internet, and all the nerdy references you can possibly fit into a book - all narrated by Wil Wheaton.

The plot is straightforward: a Bill Gates-like founder of the future's internet has died and left his entire, multibillion-dollar fortune (and controlling stake in his company) to any person who can find the "Easter Egg" left behind in the software. To find it, millions of people have read up on the founder's diary, detailing all the many 1980s things he was in love with, from movies such as War Games or Star Wars to roleplaying games to Saturday morning cartoons to video games - so many video games. The main character starts out as an obsessive 'grail hunter' in search of this Easter Egg...and who suddenly finds himself the object of interest when he finds a clue, for the first time in over 5 years of the contest.

The plot has some surprising twists at times, entangling both the virtual world and the real one, and introduces a number of interesting characters. Even in the climax of the book, we were still wondering if there was another surprise yet to come. Well worth the money for us!

Writing was so heavy handed I couldn't bear it. It has all of the horror and desperation but none of the wit of "The Dresden Files."

This is a textbook turned into an audiobook...badly.

Unfortunately, the narrator tends to read fairly quickly, while this sort of subject demands some time to think about it. Worse, there is no pause between sections, so you may go from one idea to the title of a second and then the second idea all without seemingly taking a breath. The result was a lot of pausing and rewinding.

The content itself seemed interesting, but I found the format hard to follow. This would have been better as a textbook, I think.

Along comes this great series. I know it's been out awhile but we just discovered it this year. It made the two-hour trip from home to babysitter and work bearable - almost a joy, even, because I'd hate having to stop once I got to the office. The story and characters are interesting and innovative (treating dragons almost like navy ships!) and the reader does an excellent job with accents and making each character's voice distinct.