Brad

Mistborn was the best fantasy book I’ve read in a long time. I’ve have been slowly moving away from the genera for a while because the best stuff seemed to me, to be coming out for teens and although good, always left me feeling ultimately unfulfilled. This book basically bonked me on the head and made me realize I was just not looking hard enough. It made me remember how a completely made up world of fantasy could speak to my sense of hope, fear, righteous anger, fellowship, and awe like no other medium. I’ve not read other reviews on this book and its reader but if you are wondering if your next credit is safe being spent on this book, I would say resoundingly YES!

I loved this series! The first book in most series is usually the best because its all a mystery. You get to uncover your heroes, your villains, your basic story. Books that follow have a hard time bringing new terrifying twists to the characters, the plot, and the outlook on success. Each book in this series uncovers more of the creepy vision laid out by the master. You even learn of his origins and realize the hope of defeating him is ... bleak. Especially by a sympathetic but flawed meager human. Between the human blood camps, the hero exterminator, the ancient professor with a to the death mission, and finally the reveal of your fallen angel so addicted to human blood he tries to reshape the earth to satiate himself, this series is one of the best. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

***Spoilers***** I enjoy killing time reading about vampires and zombies. This first book had elements of a zombie apocalypse beginning, only a lot more creepy. Ron Pearlman's narration was fun to me. I see what other reviewers mean when they say he has strange rhythm and can see how that turned some of them off. I always have to adjust to new readers and with Ron, after adjusting I felt his performance really added to the creepy factor. When the dead start coming to life I'm thinking, ok zombie minions or something. It was a harsh realization that these are not zombies but bada$$ vampires with a couple new tricks up their sleeves. If you are a fan of the genre, read this series. You won't be disappointed.

Oh and if you don't like Ron, the next two books are a different narrator and seem to be better received by folks. I enjoyed them too.

I believe if you listen to this book you will not rank it in your all time best but most won't feel it was a waste. I like some of the characters but others I felt deserved more attention. I felt the narrator did a good job and would listen to other books by him. My general feeling was that the author was kind of exploring the space and that his books will only improve from here. If you like this period in time I am not sure all of it is 100% accurate but you did feel some of the limitations of criminology in the time as well as the burgeoning of scientific method in the craft. That part was fun as the author worked through how discussions and methodology might have worked in the time. I just felt there was more creative license then research in some of the choices made by the author than I usually like in this type of book.

I would read this author again.

The Narrator has a very sexy southern accent (IMO). The elemental magic is cool and looked at in a new way. The characters are larger then life and its a fast exciting read. This is the exact book I like to take me out of my history or other 40+ hour audible books. There isn't a deep dive into how the magic works or complex relationships. Its direct, action packed, and diverting as I do house work. I recommend it as long as this is your genera because you get exactly what you'd expect in a 10 hour magic assassin book. Plus there are 7 books so you can intersperse them between your other reads to mix things up.

As you read this you will just keep saying I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this before. Warring cannibal tribes in a hidden valley, tragic airplane crash with surviving barefoot bombshell and two men, one gravely injured. Can’t land a plane, can't get there with helicopters, constant threat of Japanese, what do you do? Put together a MacGyver inspired rescue plan involving an industrial rubber band and a glider. OMG, are you kidding me? This story was awesome!

I should say this is a very real story, with real people and real tragedy. I don't mean to make light of those aspects but it is really hard not do gravitate to the fantastical nature of the headlines this had to have generated in its day.

For me this is one of those books that I will forever regret not listening to when a friend first recommended it. I guess I was hesitant because while I like history, the idea of listening to the story of a single cathedral being built wasn’t very attractive to me. Now I think back about those preconceived notions and see where my imagination was so far off from the actual story.

Yes, the book does use the cathedral as the center piece of the story. The true art of the book is how the author makes the building of the cathedral relevant to characters in the story, to the economics of the day, to the families, the culture and ultimately to a modern reader. It was that interweaving of culture, humanity, and technology that was so appealing to the historical explorer in me while at the same time keeping me truly invested with both the heart warming and heart wrenching. Each character’s connection to the cathedral is unique and each character is very well developed. The author was able to help me identify with a code of humanity and ethics that is timeless even though the culture and technology was so different.

I constantly questioned if the effort was worth it. The building of the cathedral is threatened multiple times, but beyond the building itself it is the belief in family, community, charity, and ethics that is so very difficult in the face of adversity. The characters are flawed much as in today’s world and constantly have to choose where to stand with their beliefs as they face life and death decisions. By the end of the book I cheered for the heroes because they were real to me and I felt like it was my community or rather my cathedral in the end.

Hounded is the introductory book to the series of Atticus. A modern day Druid who has managed to stay alive through the centuries by relentless adaptation to the times and situations he finds himself. It was a quick listen, the narrator was top notch, and I like the way Atticus stays true to himself and his close friends. He combines his unique Druidic form of magic with his sense of humor to fight the old gods only after he’s exhausted every way possible of avoiding conflict altogether. He is a wonderful modern day fantasy reluctant hero.

The world created in this book is fun and irreverent. It is not a romance novel dressed up like fantasy, even through there are vampires, werewolves, fairies, and witches. Those type of books have their place but it is nice to have more adventure then relationship angst. Don’t get me wrong there are romantic interests but they just add to the fun of the adventure and are not the focus of the book necessarily. OH and I am also in love with his dog. I recommend this book and believe I have found a new series to follow for a long time to come.

If you like spy novels, or industrial espionage, or discussion of important historical turning points you will love this book. Sarah Rose blended these aspects of her story perfectly and I could not stop listening. The story was so good I have been recommending it to my friends who usually stick with fiction because they have never been able to get into history with its often dry recitation of dates and un-relatable characters. I've gotten two thank you's from friends who decided to give it a try and were just as amazed as I was. This type of book is rare and I hope like heck I can find others like it.

This book is amazingly fun and I marveled at the way the author took so many technologies just a little bit further to make them tactical and strategic weapons in the hands of his villain.

Regarding the performance of the reader he will take some getting used to. Ultimately I enjoyed his rhythm and voices though. He made the actions and reactions of the characters seem like the narrations of a real life news story and that added immensely to the intensity.