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Indexing  By  cover art

Indexing

By: Seanan McGuire
Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
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Publisher's summary

"Never underestimate the power of a good story."

Good advice…especially when a story can kill you.

For most people, the story of their lives is just that: the accumulation of time, encounters, and actions into a cohesive whole. But for an unfortunate few, that day-to-day existence is affected - perhaps infected is a better word - by memetic incursion: where fairy tale narratives become reality, often with disastrous results.

That's where the ATI Management Bureau steps in, an organization tasked with protecting the world from fairy tales, even while most of their agents are struggling to keep their own fantastic archetypes from taking over their lives. When you're dealing with storybook narratives in the real world, it doesn't matter if you're Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or the Wicked Queen: no one gets a happily ever after.

Indexing is New York Times best-selling author Seanan McGuire’s new urban fantasy where everything you thought you knew about fairy tales gets turned on its head.

©2013 Seanan McGuire (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Indexing

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Boring

I agree with Trudy Owens and I too could not finish the book, although for me that is not a rarity. I found the book boring and too Detectivey. I grew interested in McGuire/Mira Grant through her short stories in Doziers, best of year series. I can not get excited about her longer works.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The X-Files meets Grimm meets Law and Order

I got caught up in my life, so Indexing took me by surprise when I saw it on the Audible homepage on Tuesday.

Narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal.

And I was like, Toby Day and Henrietta (Henry!!) Marchen* cannot have a similar voice, that would be weird.

But it wasn't that weird after a while. In fact, I kind of like it. Kowal's familiar hard-boiled cadence transported my brain into a similar, but entirely new, world.

Imagine the most powerful magical force in the universe was a neutral, non-corporeal non-entity that existed to do nothing but complete fairytales over and over again with whoever was handy. Now imagine that in order to combat the ever-invasive narrative (think of it as kudzu!), there's a government agency called the ATI - a little like the X-Files!

Every person has the potential to be drawn into the Narrative. Every fairytale has an index number, every tale is indexed and classified. And everyone, absolutely everyone, who has been drawn into the Narrative, is watched for the rest of their lives. Because when fairytales activate... there's a lot of collateral damage. There's no such thing as a real Ever After, or when there is, it's not good.

Indexing is a compilation of serial novellas, much like McGuire's "Velveteen Vs." series. I found the beginning to be very thrilling. It lagged a little in the middle, but picked right back up at the end again. I didn't realize it was a serial until afterwards, so parts of it felt extremely disjointed, and I was wondering if I just kept missing parts (I didn't!)

The thing I most love about McGuire's more recent work is her easy inclusion of LGBT characters. It always feels natural in her word, as natural as the magic that drives the plot.

Can't wait for the next one :)

*Loving the continued feminine full name with a masculine nickname trend. LOVE IT.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Clever Urban Fantasy

“Indexing” is entertaining, but the storyline is similar to TV series such as “The X-Files” and “Warehouse 13”. Federal agents attempt to solve mysteries and keep the public oblivious to the dangers.

The book is clever and provides different explanations on the meaning of Fairy Tales. There are moments when solving Fairy Tale crimes was ingenious. Unfortunately, my favorite story “The Three Little Pigs” was not included and I have always suspected those pigs were up to more than just home construction.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Episodic Due to Original Publication as a Serial

I had known that this was originally sold on Amazon as part of their serial program. I wasn't interested because I don't like getting stories in dibs and dabs. I want it all at once. So when I saw the Audible version at a good price I bought it. (Hope no one in marketing decides that the world wants serial Audible books.)

The serial structure though as made this into an episodic story as the author tried to make each segment a satisfying story while encouraging readers to keep going. I'm not sure she was successful with this although I did enjoy listening to the entire book. It just felt a bit choppy and she ended up introducing a potentially important character near the conclusion.

Not my favorite McGuire but worth listening to. Mary Robinette Kowal as usual does an outstanding job with the narration.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

For McGuire Fans only

Would you try another book from Seanan McGuire and/or Mary Robinette Kowal?

I've listened to all of the Toby Daye books (by this combination of author/narrator), and generally speaking, it's a combination that works well (except for some inconsistent pronunciation).

If you’ve listened to books by Seanan McGuire before, how does this one compare?

Though not my favourite series of books, I much prefer Toby Daye to Indexing - though the combination of bureaucracy and magic appeals to me, there just just something flat about the execution of the story here.

Any additional comments?

This was originally released as part of the Kindle Serials program, and this fact does account for the repeated information (several facts are introduced and reintroduced and reintroduced) - it doesn't grate as much when you listen to it spread out over a period, but if you listen to the whole thing in quick succession, it can seem a little like an endless loop.

My suggestion - listen to one episode/case of this at a time.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

slow progress, little action, less character

I quit this book (a rarity for me, no matter how bad the book) because it just wasn't interesting. The premise is intriguing, but it was too plodding to captivate. I felt no connection with the characters, and didn't really care to find out what happened to them. Others have liked it, so it's hard to say who will.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Original and Entertaining

I liked this book a lot. I wanted to give it 5 stars but in the end I couldn't quite do it. The story is very original, the characters well developed, and I found the performance added to the book even more (though people who have issues with women doing men's voices may disagree). Unfortunately it is a difficult story to pull off. The rules of the world seem to always be changing making it difficult to keep up. By the end I had to just listen and see how it ended. So while it kept me engrossed in the story it left me feeling a little frustrated so I had to drop it to 4 stars.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting Premise

Henrietta Marchen works for the ATI, a branch of the government that keeps fairytales from turning our world inside out. With the help of her team, they respond to incidents of stories ready to burst through and go full Grim on us.

The characters came across as very realistic inside the world McGuire built. I love Sloan. Love. Her. Who wouldn't? She's an honest to goodness wicked sister who says all the things we'd like to come Monday morning. Just don't eat the donuts she brings to the office.

Following the world build is easier if you don't think about it too hard. If you want to get all logical about fairytale incursions, be my guest. I chose not to. What I did care for was that in the beginning when the author would switch from 1st person pov, where the investigation took place, to third person POV, to let the reader in on what was happening inside the fairytale in progress, the time lines didn't flow like they should.

I don't care for stories that shift between 1st and 3rd, and I also don't like shifting back and forth between timeframes. The process was choppy at the beginning, but smoothed out toward the end, developing a pattern that made sense and stayed in the 'right' order. I wondered why the front didn't match, but finding out the book began as a serialized story explains much. I made up with the 1st to 3rd shifts, as they do serve a really good purpose and, toward the end, were accomplished to better effect. I still wonder why the entire story hasn't been better edited.

Seeing the improvement though, I would pick up the next book.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

innovative adult faery tale-Unlike Any Other

The “Indexing” by Seanan McGuire is truly an innovative story. A must read-to clear your pallet of the “same-o, same-o” books on the shelf. Refreshing and defining new tale that must be told. Great Job! I recommend it highly.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Why did I ever choose story?

This is the first Audible book I could not listen to thru to the end...I tried twice. The charters act, talk and dialog like pre-teens with fowl mouths to make them seem a bit older...Maybe? Could be an interesting premise, but there is not much to the story, and the characters are just so poorly developed, it is painful.
The narrator does as good a job as anyone could. The author on the other hand might win the middle school writing prize, but then again, might not.
Sorry. I wanted to like it. Hope I save you the chore of listening to this one!

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3 people found this helpful