Green

--and Necrolocutors, temples, ships, self-mutilation, violence, love, and more!

The fantasy world that Jay Lake depicts in Green is vivid enough, with gods, myths, different cultures, races, and sentient species. It's a medieval world in which some cultures use some steam and gunpowder, a religious world in which people may become gods and gods may answer prayers or even be killed, a magical world of ghosts and spells to extend life. The themes, concerning the relationship between gods and believers, the mixture of good and evil in human beings, and the difficulty of making the world a better place, are interesting. And Lake has created a strong protagonist in Green, a narrator of conscience and empathy who honestly tells the story of her lonely childhood and youth being trained into a mistress/spy but struggling instead to choose her own path in life. Green abhors the violence she must often use and discovers how difficult it is to act solely for oneself without causing unexpected harm.

The first half of the story is absorbing, as Green details her training in the Pomegranate Court of the Factor's House, but in the last third things get, perhaps, a little too frenzied, fabulous, and divinely influenced. The conclusion ties up the immediate story well enough but also leaves things open for future volumes in Green's autobiography.

Some listeners have objected to the lesbian love that plays a significant (though not overly graphic or frequent) role in the novel. Given Green's education, experiences, and personality, I find it appropriate (and even moving), though her interest in whipping and being whipped seems a bit far-fetched and excrescently kinky.

Katherine Kellgren gives a strong reading, just as she does for Bloody Jack, full of understanding and compassion, modified for different characters, and enhancing the story's exciting, scary, tender, or sad parts. But she has such a distinctive voice that at times I thought "Katherine" rather than "Green."

There is nothing more annoying than a protagonist who is whiny, weak and indecisive. This book is none of that. The way a young girl is shoved into an adult world can be unsettling if you are a sensitive person, but this is life on the streets in all its brutal reality.
As for "god possession" and "no such thing as sin", this is Sci-Fi not bible literature, what did you expect?
Its actually a fairly short book, I was hoping for more, but that's how it is with all great stories. The author did a great job of wrapping things up. If you want a long book read Robert Jordan, that will put things in perspective.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I like fantasy books with a strong female character. However I had a very hard time liking Green. There was no character development, the supporting characters were flat and I felt like there was no cohesion with the story line. The first part of the book describing Green's childhood was ok, but the rest went on and on and on. If I heard Green say one more time "What would Endurance do?" or "I want to go home.", I think i would scream. There are much better books out there. Try Mya by Richard Adams or the Kusheil series.

I thought I had found a gem hidden away on Audible, because I love nothing better than a strong-willed heroine, but alas, I never finished this. I found this through Katherine Kellgren's narration, and she does a fantastic job here, and the story was very well done and maintained my interest for quite a while before I gave it up. Maybe the issue was that it dragged out a bit longer than I had hoped. It starts with the heroine as a child, and so much happens over such a long period of time that when I realized she was only 12 I was a bit shocked. I put it down with every intention of finishing it, but I just never got around to it.

It was ok. If it was possible to search the book and remove all the sex references it would have been a much better listen.

Not really

Green

Nope

The performance was well done. This actually made up for the mediocre book contents. The baseline story is interesting enough, but sex content of the book was horribly done. If you can step aside from the amateur level of those particular parts, the book does have some interest. I would say that the author does not reflect the growth of the main character very well. The inner voice of the 3-4 year old child has as much complexity 13 years later. Normally, I don't write reviews. The content is either acceptable or not. In this particular case, its clouded, and I felt some comment was deserved and would be helpful to those looking to purchase.

Nauseating, gross, disgusting, sick, violent, pointless, these were among some many words I used while listening to this horrible audiobook. I rarely say this about a book but this book was awful. I kept thinking it would get better if I just gave it a chance. Nope, worse actually. As I continued on, I became even more grossed out, in fact, I even made vomiting motions as certain screens were described. I wanted to take a shower when I was finished with it just to try to wash away all the terrible things this book bombarded me with.

Where did I go wrong when picking out this book to listen to? The description sounds pretty cool, right. Girl pulled from poverty to become a powerful female force to be reckoned with. Sounds like my type of book. Unfortunately not. Although, Green may truly be a force to be reckoned with, she is a terrible character. She has no soul, only revenge in her heart. It never felt like she grew, only became a more skilled fighter and slightly less irritable.

Accompanying her revenge, she also has frequent meaningless sex with multiple women, including a women who resembles more of a panther than a human – those sex scenes were often the ones that induced the vomit motion I mentioned earlier. I don’t particularly have a problem reading about sex but these scenes involved a 15 year old girl having sex with older women, as in the narrator used granny voices for these women type of old. Gross – so no my thing.

This book is not just about sex, there is plenty of violence and killing in it as well. Green is trained to be a fighter at an early age and as she grew older her training is further developed to the point where at 15 she can fight with some of the best female fighters/killers. The author goes to great lengths to develop her character and allow of years to pass as she improves on her skills. As a result, it was easy to believe that Green was capable of doing all the things.

The author does create a very elaborate world and the details are often intricately written. My interest was piqued at the beginning of the book and I could very much envision myself in the character’s shoes. However, that was only in the beginning. The only compliant I can give this book is that the author created very detailed characters, countries, and experiences.

Katherine Kellgren was the narrator for this book and I normally love her narrations. Not this one. I don't know if it was the author's writing just could be masked by her wonderful voice or what. The granny voices for Green's sexual partners really did me in, just gross - bleh. Excuse me, I just through up in my mouth a little.

After awhile, Green became physically exhausting for me. There was no good, no joy, no substance, no anything that would have redeemed this story. There were many times where I was wanted to stop listening and if it hadn’t been for my 2012 book challenge goal, I would have stopped. No way was I going to let this book take up so much of time and not finish it. Overall, I deeply regret making this purchase and cannot recommend this book.

There are two parts to this audio book. The first got my attention and held it - which takes Green up to age 12 - and goes along with the description of the book. When I started listening to part two, the book goes down hill due to repeated lesbian acts, molesting minors, people being possessed of gods, and stating "there is no such thing as sin". I wish the description of the book would have included this information (especially since it is a dominant theme in part two) - I wouldn't have wasted my time with it.

The story has to many details that don't add to the story. Half of this story could have been edited out.

No. I was planning on listening to the sequel whoever this is so disappointing.

Perhaps a full cast production.

I am disappointed I was looking for an fantasy audiobook. There is a lot of decription of the different cities but somehow It never pulled me in.

Nah... While it was interesting to see the resolve unfold, it was a little too realistic to me. I like my fantasy books to be totally magical, distant and full of imagination. This one read like a story of a girl growing up in India. Even down to the detail of the Pardeens and an ox becoming a God. It all sounds like Indian culture and beliefs. Not that this is good or bad, it just didn't arouse my imagination very much.

Nah... First impressions and all, there is just too much available out there.

Performance was good.

Not the whole thing. Some parts yes but other parts dragged on a bit, especially in the beginning.

I wish I could get my credit back in this one. There is no way I'm getting anything else by this author.