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Empire Games
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Dark State
- A Novel of the Merchant Princes Multiverse
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
Dark State ups the ante on the already volatile situations laid out in the sleek techno-thriller Empire Games, the start to Stross' new story-line and a perfect entry point for new listeners, in The Merchant Princes series . In the near-future, the collision of two nuclear superpowers across timelines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyper-police state, is imminent. In Commissioner Miriam Burgeson's timeline, her top level agents run a high risk extraction of a major political player.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Good story when it was sometimes told.
- By Matt on 05-08-18
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The Trade of Queens
- Book Six of the Merchant Princes
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate-universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, have carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the president of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
The author went to sleep
- By L. Roe on 01-07-16
-
The Revolution Business
- Book Five of the Merchant Princes
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 137
Locked in a vicious civil war for control over the kingdom of Niejwein, their army is bottled up inside a fortress under siege in two parallel universes at once. Duke Angbard, the Clan's leader, has been laid low by a stroke: plotters are already conspiring in readiness for the deadly dance to come. Miriam, rescued from a tight spot in New Britain, finds the hopes of the young, progressive faction focused on her.
-
The Merchants' War
- Merchant Princes, Book 4
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 154
Miriam Beckstein is a young, hip business journalist in Boston. She discovered in The Family Trade and The Hidden Family that her family came from an alternate reality, that she was very well connected, and that her family was too much like the Mafia for comfort. She found herself caught in a family trap in The Clan Corporate and betrothed to a brain-damaged prince, and then all hell broke loose.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A fun entry into the interdimensional saga
- By Jeremiah Mccoy on 03-28-19
-
The Clan Corporate
- Book Three of the Merchant Princess
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 182
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 181
Miriam Beckstein has gotten in touch with her roots, and they have nearly strangled her. A young, hip business journalist in Boston, she discovered (in The Family Trade) that her family comes from an alternate reality, that she is very well-connected, and that her family is too much like the mafia for comfort.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
These books are addictive
- By Kathleen Ward on 10-26-16
-
The Hidden Family
- Merchant Princes, Book 2
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 287
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 265
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 264
Miriam, a hip tech journalist from Boston, discovered her alternate world relatives in The Family Trade and with them an elite identity she didn't know was hers. Now, in order to avoid a slippery slope down to an unmarked grave, Miriam, known as Lady Helge to the Family, starts applying modern business practices and scientific knowledge to a trade dominated by mercantilists - with unexpected consequences for three different timelines, including the quasi-Victorian one exploited by the hidden family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story and narrator
- By C W on 02-12-16
-
Dark State
- A Novel of the Merchant Princes Multiverse
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
Dark State ups the ante on the already volatile situations laid out in the sleek techno-thriller Empire Games, the start to Stross' new story-line and a perfect entry point for new listeners, in The Merchant Princes series . In the near-future, the collision of two nuclear superpowers across timelines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyper-police state, is imminent. In Commissioner Miriam Burgeson's timeline, her top level agents run a high risk extraction of a major political player.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Good story when it was sometimes told.
- By Matt on 05-08-18
-
The Trade of Queens
- Book Six of the Merchant Princes
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate-universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, have carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the president of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
The author went to sleep
- By L. Roe on 01-07-16
-
The Revolution Business
- Book Five of the Merchant Princes
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 137
Locked in a vicious civil war for control over the kingdom of Niejwein, their army is bottled up inside a fortress under siege in two parallel universes at once. Duke Angbard, the Clan's leader, has been laid low by a stroke: plotters are already conspiring in readiness for the deadly dance to come. Miriam, rescued from a tight spot in New Britain, finds the hopes of the young, progressive faction focused on her.
-
The Merchants' War
- Merchant Princes, Book 4
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 154
Miriam Beckstein is a young, hip business journalist in Boston. She discovered in The Family Trade and The Hidden Family that her family came from an alternate reality, that she was very well connected, and that her family was too much like the Mafia for comfort. She found herself caught in a family trap in The Clan Corporate and betrothed to a brain-damaged prince, and then all hell broke loose.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A fun entry into the interdimensional saga
- By Jeremiah Mccoy on 03-28-19
-
The Clan Corporate
- Book Three of the Merchant Princess
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 182
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 181
Miriam Beckstein has gotten in touch with her roots, and they have nearly strangled her. A young, hip business journalist in Boston, she discovered (in The Family Trade) that her family comes from an alternate reality, that she is very well-connected, and that her family is too much like the mafia for comfort.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
These books are addictive
- By Kathleen Ward on 10-26-16
-
The Hidden Family
- Merchant Princes, Book 2
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 287
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 265
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 264
Miriam, a hip tech journalist from Boston, discovered her alternate world relatives in The Family Trade and with them an elite identity she didn't know was hers. Now, in order to avoid a slippery slope down to an unmarked grave, Miriam, known as Lady Helge to the Family, starts applying modern business practices and scientific knowledge to a trade dominated by mercantilists - with unexpected consequences for three different timelines, including the quasi-Victorian one exploited by the hidden family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story and narrator
- By C W on 02-12-16
-
The Family Trade
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 531
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 480
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 480
Miriam Beckstein is happy in her life as a successful reporter. When she gets iron-clad evidence of a money-laundering scheme, Miriam thinks she's found the story of the year. But when she takes it to her editor, she's fired on the spot and gets a death threat from the criminals she's uncovered. Before the day is over, she's received a locket left by the mother she never knew - the mother who was murdered when she was an infant. The knotwork pattern within has a hypnotic effect on her.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Series worsened as it went on
- By Susan on 10-24-18
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The Labyrinth Index
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 406
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 406
The arrival of vast, alien, inhuman intelligences reshaped the landscape for human affairs across the world, and the United Kingdom is no exception. Things have changed in Britain since the dread elder god Nyarlathotep ascended to the rank of prime minister. In America, a thousand-mile-wide storm system has blanketed the Midwest, and the president is nowhere to be found. The government has been infiltrated by the shadowy Black Chamber, and the Pentagon and NASA have been refocused on the problem of summoning Cthulhu.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Hours of self pitying exposition.
- By Jonathan on 11-09-18
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The Delirium Brief
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 691
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 634
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 630
Bob Howard's career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from unspeakable horrors from beyond spacetime, has entailed high combat, brilliant hacking, ancient magic, and combat with indescribably repellent creatures of pure evil. It has also involved a wearying amount of paperwork and office politics, and his expense reports are still a mess. Now, following the invasion of Yorkshire by the Host of Air and Darkness, the Laundry's existence has become public.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic, frustrating, squamous, and rugose
- By Jasmine Wahlberg on 07-13-17
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The Nightmare Stacks
- Laundry Files, Book 7
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 831
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 773
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 774
After stumbling upon the algorithm that turned him and his fellow merchant bankers into vampires, Alex Schwartz was drafted by The Laundry, Britain's secret counter-occult agency that's humanity's first line of defense against the forces of darkness. Dependent on his new employers for his continued existence - as Alex has no stomach for predatory bloodsucking - he has little choice but to accept his new role as an operative in training.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Back on Track!
- By Michael on 06-30-16
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The Fuller Memorandum
- A Laundry Files Novel
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 980
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 985
Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross is renowned for his cutting-edge science fiction. This third entry in his “edgy … spoof of Cold War spy thrillers” ( Booklist) finds covert agent Bob Howard learning about a top-secret dossier that vanishes with his boss. Determined to discover the contents of this memorandum, Howard runs afoul of Russian spies, ancient demons, and apostles of a hideous cult planning to raise the Eater of Souls from the undead.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Top notch!
- By Maggie on 06-12-11
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The Annihilation Score
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Elle Newlands
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 677
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 622
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Story4 out of 5 stars 622
Mo's latest assignment is assisting the police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the superpowered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer playing superpranks instead of superheroics. The mayor of London being levitated by a dumpy man in Trafalgar Square would normally be a source of shared amusement for Mo and Bob, but they're currently separated because something's come between them - something evil.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A disappointing addition to a great series.
- By A Tye on 11-08-15
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Halting State
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 340
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 273
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 275
The year is 2012, and China, India, and the United States are waging an infowar for economic domination. With innocent gamers mere pawns in the hands of electronic intelligence agencies, programmer Jack Reed is tasked with ferreting out the plot of those who would gladly trade global turmoil for personal gain.
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5 out of 5 stars
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2 Smart Books Well Worth the Listen - Great Reader
- By C. Hartmann on 01-08-12
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The Rhesus Chart
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 949
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 865
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 867
As a newly appointed junior manager within the Laundry - the clandestine organization responsible for protecting Britain against supernatural threats - Bob Howard is expected to show some initiative to help the agency battle the forces of darkness. But shining a light on things best left in the shadows is the last thing Bob wants to do - especially when those shadows hide an occult parasite spreading a deadly virus. Traders employed by a merchant bank in London are showing signs of infection.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I just plain loved this book
- By Angus on 07-23-14
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The Apocalypse Codex
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 991
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 891
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 892
The winner of multiple Hugo Awards, Charles Stross is one of the most highly regarded science fiction writers of his time. In The Apocalypse Codex, occasionally hapless British agent Bob Howard tackles a case involving an American televangelist and a supernatural threat of global proportions.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Advanced computational demonology
- By Ken on 11-18-12
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The Atrocity Archives
- A Laundry Files Novel
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,366
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,092
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,092
Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason, he is.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Do you love the Dresden Files? You'll like this.
- By Nick on 05-19-12
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The Jennifer Morgue
- A Laundry Files Novel
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,144
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 985
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 987
Bob Howard is a special operative for the British agency called The Laundry, and his task is to stop a rogue billionaire from using an artifact, known as Gravedust, with the power to reanimate the dead. The U.S. Black Agency sends the lethal Ramona Random to aid Bob’s mission, but she seems to have a different agenda.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Laundry as James Bond
- By Bryan on 09-16-12
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Accelerando
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 520
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 466
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Story4 out of 5 stars 468
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hardest of hard SF...
- By David Lee on 11-24-14
Publisher's Summary
A time of ambition, treachery and dangerous secrets...
Rita Douglas is plucked from her dead-end job and trained as a reluctant US spy. All because she has the latent genetic talent to hop between alternate time lines - and infiltrate them. Her United States is waging a high-tech war, targeting assassins who can move between worlds to deliver death on a mass scale, and Rita will be their secret weapon.
Miriam Beckstein has her own mission as a politician in an industrial revolution US. She must accelerate her world's technology before their paranoid American twin finds them. It would blow them to hell. After all, they've done it before. Each time line also battles internal conspiracies, as a cold war threatens to turn white hot. But which world is the aggressor - and will Rita have to choose a side?
This new series is set in the same world as Charles Stross' Merchant Princes series.
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- tim smith
- 10-18-18
Politics and world walking
This book is great. A "Chronicles of Amber" for the 21st century, with extra SciFi.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Jason
- 04-09-19
Author clumusly jams in his wokeness
The story and the universe are good but the authors ham fisted wokeness gets jammed in all over the place and drags you out of the story to roll your eyes. Its a pity.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-13-19
Disappointed
The book gets off to a decent start but finishes part way through the story, not with a cliffhanger just a cut off. It’s really annoying when novels are not self contained works. Readers are just being misused to force them to buy more.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- S. Tive
- 01-15-19
Great story premise. Let down by narration and patchy writing at times.
The idea of multiple timelines is great and the detail around the set up is in depth and well thought through. In short the story has great potential and I really enjoyed it.
At times though it feels like this book could have done with some good editing. For example the author's use of technology even in 2016 feels anachronistic (ironically given the subject matter) - the heroine uses Facebook and other technologies that already feel out of date In the timeline that is supposed to be the reader's. These are only small gripes but they do detract from enjoying the story from time to time.
I struggled with the narrator. I found her performances far too similar amongst the characters and generally found her hard to follow. I am dismayed that she narrates the second book too.