Death and Resurrection

By: R. A. MacAvoy

Narrated by: James Chen

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The award-winning writer of Tea With the Black Dragon and other acclaimed novels returns to fantasy with the intriguing story of Chinese-American artist Ewen Young who gains the ability to travel between the worlds of life and death. This unasked-for skill irrevocably changes his life - as does meeting Nez Perce veterinarian Dr. Susan Sundown and her remarkable dog, Resurrection. After defeating a threat to his own family, Ewen and Susan confront great evils - both supernatural and human - as life and death begin to flow dangerously close together.

©2011 R.A. MacAvoy (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Tidy

This is excellently crafted. I enjoyed the supernatural elements and the adventure but most of all I liked the characters, their arcs and development. Also it was fun to read something set in my neck of the woods. The narrator is good, handles subtle accents well and even sings a little, I’ll be looking out for more of Chen’s work.

Like Dresden Files, but more subtle

I love the Budhist main character, But I may appreciate that more than others who aren't Budhist. This author managed to take little bits of magic and make the whole story feel magical. More than that, the life I was escaping from in this story feels a little more magical on my return to it. I'm still not happy the story ended, though.

Entertaining but should have been a series

As much as I enjoyed the story I think it should have been a series instead of being set up in 3 parts. I really liked each plot. All three stories held my attention. I liked the strong characters. The Buddhism and Native American mysticism were great.

The part that was confusing was in the lack of editing. The uncle is the gambler, but later the book says it’s the grandfather. There were several references that were like this. Also, there was no pause between scene changes in a chapter. I kept thinking my audio had jumped ahead until I realized there was no pause. It was disorienting.

The book was set up into parts. They were basically 3 separate stories. They were all entertaining but they left me puzzled. It’s as if the author planned on 3 books and then was told it would only be one so she added all the parts together. I personally would have loved if parts 2 & 3 had been made into separate more evolved books because they were fascinating.

Last but not least, the narrator was very good. I enjoyed his voices and his pacing.

Not bad, but plenty of flaws

First of all I want to say that the writer is not bad; his grammar is good description dialogue setting Dash all of that is good. The only problem my head is the editing was lacking. In the beginning we learned that uncle Jimmy taught you in kung fu, and then after his uncle dies all of a sudden it was his grandfather who had issues with gambling. Very easy mistake to have been caught with professional proofreading. Second of all, he’s in the hospital bed after three days of being shot in the heart, he’s ready to leave and he’s walking around and talking and having visitors. I’m not any kind of medical professional, but I’m pretty sure that is far-fetched for anyone but Superman. Also he’s talking to his family and a police detective, and he vanishes before their eyes, and no one has a problem with that. If this is the kind of world war that’s normal, the author needs to set that up in advance. It was not described very well. Lastly, there’s a book by Steve Perry called champion of the dead which is strikingly similar and haven’t been
And publish six years before this book, I have a feeling this author maybe unconsciously copied a little too much. Sorry, but the original is much much better. Go to tempt fun read just fall short of the mark for me. Also the narrator is OK but he pronounces BOUGH as BWords incorrectly and that drives me crazy! If there are any errors in my review, I’m visually impaired, so I have to dictate to my phone, and it’s very difficult to proofread. Thank you

very strange

The book has several different stories, most of which don't seem to relate to the central mystery. I really tried to finish listening and just could not when the story once again took a 90 degree turn to another narrative with zero relation to any thought previously expressed. The narrator improved over the course of the book and the voices are well done. A more distinct break between chapters is seriously needed. If you're into vague mysticism and disparate plots, this might work for you. It did not work for me at all.

Ugh...

Not for Indigenous or Chinese People 🙄 do not recommend unless you want to eye-roll a lot.

amazing book

I really enjoyed this book it, Buddhism, outta body experience. the narration is amazing would love more like this

All the things

I really enjoyed the listen. Thought the characters were written well. James was a fantastic narrator.

The middle is good...

It took a while to get into this book. It got pretty interesting, then ended on an off note for me.

Choppy

I like her writing and I like her stories. And I mean stories. This seemed like several stories strung together. Each story was interesting in and of itself, but there is no flow, no transition between the stories. And the endings are a bit abrupt. I would like to read more about these characters, but was a bit dissatisfied.