Favourite book!

Beautiful story on the strength of sibling love. Seanan McGuire never fails to provide superb world building and rich main characters. This is my favourite book so I needed an audio copy. I first read the book and then listened to it. It's been a few years so I forgot the first little bit is dry (only the first chapter or so) but it's smooth sailing after that. I basically inhaled the rest.

I love Amber Benson, Scooby Gang fan for life! I found her performance wonderful except her interpretations of Lee and Reid, particularly when they were speaking to each other. She's exaggerated their way of speaking to the point where it is really distracting. Her inflections and cadence are all over the place in an effort to ring true to Seanan McGuire's description, but I found myself wanting to rush past those bits. Luckily their interactions are only a small portion of book. The rest of the time I mostly forget someone is reading to me, which to me is the sign of a great narrator.

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Excellent

A really cool and different science fiction story. The core relationships are beautifully done. My only criticism is that it could be improved with a little research. Sometimes the writer is building make believe science but there are some core elements of real science that could have been improved with a modicum of research on the author’s part.

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Full Metal Alchemist meets The Wizard of Oz

if you like any of the following, this story is for you:
- evil secret organizations, or villains who are motivated to "control the universe"
- seeing characters change over many years
- literary magical realism
- Harry Potter (minus the wands, but add in some English and math)
- black/white struggles between good and evil (with some gray characters thrown in)
- exposition to move the plot along, but don't mind character melodrama slowing it down
- similies.... many, MANY similies
- lovely, nuanced, let's-hear-teacher-read-a-story type of voice acting.

If even a couple of those tick the box for you, then I recommend giving this a listen. it's great fun, very accessible to young adults. The ending feels very rushed, and there is a lot of worldbuidling that seems pointless, if only to spur on fanfiction or pre/sequels. But it ends on a strong note and the writing is still solid, engaging.

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2 people found this helpful

The Improbable Story That's Impossibly Good

This book reawakened feelings of awe and wonder I haven't felt in a long time.

I can't wait for you to listen.

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1 person found this helpful

Not McGuire's best, still enjoyable

I thoroughly loved every single book from McGuire until this one. While it kept me interested and provided much-needed escapism, it feels much darker then I am used to from her(October Daye, Incryptid, Ghost Roads, Indexing), without nearly as much humour to heal the heart as I listened.
Benson's performance was really good.

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Too long

Good story boot too dragging, narrator tries too hard. Highs and lows in her voice was somewhat annoying

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Exaggerated narration might disrupts concentration

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to continue listening to this book. I don't enjoy the narrator's style, unfortunately. She uses some over-the-top voice inflections for some characters, especially villains, making them feel like arch-villains from a children's book. Some people might like that, but it made me lose concentration, and I ended up quitting in frustration. Unfortunately, the provided sample doesn't contain any of those exaggerated voice inflections, so you can't test the waters before you buy.

I can't talk much about the story itself, so don't rely too much on my rating for that.

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Not anything like the Incryptid Series

I absolutely love the Incryptid Series by this author, however, after listening to the whole book I just felt it was a waste of my time, no matter how hard I tried to like it. It is nothing like the Incryptid series. The story had potential but the characters fell flat and are difficult to warm up to which was very disappointing since the characters in the Incryptid series are fun and interesting.

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