Audiobook Review: The Sparks (Feud #1)

Release Date: January 31, 2017/February 24, 2017
Author: Kyle Prue
Narrator: Jon Eric Preston
Publisher: Cartwright Publishing
Length: 300 pages/9 hrs. 14 mins.
Source: Audiobook Received for Review

HONOR DOES NOT BEND. A WILL OF IRON DOES NOT BREAK
VICTORY LIES WITHIN THE ASHES.

The Vapros, the Taurlum, and the Celerius: three dynasties bound by an ancient promise, and given superhuman abilities to protect the city of Altryon from the dangerous world beyond its walls. The Vapros have the ability to teleport and turn their enemies to ash, the Celerius have super speed and the ability to heal from any wound, the Taurlum have skin like steel and godlike strength. Centuries of petty infighting, have turned the families against each other, resulting in a secret war. A powerful emperor now rules over all as the families have been weakened by massive casualties.

16-year-old, Neil Vapros, desperately wants to become an assassin in order to please his overbearing father. After failing his first mission, Neil learns that a new sinister threat has awakened. This mysterious new power threatens to shatter the established order and the lives of everyone in Altryon – regardless of their family name or allegiance.

    

Review:

Protagonists: While a majority of this story is told from the point of view of Neil Vapros, a boy who wants nothing more than the respect of his family, this story has many points of view and while not all of them are the protagonists of this story, a great deal of them are. What I love about all of the protagonists is that they aren't these paragons of goodness that you can easily take the side of, they are flawed and their logic of this ridiculous feud between their families is warped beyond comprehension. Each of the protagonists grows in some way or another over the course of this story, it's a growth that's easily seen but not in your face and obvious. I really liked each character who has a POV in this story, while not all the POV characters are good, they are still well layered and it's easy to see their logic, even if it's not something I personally agree with.

World Building: One of my biggest problems with this story, I almost feel too embarrassed to share. This book takes a long time to get fully set up, and while, once it's done, it's a really fantastic world that I'm totally sucked into now and I can't wait to see what happens in it, it was hard to get into at first because there was still a lot of set up. However, once a certain event occurs things speed up and kick into high gear. There's a lot to this world, and while it takes a while to set up it's quite a sight to behold. I mean the synopsis for the story sets it up a bit, but as you dive into this story the backstory for not only the characters but the families as well are incredible. Even after all this story has to offer in terms of set up there are still mysteries it hides and I just want to know more and to follow these characters as they hopefully discover more about the world they live in and the feud between their families that has consumed their entire lives.

Predictability: Other than one very large twist that I was able to figure out from the synopsis alone, this book does a spectacular job at keeping the twists of this book under wraps. If you're worried about reading the synopsis and getting spoiled on something big, don't worry there's enough foreshadowing for that twist that even without the synopsis you'd still see it coming a long time before it's actually revealed. As for the other twists in this story, I'm sure there might have been some foreshadowing for the larger twists, but I can't seem to remember all that much. For the smaller stuff, there wasn't all that much that felt like and intentional twist, but more like a part of the plot to move things along.

Ending: If I didn't know this book was part of a series going in, I would have known it by that ending. While this story doesn't end with a heart stopping cliffhanger or game changing twist, there is a lot that happens towards the end of this story. There are still a great many mysteries in this world and I just loved that the author used what I like to refer to as the "cooldown" period of this book, after the final climax, to remind readers that there's still more that won't be revealed until at least the sequel. The actual final climax of this story was incredible. Since there are multiple perspectives we got to see what was going down from multiple angles and through the lenses of different characters.

Audiobook Notes: As I've said in past Audiobook Reviews, I don't really have a great talent for articulating my thoughts about an audiobook unless it's something special and the creators and producers go above and beyond or the narration was so monotonously boring that I couldn't help but shut it off. While there wasn't anything in the production of the audiobook, such as ambient sounds, music, etc. that heightened the experience, the narrator does a spectacular job at bringing the characters in this story to life. His narration is anything but boring as he does good voices, and really adds a lot of great depth and emotion into his performance. When characters cry it really sounds like the narrator is crying, or when characters have to cover their mouths while talking in a certain scene, that comes through in the narration. Overall, this was a spectacular book to listen to.

Rating:

While this story does take quite a while to get fully set up, and the story can seem to drag in certain parts until then, once things start going they don't stop and I can't wait to find out what happens next in this intricately designed fantasy world.

Audio Book Review: Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side! (Star Wars Illustrated Novels #3)

Release Date: September 22, 2015
Author: Tom Angleberger
Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm Press
Narrator: Marc Thompson
Source: Library Audio Book

It's the Star Wars story with everything.

Jabba, Boba, Wicket, Rebo, Salacious Crumb, Nien Nunb, "It's a trap," Luke doing a flip and catching his lightsaber, speeder bikes, Yoda, ghost Yoda, the rancor, the Falcon, Wedge, Lando, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, C-3PO, R2 . . . but there's also a second Death Star, the Emperor's hideous evil smile, and Luke's final confrontation with Darth Vader!

It's a lot, but is it too much?

Of course not!

You and I, we LOVE Star Wars. So open this book and hang on.

We're about to make the jump to lightspeed!

    

Reviewer's Note: Since Star Wars is so iconic, and this is an adaptation of the sixth episode in the series, I've decided to forgo my usual spoiler-free review in an effort to better review this book, so if you haven't seen the original Star Wars Trilogy (Ep. IV-VI) I will most likely bring up spoilers from time to time. Also, since this is an adaptation and not a re-imagining I've gotten rid of some of the review sections I normally use to instead comment on how I enjoyed the adaptation and to comment on the aspects of the audio book I listened to.

Review:

Protagonists: So going into this book I didn't quite know what to expect. Both installments before this one had some sort of gimmick to them, the first with the three separate sections following one narrator at a time and the second with the whole Jedi Lesson, Luke/Second-Person POV thing. This book however has no particular focus and instead has sort of an omniscient third-person point of view that really gives proper time and attention to each of these characters. Specifically I'd like to talk about Luke's struggle to remain on the light side of the force during his final battle with Darth Vader and Darth Sidious. In the movie the struggle is plainly seen during the fight both cinematically and portrayed by the actor, but on paper it's harder to convey those emotions and I believe this author did a phenomenal job.

Romance: So, this section won't be too long. If you've read my other reviews of this series you probably know my morbid fascination with the fact that in the Star Wars movies Luke and Leia share more than one kiss before finding out that they're related and yet we never see them react in any way to that fact. They accept their role in each other's lives and it never seems to affect them that at one point Luke had feelings for Leia and that on more than one occasion they kissed. Now going into this book I was interested to see how the author would handle it, hoping he would make some sort of off-handed reference to it, possibly finding a logical reason to dismiss it all together, instead though the author takes the movie's route and never once acknowledges this anomaly.

Adaptation Notes: Since this book has no central gimmick, save possibly that the author breaks the fourth wall and talks to the reader now and then, we were able to get probably the most complete Star Wars adaptation in this series. While the author did seem to ramble on about things that felt more unnecessary than needed and referenced the prequel movies more than I would have liked, there were also some great moments and extra content to the story that helped make certain things make more sense. However there were some things that were cut out of the original story that while they weren't particularly needed, did make for a more incomplete adaptation.

Audio Book Notes: As always the audio books of this series are fantastic.The ambient sounds, musical scores, and voice acting of Marc Thompson bring this entire story to life. While I wouldn't say I was super invested in this audio book, it wasn't for the lack of story or the way the audio book was produced. After listening to this trilogy I've begun to wonder about other Star Wars works read by Thompson and wonder if they have the same theatricality as this one. 

Rating:

So as I said, I wasn't as emotionally invested in this book as I thought I would be, in fact I found myself spacing out a lot and not really caring to go back. It's not that this isn't a great adaptation, but since this story is something I can experience in less than half the time it takes to listen to the audio book, and even though the audio book is brilliantly produced everything just sort of felt a bit pointless.

Audio Book Review: The Empire Strikes Back So You Want to Be a Jedi? (Star Wars Illustrated Novels #2)

Release Date: September 22, 2015
Author: Adam Gidwitz
Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm Press
Narrator: Marc Thompson
Source: Library Audio Book

Acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author Adam Gidwitz delivers a captivating retelling of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back like you've never experienced before, infusing the iconic, classic tale of good versus evil with a unique perspective and narrative style that will speak directly to today's young readers while enhancing the Star Wars experience for core fans of the saga.

This illustrated novel is the second in the highly-anticipated series and features richly detailed art by celebrated Star Wars concept artist Iain McCaig-the creative mind behind the prequels characters Darth Maul and Padme Amidala. Fans old and new will be delighted by this beautifully crafted book and the unexpected twists in this retelling of a beloved story.

    

Reviewer's Note: Since Star Wars is so iconic, and this is an adaptation of the fifth episode in the series, I've decided to forgo my usual spoiler-free review in an effort to better review this book, so if you haven't seen the original Star Wars Trilogy (Ep. IV-VI) I will most likely bring up spoilers from time to time. Also, since this is an adaptation and not a re-imagining I've gotten rid of some of the review sections I normally use to instead comment on how I enjoyed the adaptation and to comment on the aspects of the audio book I listened to.

Review:

Protagonist: Unlike the adaptation for A New Hope this story is told, for the most part, in the second person POV, where "you" are Luke Skywalker as he trains with Master Yoda to become a better Jedi. The use of the second person really only added to the gimmick of this book, which I'll get to later and didn't really enhance my experience of this story any. I was happy to see though that the author didn't leave out the parts of the story that Luke wasn't in, instead he used the third person to tell those parts of the story. Honestly I couldn't really feel the character development, at least not in the way I could when I watched the movie. I felt like the author stuck too much with the gimmick and wasn't able to really flesh out this world all that much.

Romance: So, I am by no means saying that the romance of this story is a large or even vital plot point of this epic saga, however since there is a bit of a love triangle here between Han, Leia, and Luke, and since we know Luke and Leia are siblings, how it was handled knowing that information I felt needed to be touched on. So first we have the whole Luke and Leia kiss thing that many people I know look back on and cringe, I felt that was handled rather well, there was nothing too romantic about it and Luke's inner monologue wasn't really in the romantic pining mood. However, even though the romance isn't vital to the story, the author does touch upon the Han and Leia romance and if he had found a way to skip it altogether I would have been fine with that, but his insistence on skipping over the "mushy parts" made it so he failed to evoke the romantic chemistry needed for the bit of romance he kept in to feel earned.

Adaptation Notes: The gimmick of this book is that it's essentially a guide to becoming a Jedi and it uses Luke's journey in The Empire Strikes Back as sort of a backdrop in explaining how to become a Jedi. Each chapter or so there would be a little lesson or test on becoming a Jedi, this usually has to do with keeping calm and not giving into fear, hate, or anger. I think for a younger audience this would be really cool, but for me, at 22, it didn't really add that much to the story. Unlike the previous installment this one felt very specifically aimed at a much younger audience. It felt as though this was aimed more at a lower-MG audience whereas A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy felt as though it was all ages-MG or lower-YA. The point is that this very much felt like I was being talked down to with the author explaining what everything is in a very plain matter of fact way.

Audio Book Notes: Once again this audio book is outstanding. It uses ambient sounds, sound effects, and music to really immerse the listener into this story. I think without the brilliant quality of this audio book I may have given up on this book. Marc Thompson once again delivers an amazing performance and really does each character justice. Since this is my second time listening to him I was able to more easily pick up on the fact that he was imitating the voices and that the audio book production company didn't actually sneak in James Earl Jones to read the Darth Vader lines.

Rating:

So if it wasn't for the gimmick and the fact that I felt talked down to when listening to this audio book I think it could have made for a really great adaptation, but it was just kind of awkwardly fit together and the extra bits of information added wasn't very helpful.