Riveting

I was a bit skeptical at first but there’s a few things that this book absolutely nailed.
The narration was phenomenal!!! So expressive, while sometimes the characters blurred together for me, I couldn’t get over how good it sounded. The story itself is super well done, from an epidemiological standpoint I was floored. Bierce put so much research and depth into the wrack that it felt like some other real life events.
I’m an instant Adjoa Andoh fan now, loved her performance.

4 people found this helpful

Authors be careful what you write about!

It’s creepy how much this story gets right about our current situation right now; even down to the symptoms. I realize that it was just published, but I read a post by the author from 2019 where he writes about being in the middle of finishing up this book. I wonder if he edited it in the past few months to be more relatable but it still seems like a eerie focus to take up and then have come to life almost immediately as one finishes a project. It’s like the myth of the magic paint brush with a pen instead.

Apparently life imitates art now so I am just going to say this story is uniquely fascinating because it’s both fantasy and reality; go ahead and be forewarned you will be unsettled and drawn into a magical world that is uncomfortably familiar and entirely believable. I haven’t finished it yet so I have to hope that it’s got an ending that will give me confidence in this world.

4 people found this helpful

A Book You Might Want to Read More Than Once

This story was complex and had a lot going on. I really enjoyed the audio, but still plan to reread a digital copy myself. It was hard to put down. Although the setting of this book is very different from today’s world, the human reactions were very realistic and I could imagine people behaving similarly today. Actually, it isn’t too hard to imagine as we are living in a global pandemic.
Loved it; highly recommend.

2 people found this helpful

An great addition to John's overall project

After listening to the first 5 books of of John Bierce's Mage Arrant series I learned of this title and decided to check it out. This addition to his multiverse project is astounding because it has a different feel and style than the Mage Arrant series. I think this gives a good overall depth and shows that John has versatility as a writer. It has made me more excited for the upcoming additions.

Adjoa Andoh is a talented narrator. This is the first book I've heard her narrate and I am looking forward to hearing her more. I feel that listeners are often more critical of women narrators, I've read it may be that a quality of the general higher tones to woman's voices compared to men's makes certain sounds stand out or something, I'm not sure exactly, nor am I certain why it is that I have not found many woman narrator's performances worth mentioning. Perhaps it is because I have such a deep voice myself or maybe I'm deficient in someway. In spite of whatever the reason, I find Adjoa's voice pleasant to listen to and her work impressive. I'm always impressed by narrators that manage to have diverse voices for multiple characters and how well they keep them organized. I'm sure a lot of work goes into this and someone is probably checking for good consistency, but it is still notable.

1 person found this helpful

B**** better work!

Adjoa owns this story more than the write does. I loved loved loved how this is just so well written Having my jaw drop every five minutes. Yay.

1 person found this helpful

Choppy story and obnoxious accents

I loved the author’s 5 previous Mage Errant novels so I decided to give this one a try. I’m only half way through but I’m considering dropping it all together.

The story had a lot of potential. As always, John Bierce is the best world builder I know. Where it falls short is the organization of the story, or should I say stories. The book is made up of short stories that link together with each story feeling like it’s from a different perspective. It’s a cool idea but just makes for a choppy story when it comes to character introductions. In order to understand the larger story you have to give the entire thing your COMPLETE attention. Which makes reading it exhausting.

The narration… I don’t know if it’s the narrators fault or perhaps some direction from John, but the accent interpretation for Yousef and others that share his accent is horrendous. It sounds like a bad combination of Spanish and maybe… Scottish? Almost every R is rolled which is very annoying for some reason. I understand that it’s an accent from another reality but I can’t help but feel it’s just a bad mashup of real accents.

To be honest, I would give the book 1 star, but out of loyalty to John Bierce, I’m giving it 2.

A story of a different sort

I have not yet finished this book, but I wanted to sit down and write a review for it now that I am about halfway through.

This in not an adventure novel, there has been no action, no antagonist, only mystery and exposition. Nearly every chapter is from a different perspective, and many are not directly connected. I would say this novel is somewhat like a mystery documentary and much more dry than the mage errant series.

These things may push away many readers, but I must say this is still a very interesting book. Despite it's dryness and heavy exposition there is a weight to the book that keeps my attention held firm. I very much look forward to seeing how it progresses.

The mark against it for me is nitpicks againts the narrator. She is clear, and professional, with no cardinal sins such as mouth noises, but her accent work is jarring at times, like she is trying too hard. Her normal speaking voice is quite pleasant though.

great story!

I wasn't too crazy about the accents the narrator chose, but other than that it was great!

Truly great narration

great story and a truly great voice behind it. looking forward to more from both the author and narrator

Quality over quantity

I was reluctant to get this one as it's not very long, but I could listen to Adjoa Andoh read a phone book. Was a surprisingly pleasant listen. I'm glad the author avoided in-detail action. That can get a bit tedious, but if that's what you're looking for you could afford to miss this one. This book is almost an anthology, with most chapters completely disconnected accounts of the same event. It's a credit to the author that he was able to develop the characters so well with so few pages devoted to each. Excellent world building: richly imagined with nations and characters behaving in ways that conform well to the world as written. Looking forward to whatever Bierce writes next.