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Korra II Baskerville

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-09-24

I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by this collection. The first few stories out of the gate were pretty interesting, unlike volumes 4 and 5. I went into this, dreading it, after my experience with the last 2.

It does suffer from the same forgettability of the first 2, however. I was about to DNF it after listening to it over a couple of days and hardly remembering anything about it. I decided to finish it, when I noticed I only had 10 minutes left (at 2.55x speed).

Aside from the first 2 – 3 stories, the most noteworthy thing about this collection is how rapid-fire they feel. They start quickly, get interesting, and then end abruptly. It was a bit disappointing when I’d be invested in a story and then it ended and moved on as if it never happened. The only ending I found satisfactory was that of the first story.

The narration has also improved since the last 2 books, to a degree. The character voices could use some work but were passable, and the ever-present background hissing was incredibly distracting and annoying. Other than those issues, I’d say it’s better than most audiobook narrations.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-26-23

To start off with, I’ve previously reviewed Bolivar’s Sword, which I received as a review copy. I fondly remembered it, and the narration, but I found it was partially lacking, due to the lack of context of who anybody was, or what they were about.

Book 1 starts off with a heist of some sort, and it left me feeling like I was listening to Bolivar’s Sword all over again. I’m following this group of characters I know nothing about, the scene is tense and potentially dangerous, and I have no reason to care. A few chapters in, I decided to restart the book and slow the speed down, from 2.55x to 2.0 and I did pick up on a detail or two that I’d missed previously, but I still felt lost.

The introduction made the book difficult to get into, but I powered through it. Thankfully, it paid off and I started to get a better idea of who everybody was, how they were connected, and their place in the world. Despite not remembering their names, I even recognized some Bolivar’s Sword characters. (That’s not an issue with the book, I just have a hard time with names, faces, and voices.) Looking back, I do see how several bits of information explained in the prologue were relevant later on in the plot and that was a nice way to sprinkle them in.

Once I got past my personal burnout and the initial hurdle of not knowing what the fuck was going on, I was extremely invested. Not just in the plot, but in the characters and scenes as well. Combat scenes were intense and exciting, I felt the genuine danger and worry as the characters did. This was one of those books that had me hanging onto every word. That being said, I’ve only listened to the audiobooks, and the narrators are 2 of the best I’ve ever heard, in over 1,000 hours of listening. I can’t praise either narrator enough for bringing so much life into these characters and this world. I can’t comment on this from the perspective of somebody who has only read the physical or eBooks, so take that into consideration. I’ve said many times, that a good narrator can make or break a book.

That being said, I do take issue with the way Greg Patmore say “wh” sounds as “hhhwh”, that’s not an issue exclusive to him. It’s really fucking annoying when people pronounce “when” or “white” as hhhwite” or “hhwhen” in general.

The only other real issue I took with the story was the ending. I fucking despise cliffhanger endings. I get that it’s a series, and not everything is going to be wrapped up with a bow. I’m totally fine with that aspect of it. What I take issue with is this ‘ending the book in the middle of a scene, right after a character is introduced’ bullshit. All a cliffhanger ending tells me is that the writer is incompetent, or they have so little belief that their writing will have readers wanting to see where it goes next, that they’ll rely on unfinished business to lure them back in.

I’ve shitcanned series I was very invested in for shit like this. I’m lucky because I already have my old review copy of Bolivar’s Sword to re-listen to. I don’t have books 3 and 4 yet, so I won’t be able to finish this series for a while. At the time of writing this, I plan to listen to book 2 for the third time and re-review it, and if it ends on a cliffhanger as well, I’m going to be furious. I plan to listen to this story again as well, and if I have any additional thoughts, I’ll share them here.

While I normally don’t recommend books with a cliffhanger ending, this is one case where I can, because I can vouch for the quality of the sequel as well.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
1 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-12-23

This is my second DNF from this series. I previously listened to and reviewed #4 and found it suffered from being predictable, boring, and forgettable. I thought maybe I was too hard on book 4 and put more effort into trying to suffer my way through book 5, but it wasn’t worth it.

It suffers from the same issues as Book 4, it’s forgettable and boring. I’ve had this as my qued up book on Audible for months and every time I open the app and see it, I dread having to start listening to it again. I’m 3 stories into #5 and the only story that has left an impression on me was story 1 from #4 due to how insultingly predictable it was.

If you’re looking for a short story collection, there are dozens more I could recommend by genre. Unfortunately, this series falls flat.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much good to say about the narrator either. The way he pronounces words like whip and “hhwhip” will forever be insufferable to me. As is the way he reads nearly every single line in the same voice. While he does deserve credit for his character voices, or, I should say attempt at character voices. While they do sound somewhat different from each other, none of them could be considered distinct, and all still more or less sound like a slight variation of his speaking voice.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-08-23

This review primarily focuses on the audiobook, which is a DNF from me.

There are two huge issues with this book for me. The first is the lesser of the 2. The stories are all SUPER short. I enjoyed the first one, despite how predictable it was. The rest have just been forgettable at best.

The biggest issue by far is the narrator and his obnoxious, ever-present background hissing. He reads every line in the same lifeless, soul-sucking, monotone, boring-as-shit voice that puts me to sleep. Up until now, I’ve tolerated it, because he does decent character voices. As I said in my post “Finding quality audio narrators“, most narrators are either good at doing character voices, or scene narration. But his character voices aren’t anything special either. At best, they’re a respite from his lifeless narration. He puts the same amount of enthusiasm into a character mid-battle as he does a character taking a leisurely stroll walking down the path.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-25-22

I can’t recommend this book for a few reasons. The first is how unoriginal it is. I’ve read or listened to this exact plot probably a dozen times over the last year and I’m sick of it. While I’m the type of person who will re-read the same series dozens of times, it’s for books with far more compelling characters and settings than this one has. That’s not to say the writing is bad, it’s just eh.

The issue with recycling the same plot as countless other stories is I predicted every single twist and plot point it threw at me. None of the revelations had any weight and even had I not previously consumed similar stories, I still would have figured it out.

I will say the ending took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting any sort of wrap-up, as so many authors choose to do. I’m grateful to the author for at least giving people a stopping point in the series. It’s not as if every plot point is wrapped up and done with, it’s more that the writer doesn’t leave you handing in the middle of a scene, expecting you to read the sequel to see the other half, which is something I despise.

As for the narration, I found it extremely grating and wanted to DNF this book because of it. The narrator opted to read the story in a bland tone of voice with few inflections. Which was also the same voice she used for the protagonist. The only time she sounded even slightly different was when she was narrating conversations or other characters, which made those scenes a breath of fresh air.

Maybe if you don’t listen to many audiobooks, this would be tolerable. As somebody who listens to audiobooks every single day, this is a very sub-par and amateur performance. Credit where it’s due at least, she did speak in a clean and clear tone of voice without any flubs, errors, static, or other common Audible issues. It’s not the narration as a whole, but her performance that’s lackluster.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-20-22

Oh my me. These Deadly Games is the best thriller I’ve listened to in a good, long while. There’s never a moment where the danger ceases. It’s impossible to tell who can be trusted, as you’ll likely find yourself hoping Crystal will get her friends to help her.

I did find myself wishing the “five years ago” flashbacks had been a little less spread out throughout the story. They did help me figure out who was behind the threats, to a degree. I was “in the same ballpark”, so to speak. I wasn’t able to figure it out entirely, I just had a suspicion that I couldn’t prove.

I found the lingo insufferable. I fucking hate it when people say “IRL”, to mean “In Real Life”. As opposed to what?! Fake life!? I haven’t been in school for over a decade, so I can’t comment on how accurate the rest of the dialogue was. Though I will say everything felt well researched, it was easy to follow and made sense to me. I think people who don’t use a lot of technology or are even more behind the times than I am could struggle through.

I found These Deadly Games to be exciting, intense, and fun. It’s a thriller that’s actually thrilling. When most of the thrillers I read or listen to are passable at best, These Deadly Games stand out like a beacon of quality.

As for the audio narration, it’s alright. I’m always going to knock points off from anybody who can’t tell the difference between O and Zero. “3o1” isn’t a time. Her male voices were lacking and pretty awful, to be honest. Finally, at one point, a character was supposed to be speaking in an accent and I couldn’t hear it at all. Had it not been brought up in the dialogue, I wouldn’t have even known to make a note of it. Other than that, her narration for Crystal is really the only saving point.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-20-22

What I have to say about this book depends entirely on a few factors. The first, and most important is, has the sequel been released in audiobook format? The reason is that this book is extremely slow, and not much of note happens. This story only serves to push the story ever so slightly forward.

So the second question to answer is; Did you listen to the prequel and book 1, and did you enjoy them? If yes, then this book is more of the same. If not, why are you reading this? While I didn’t enjoy book 1 much, as I thought it was going to be a happy romance, based on the prequel, this story managed to renew my interest in the series.

While the story is mostly filler, there are some interesting scenes and reveals along the way that took me by surprise. Those scenes are the saving grace for the book, and the only thing preventing me from suggesting you skip it outright. I think they’re better experienced firsthand, as opposed to finding them out in book 3.

The audio narration was great. There were a handful of words the narrator pronounced that threw me off, but otherwise, she did a great job of narrating and acting out the character’s lines.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-20-22

This is yet another hard DNF from me. If you’ve read any number of my audiobook reviews, you know I can’t stand bad narrators. The only thing I hate more is pisspoor author narrations.

This narration is so dull and lifeless, it’s sucking the life out of me, as well as my will to live or continue. Every single line is read in this same dull, lifeless, listless, boring, monotonous tone of voice.

Here’s a setting; A warlord just conquered a city and has to prove himself by conquering the former lord’s woman, but she’s a fighter and she isn’t going to go easy. So then tell me, why does she sound bored? Why is it when she says she’s not going to be conquered without a fight, she sounds like she’s got other shit to do and this needs to hurry up? The author/narrator sounds as bored as I feel like having to listen to this.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-19-22

This book might be interesting, from the perspective of a parent, but it holds little value to me. A lot of it is just speculation for the future, and “here’s what I do as a parent”. I was hoping for something a bit more in-depth.

I normally despise author narrations. This was one of the few exceptions, where the author did a fine job.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-17-22

As I occasionally state, I don’t read summaries to avoid spoilers or any info that might influence my opinion. I didn’t know this was historical fiction, based on somebody known to exist. It changes my opinion, for the better. It’s sad that this hero has been forgotten to time.

As for the storytelling, I found it fantastic. I thought this was a suspense story and it genuinely had me nervously hanging onto every word, fearful for the protagonist and her plight. It was well written, easy to follow, and did a decent job of explaining the customs of the time without going into excessive detail or leaving me with more questions than answers.

I found the narration to be alright. It did a serviceable job, but I found the protagonist and her mother sounded too similar for me. Aside from that early issue, I didn’t notice or make note of any of the other characters while listening.

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