![]() Altogether this is a fun 9.5 star out of 10 book - but the narration brings my rating down to 8.5 stars. His interest in the book is clear (timbre, tone, and cadence are commendable) - but his voice-acting is fairly weak (some of the chosen voices for characters are poorly-accented or cartoonish) and his rate of reading is too slow (listening to this book at 1.25X is highly recommended). Unfortunately, the book is let down a little by spotty narration from MacLeod Andrews. The book is undeniably aimed at a younger audience, but the Fantasy is clever and the writing is creditable. but the plot is well-conceived, well-executed, and well-described. The topic/scenario resembles a comicbook, the chief character is a teenager, and the dialogue is reasonably sophomoric. Sanderson's protagonist - David Charleston - witnessed the murder of dozens of people (including his father) as a child. ![]() A class of Freedom Fighters called "Reckoners" work to find & kill Epics (each of whom has a weakness to exploit). Brandon Sanderson envisions a world where superpowered beings (known as "Epics") set up authoritarian fiefs like Feudal Warlords and essentially run them like crime syndicates. Cyberpunk), but this very cool future reality/alternate reality reads like a great Marvel graphic novel. it won't spawn a genre like 'Neuromancer' did (ie. The series actually reminds me of William Gibson in it's creativity. 'Mutant Mafia'ĭismissing this book as "Children's" literature would be a mistake. I’ve heard the follow up novel is better, so I plan on giving it a try. If you’re a diehard Sanderson fan you might enjoy it too. I would recommend this book to readers who like action adventure stories and who are 11-15 years old. ![]() When this happened the volume of his voice, and the pitch, changed enough to take me temporarily out of the story, but I do appreciate the effort he made in going back to redo parts of his narration. Also, it sounded like he went back and redid some parts of the story when he wasn’t happy with how he voiced a part. He voiced the other male characters well but wasn’t as strong when he voiced the female characters. His comedic timing and his voice really went well with David’s character. McLeod Andrews was a solid choice for the narration of this story. If you’ve read Mistborn you’ll see a lot of similarities. I am not sure if I was able to make accurate predications because it was a YA novel or because I’ve read enough of Brandon Sanderson’s novels that I was able to guess where he was taking the story. I had predicated several parts of the ending, but not the entire ending. The characters could have been so much more interesting than the two-note characters they actually were. However, I wish his character, and others, had been fleshed out. The Reckoner crew was fun, and I enjoyed the fact that there was a Black French-Canadian man on the crew. No other character in the novel is as well developed as him. He felt genuine and his many attempts at metaphors were hilarious. The Good The main character, David, was fun. Finally, as I’ve already mentioned, the pacing was not great. At times it felt like every fifth word was one of these two words. ![]() The characters don’t use modern swear words, instead they swear with works like “sparks,” and “calamity.” This would have been fun it wasn’t such overkill. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I had hope for a more original storyline. The X-men (read Reckoners), led by Professor X (read The Professor), are going to take him on. For example, a bad Mutant (read Epic) named The Lord Ruler (read Steelheart) has conquered the world (read Chicago) and changed the environment by creating ash falls (read a steel landscape). There were also elements of Sanderson’s Mistborn novels in the story. My first big concern was that the story felt like an X-men story, but only the bad guys have mutant powers. The Bad Starting with the parts that I didn’t like. It was at this point the story started to feel more like a YA novel. I almost quit it, but it started to pick up speed just past the halfway point. I felt the story was less YA and more middle grade. The story starts off quickly with a fast-paced prologue then grinds down to a halting pace. Sparks! Does David plan on fighting the Lord Ruler
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