Space opera fluff/cheesy poof listen - we enjoyed listening to these on road trips last year and went ahead and bought the next 2. If you like band-ofSpace opera fluff/cheesy poof listen - we enjoyed listening to these on road trips last year and went ahead and bought the next 2. If you like band-of-misfit adventures, this fits the bill. Audio narrator was great. It took a chunk of the first book to get rolling and warm up, but I liked the characters - particularly Viggo and his cleaner bots and Z. Bit of a parallel to the characters' in Emporer's Edge series in that Casmir is kind of the "Amaranthe" of the group and Rache is a "Sicarius" type...
There is a podcast interview with the author after the book finishes that lends insight into her research process and how the characters were developeThere is a podcast interview with the author after the book finishes that lends insight into her research process and how the characters were developed. I wish I had read that first - it gave more depth and retrospective enjoyment to the story.
The first chapter is a great hook. After that, the characters and their relationships felt flat, so it took me several hours to recover and get back into the book and engage with it. The audiobook narrator tried to drop her voice to do male voices and that always twangs a nerve for me (same with men who raise their voices to try to sound "feminine"). I also immediately loathed one character's boyfriend who shortens her name from Jordan to "Jor." What the heck is that? An orc name?
That said, I enjoyed the tenacity and energy of Nina and Jordan. Loved a literary spotlight on this historical group of women who were next-level badass. ...more
I overall enjoyed it. As others have said, it was a good time to discuss the "freedom of speech" and responsibility piece.
(view spoiler)[I feel like I overall enjoyed it. As others have said, it was a good time to discuss the "freedom of speech" and responsibility piece.
(view spoiler)[I feel like Earl molesting his daughter gave Steve 2 an out. But online bullying and harassment is horrific and does have a real impact and I felt he needed to take more responsibility there or at least display genuine empathy. Finding out Earl was molesting his daughter shifted the narrative from sympathetic to Earl and his family and their loss, to the three of them being backwards redneck 1 dimensional psychos - almost cutouts of the last family of crazies Pickett encountered. I feel like some of these lower-level villains are portrayed as ignorant incestuous/inbreeding meth lab rednecks to make it easier to feel unsympathetic towards them instead of giving real depth to their stories - or stories of poverty in the rural west. (hide spoiler)]
Kind of confused - who is the guy who raised his own animals and killed them by hand to learn what that was all about? Steve 2 clearly did not have that experience, but I could swear that at some point, the guy ("Tim"?) was talking about how he would go all-in to learn about something he didn't know for a year, including farming and raising his own animals? If someone remembers that piece and can clarify it for me, I'd appreciate it, because I was a bit confused by one scene where Steve 2 is a bit put off by game that is killed. ...more
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