Juggling Audiobooks: A Fun and Frustrating Pastime

Fun, because, well, audiobooks are awesome! Frustrating because I get my audiobooks from the library and my tastes run to long books. We're talking books that literally take a work week or more worth of hours to get through.  

Just can't seem to finish

For one, I'm working through Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive books, I'm on Oathbringer (have been for a few months now), and after I got booted from the first borrow, I've since been plagued by incredibly bad timing on hold releases and my tendency to not check my email in time to download them. I'm now on another 6 week wait list because Libby decided I must not really want to borrow it and dropped my hold. 😂

But really, borrowing these has been a game changer for me. I can't afford a subscription or to buy the sheer volume of audiobooks I would want to consume, but loading them on my phone with Libby, I can get close!

Just finished

As for recent finishes, I've just completed the audiobooks for the Caraval Trilogy by Stephanie Garber. Holy cow, great series!  Lots of fun, magic, and immortals. Highly recommended in audio, but I would have liked it in print, too. The first one takes us to the mysterious Caraval games with Scarlet, the older sister. The second, Legendary, with Tella, the younger one. And the third ties it all together, giving us a very well named Finale for both sisters. 

On it now

Next, and currently, I'm listening to the Battlefield Earth audiobook by Galaxy Audio. I'm on Part 6 now, where it's getting really good. Terl has found his leverage. Johnny Goodboy Tyler has lost his. I'm looking forward to the coming chapters, having already read this many times in the past. 

There's also a blog, videos (including about the making of the audiobook), and a listing of more books by L. Ron Hubbard, who was a very prolific writer of fantasy and later science fiction, including the one I'm reading, which he called his attempt at writing pure science fiction. If you read or listen to this, you can learn more about what that means by listening to the foreword. In the audio, it's read by Stefan Rudnicki (links to books he's narrated), one of my favorite narrators, who read Ender's Game and the other books in that series.

With that, back to reading (or listening)!

Drop a comment to let me know what you're reading or to chime in on these.

Epic Fantasy Review: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Set in a world beset by ravaging storms that destroy anyone caught in their path and infuse gems with light and energy, Words of Radiance continues the epic Stormlight Chronicles. Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan are the main players, all three interesting in their own right, but the story features asides from several other perspectives. Not only are some of the characters growing some rather interesting abilities, they’re also facing some incredible challenges.

As in the previous book, The Way of Kings, the history of one of the characters is revealed through flashback chapters, told in their own chronological order. This time, Shallan’s story is the focus. In the first book, I didn’t really get into Shallan, but I can’t say the same for this one. She gets more and more interesting, and even with all her growth in this book, there’s still plenty left for the next book. Plenty of questions and decisions. Though I must admit, Kaladin’s still my favorite character, and I love his chapters the best.

Oh, and the Radiants! We finally start to piece together what happened to them. It isn’t answered, not entirely, but I’m beginning to understand it, and I love how the story’s built to let me try to figure it out.

All of that leaves out the Parshendi, the enemy being fought on the Shattered Plains, but the book devotes quite a bit of time to them, revealing that they are both not as bad as they could be, but also well on their way to getting there. I found my emotions tugged in all sorts of directions regarding them.

All that being said, this story is epic and full of a range of mini stories that make up the whole. At over a thousand pages, it took me nearly a month to get through it, and I’m a fast reader. Near the end, I found it harder and harder to put the book down at a reasonable hour, but after all the action was over, it still had quite a way to go.

Overall, I loved this book. It was a lot of fun, featuring some interesting magic, lots of secrets meted out in small doses, and several larger than life characters that kept me engaged to the very end. I think folks who love the twists and turns and all the history and lore will likely enjoy this book. However, folks who prefer shorter, more direct reads might find this one a bit daunting.

I bought this book at Barnes and Noble because I thought my husband would like it, too. The thing weighs a ton! :-)


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Epic Fantasy Review: The Way of the Kings (Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description:
Speak again the ancient oaths,
Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.
and return to men the Shards they once bore.
The Knights Radiant must stand again.

Roshar is a world of stone swept by tempests that shape ecology and civilization. Animals and plants retract; cities are built in shelter. In centuries since ten orders of Knights fell, their Shardblade swords and Shardplate armor still transform men into near-invincible warriors. Wars are fought for them, and won by them.

In one such war on ruined Shattered Plains, slave Kaladin struggles to save his men and fathom leaders who deem them expendable, in senseless wars where ten armies fight separately against one foe.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Fascinated by ancient text The Way of Kings, troubled by visions of ancient times, he doubts his sanity.

Across the ocean, Shallan trains under eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece Jasnah. Though Shallan genuinely loves learning, she plans a daring theft. Her research hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.


My Review:
Awesome epic. I read The Way of the Kings about a year or so after I bought it. Why did I wait? Probably seeing how it dwarfed the other books on my Kindle and giving into a touch of impatience due to setting too high of a book read goal for last year. This year, I was smarter and set my goal a bit lower so I could fit in a few epic reads, like this one.

Like many of the books in this genre, this one weaves a complex tale that takes turns focusing on a few interesting co-main characters. Kaladin is the one I found most interesting, but Dalinar and Shallan are also pretty cool, as are some of the other featured characters, like Adolin, Wit, and Kaladin’s crew. Szeth, a tormented assassin, just appears a few times, but his chapters show the extent of magical possibility in this story’s world.

That magic, as in many fantasy books, is critical to the world, the history, and the characters. I love how the author weaves all of it together in a consistent way and reveals more and more of it as the story progresses.

As mentioned before, I particularly love Kaladin’s part, particularly the mystery surrounding his fall. He’s obviously a good and heroic person, and that placed next to his situation made me root for him more than any other in the book. His crew also interested me greatly, and really, the rest of the folks in this book just kind of fell into supporting roles, in my opinion. I’m hoping for a lot of time with him in the next book.

That being said, I had some trouble getting started on this book, and that could be due to how we are introduced to some very interesting characters and a lot of action in a couple of chapters and then go to Shallan, who isn’t quite as interesting at the start, and watch as she tries to get a job. Still, I stuck with it and wasn’t disappointed.

Overall, I love this book. It’s epic fantasy in all the right ways. There’s some complex politics, intricate history, and magical discovery. Everything is smooth and well-told, and the pacing is pretty good for the most part, though I tended to look forward to the Kaladin parts more than the rest. I highly recommend this story to folks who have some time on their hands and a love for a good epic.


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Intrigued? Pick up a copy on Amazon. I'm posting this one and the next one, though book two is still on my to-be-read shelf.