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As expected
I wrote recently about reading The Atlas Six and then having the follow-up book, The Atlas Paradox, available from the library right all ready to start when I was ready. I did like a lot about the first book but I didn’t love it. Mostly I enjoyed the character-driven aspects. It seemed to fall down when it got to some of the science which mostly fell into the area of physic. I never studied physics but even I could tell that some of the plot was a bit of a stretch. Not even the magic part of the book could compensate for this problem. Still, I was able to overlook it to some degree because I enjoyed other parts of the book. I was concerned at the end when new characters and plot devices were revealed. It felt like something that could get really messy unless handled well. I kind of underestimated how badly it ended up being.
Ultimately there wasn’t really a proper plot in the second book. Lots of potential ones and lots of ideas being thrown around. But not a plot. There was limited action in the second book, mostly just conversations that came nowhere near driving a story. It felt like the writer just kept adding more and more to the story, trying to cover too much territory and doing none of it well. The science got even worse and something happens to make a cliffhanger that seems terribly unlikely. Not to mention the character involved acts in ways that seem unlikely for this character. There’s just not enough to convince me the character has changed in ways that would create this “development”. Other characters also had changes that seemed to come out of nowhere. It’s as though the drive of the characters ran out of steam and they just kind of fizzled out.
I finished the book but it was something of a struggle to get there. There is another book but I can’t see how this story could even be saved at this point. Still, I do have some curiosity about where it’s all going. Not that I will be losing sleep until the next book is released. LOL
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Audiobooks
For almost my entire reading life, I’ve always read to myself. I have no recollection of ever having books read to me as a child. That’s not to say it didn’t happen but possibly once I learned to read it stopped happening. Or something along those lines.
The one exception on this was when I was in fourth grade and our English teacher read Charlotte’s Web out loud to our class in preparation for us to take a field trip to see the animated film. I don’t remember it that well aside from us sitting on a rug or something while she read. That was the only teacher who I recall doing that.
I didn’t go to kindergarten but once I was in first grade I was super-ready to read. I was in the top reading group from early on and stayed that way throughout my primary years. So again I read to myself and there was never any notion that I would be read to.
I few years ago I read The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker and I really adored it. I read it a couple of times and still go back and read parts occasionally. Barker just released a sequel this week, but it’s currently only on audiobook. I was quite torn because I want to know what happens next but I really prefer to read for myself.
I read books on Netgalley which provides advanced reader copies in exchange for reviews. Occasionally something good comes along and this time the audiobook for the sequel showed up. I went ahead and requested it and happily, I succeeded.
I’ve been listening for the past three days now. It’s really weird to listen to the book instead of reading it for myself. The worst part is I have my own imagined voices and images of the story and now I’ve got someone else inflicting a different version on me. Of course there’s no way around this but it makes for a totally new “reading” experience. I did find the first couple of chapters to be a bit rough and didn’t find the reader did so good of a job at differentiating characters voices. It’s gotten better as it’s gone on. What’s really funny is that one character has a longish name and it’s pronounced fully each time. But when I read for myself, I tend to create a mental shortcut while reading so as not to take up so much time. It’s really funny to keep hearing this long name spoken.
I’m only up to chapter ten and there’s a lot more to go. I am kind of getting into it a bit more now. Initially I was listening with earphones but last night I connected with a bluetooth speaker and just let it play continuously. I’ve also played it in the car but I find it gets stuck after each chapter ends. I think I listened to three or four last night without pause, so that set up seems to work okay for me. It says I’m about a quarter of the way through the book so progress is happening.
I really look forward to the ebook/print versions being released in June or July so I can read it again with my own personal voices and images. One thing that I do wonder about is whether this would have been an issue had this been the first book or a standalone story. I might have to try it out some time just to see.