Tony Hinde > Recent Status Updates

Was just about to DNF when a story element arrived introducing some plot. Prior to that it was just scripted fights... nothing organic.

It’s idea-first sci-fi—where the story exists to explain the concept, and the characters are just there to walk you through it.

Here's an author that loves the English language. [Chef's kiss.]

I'm taking a little break from this book. It's perhaps the best character focussed story I've read, I do miss a plot to drive my anticipation of future events.

I just love the language. There are so many digressions and so many colourful allusions to every-day minutia that it's mesmerising.

Oh man, I'd forgotten how much I dislike Andrea Parsneau as a narrator. I'm pushing through the little girl voices, the inappropriate sniggers, and the pretentious male voices. Maybe I should drop the audiobook and revert to my e-reader.

I read this book decades ago but have heard so many people talking about the series lately, that I wanted to give the whole thing another read.

I'm getting an "airport thriller" vibe.

If so many people hadn't recommended this series, I'd have dropped it after the first chapter. Who thought it would be a good idea to start a book with an anti-hook – a reading from a bad story written within the actual fantasy world?

This book is make-or-break for the series.

With the anime coming out I wanted to refresh myself on the book, but decided to try the audio version. It's subtly different.

I'm re-reading this series because I lost track of things before reaching the end of the series... and I also want to read The Sunlit Man which, I'm told, is improved with familiarity with the Stormlight Archive.

I skipped through the first two chapters as they were standard setup for entering a virtual RPG reality.

So few people show altruism or empathy that this story starts to wear on my psyche. It doesn't help that the "heroes" seem to find every reason possible to take no action.

Aside from the gaping hole of normies not all being heavily armed against supervillains, the story feels relatively realistic. It got pretty dark at times. In fact, I struggled to get through the extended bullying chapters.

Finished the first volume, Skitter, of the audiobook series; 39 hours at standard speed. This is a journey all right.

The narrators are fine for the most part, which is impressive as they are amateurs. I had to adjust the playback speed to account for a sometimes dramatic change in speech rate. It was sometimes difficult to tell which character was speaking, as the voice work was sub-par.

I read this book decades ago and remembered nothing about it other than that it is dark and complex. Everyone raves about the series so I thought I'd take another swing at it.

The whole first chapter is unimportant exposition. You'd think every author would remember to hook the reader, particularly one who is obsessed with fishing.