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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
Yesterday's Gone perked my interest because it's a serial story made to be told out loud. It didn't hurt that it's free to get the first episode and try it out. I recognized most of the narrators and that cinched the deal for me. Well, it worked. I ended up listening to this episode a few times because I had to go back to re-hear the story in parts. There's a lot going on and important details are inserted in common points. I finished the first episode and I am definitely buying the first season to see where the story goes.
It was just another day but it isn't. Most of the world's population is gone, there's an odd vibe in the air and unsettling changes to the neighborhood that creeps unease down your spine but gives no answers. Various characters try to establish a new routine in this eerie ghost-land. It all looks the same. It's just missing life. The rush of thousands of people going about their lives. Even the animals don't seem to be the same.
3.5 Stars for Storyline
The overall story in the first episode gets 3 stars from me. It's like a mix of short stories that will come together later on. Some parts are really well done and others are lacking. Oddly enough, the killer, Boricio Wolfe, is the most interesting character of all. The most colorful. Next, would be Desmond. I only got a very small look at him before the first episode ended. I want more descriptions for the setting. I'm hoping that will come to pass down the line.
3.5-4 Stars for Narration
I had a similar response to the narration. I'm always up for trying a story that has multiple readers. I prefer recordings where all of the readers have certain characters and read for that part over the more common narration of each person voicing multiple parts per chapter/section. This serial is the more common type but it does it fairly well. The most annoying and ill-fit voice acting was done for the young boy, Luca.
I wonder if every episode will be a cliff hanger? One that tempts you just enough to pull you into the next one? It worked on me. I'm in.
It was just another day but it isn't. Most of the world's population is gone, there's an odd vibe in the air and unsettling changes to the neighborhood that creeps unease down your spine but gives no answers. Various characters try to establish a new routine in this eerie ghost-land. It all looks the same. It's just missing life. The rush of thousands of people going about their lives. Even the animals don't seem to be the same.
3.5 Stars for Storyline
The overall story in the first episode gets 3 stars from me. It's like a mix of short stories that will come together later on. Some parts are really well done and others are lacking. Oddly enough, the killer, Boricio Wolfe, is the most interesting character of all. The most colorful. Next, would be Desmond. I only got a very small look at him before the first episode ended. I want more descriptions for the setting. I'm hoping that will come to pass down the line.
3.5-4 Stars for Narration
I had a similar response to the narration. I'm always up for trying a story that has multiple readers. I prefer recordings where all of the readers have certain characters and read for that part over the more common narration of each person voicing multiple parts per chapter/section. This serial is the more common type but it does it fairly well. The most annoying and ill-fit voice acting was done for the young boy, Luca.
I wonder if every episode will be a cliff hanger? One that tempts you just enough to pull you into the next one? It worked on me. I'm in.
although I cannot help but think of similar pieces of work while reading this, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and will get season 2 because I have to know what happens. it sucked me in and I liked it.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Exciting post-apocalyptic thriller told in serialised format - the season consists of six novelette-length parts, each comprising a dozen or so chapters from different characters' points of view. It's pretty straightforward to draw a direct line from Stephen King through TV shows like Lost and 24 to Yesterday's Gone (the authors cite all of the above as influences, with King's original serialisation of The Green Mile, which was published in chapbooks back in the day, the most direct inspiration).
It's a page-turner. After 99% of the world's human and animal populations just vanish overnight (Rapture? Nah, more interesting than that) various survivors gather their wits and band together to overcome predatory survivalists, secret agents, weird ghost-monsters, psychic children and serial killers. At least a few of those are point of view characters.
The characters are well-drawn and compelling, if not always completely sympathetic. (The bloodthirsty psychopath is a barrel of laughs though, and has a surprisingly nuanced grip on his humanity which makes him all the more enjoyable). Information about exactly what's going on is being dispensed slowly as the characters come to grips with their situation - there's obviously a lot to the world that is yet to be revealed in subsequent seasons. Still, what has come out in this series has whet my curiosity.
Chapters end on appropriately breathless cliffhangers (the one to finish off the season is a hilarious where-the-hell-is-this-going-now headspin) and the body count is satisfying without being gratuitous. One character death late in Part 6 caught me nicely off-guard, just when I'd convinced myself I knew what would happen next.
The serialised ebook series is a model I find fascinating as a reader, hearkening back to the early days of popular fiction. Sean Platt and David Wright may not be this generation's Charles Dickens, but they know how to keep a reader interested. I'll definitely be picking up Season 2.
It's a page-turner. After 99% of the world's human and animal populations just vanish overnight (Rapture? Nah, more interesting than that) various survivors gather their wits and band together to overcome predatory survivalists, secret agents, weird ghost-monsters, psychic children and serial killers. At least a few of those are point of view characters.
The characters are well-drawn and compelling, if not always completely sympathetic. (The bloodthirsty psychopath is a barrel of laughs though, and has a surprisingly nuanced grip on his humanity which makes him all the more enjoyable). Information about exactly what's going on is being dispensed slowly as the characters come to grips with their situation - there's obviously a lot to the world that is yet to be revealed in subsequent seasons. Still, what has come out in this series has whet my curiosity.
Chapters end on appropriately breathless cliffhangers (the one to finish off the season is a hilarious where-the-hell-is-this-going-now headspin) and the body count is satisfying without being gratuitous. One character death late in Part 6 caught me nicely off-guard, just when I'd convinced myself I knew what would happen next.
The serialised ebook series is a model I find fascinating as a reader, hearkening back to the early days of popular fiction. Sean Platt and David Wright may not be this generation's Charles Dickens, but they know how to keep a reader interested. I'll definitely be picking up Season 2.