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A review by vailynst
Black Wolves by Kate Elliott
4.0
3.8 Stars
Mix of Audio & Print Review:
This book is hard to review because I have conflicting responses to it. I enjoy stories more in print but hardly have the time for it due to a busy life. Audiobooks have been a great compromise and allow me to continue taking in new stories by ear while I do other things. Richard Ferrone is a good narrator. I would like to listen to him tell another story but he was not the right fit for this one. This story has a solid base on Asian culture. There's a twist of words and pace that needed to be told in a certain fashion. He narration didn't have what my ear needed to hear.
Even when I read the story, that cadence was not consistently placed within the whole of the book. Yet when it was evident, it was a delightful and rich experience.
The story takes place in a made up world but it has too many solid links in phrasing, stories, habits, clothes, objects and etc that link to Asian cultures for me to think of it as a "new world with Asian influences". Because the cultural impacts and mannerisms are so strongly entwined, I felt disgruntled when it was not done well and enthralled when it was.
Overall, the series has a lot of promise and I am a total fan of Kellas. It has an intricate plot, strong characters, rich culture and the rioting flames of battle ready to roar. This book is about a man who had too much spirit to calmly take his place in life and do what others expected of him. His reckless passion tossed him right into the arms of Fate and a fight that he would give his life to champion.
In disjointed scenes going from the present to the past and times between, I stumble into a world that is familiar in every alien way possible. You get a solid base for the world that holds the Hundred, the greedy Empire, dark skinned travelers and common folk. The conflicting details of several people are drawn out in bits and pieces. A glimpse of the preternatural that lives alongside the norm. The whole of a mystery is unveiled as others flit like teasing mist. One formidable hero comes to the last stages of his time as new ones grow to take their own place.
I really like this book a lot but it is not a seamless piece without flaws. I think the next one will be great. I look forward to the next phase of the Hundred and the people who fight for their vision of it.
Mix of Audio & Print Review:
This book is hard to review because I have conflicting responses to it. I enjoy stories more in print but hardly have the time for it due to a busy life. Audiobooks have been a great compromise and allow me to continue taking in new stories by ear while I do other things. Richard Ferrone is a good narrator. I would like to listen to him tell another story but he was not the right fit for this one. This story has a solid base on Asian culture. There's a twist of words and pace that needed to be told in a certain fashion. He narration didn't have what my ear needed to hear.
Even when I read the story, that cadence was not consistently placed within the whole of the book. Yet when it was evident, it was a delightful and rich experience.
The story takes place in a made up world but it has too many solid links in phrasing, stories, habits, clothes, objects and etc that link to Asian cultures for me to think of it as a "new world with Asian influences". Because the cultural impacts and mannerisms are so strongly entwined, I felt disgruntled when it was not done well and enthralled when it was.
Overall, the series has a lot of promise and I am a total fan of Kellas. It has an intricate plot, strong characters, rich culture and the rioting flames of battle ready to roar. This book is about a man who had too much spirit to calmly take his place in life and do what others expected of him. His reckless passion tossed him right into the arms of Fate and a fight that he would give his life to champion.
In disjointed scenes going from the present to the past and times between, I stumble into a world that is familiar in every alien way possible. You get a solid base for the world that holds the Hundred, the greedy Empire, dark skinned travelers and common folk. The conflicting details of several people are drawn out in bits and pieces. A glimpse of the preternatural that lives alongside the norm. The whole of a mystery is unveiled as others flit like teasing mist. One formidable hero comes to the last stages of his time as new ones grow to take their own place.
I really like this book a lot but it is not a seamless piece without flaws. I think the next one will be great. I look forward to the next phase of the Hundred and the people who fight for their vision of it.