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A review by cayenne503
The Original by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Overall 4.75/5
I picked this up purely because I had to make a longish drive and the length was just about perfect for the round trip drive time. I’m a huge fan of Sanderson and greatly enjoyed one Kowal book before so I had high expectations. Fun story, good performance by the narrator, the perfect length for what it is. I already recommended it to a friend of mine before I had even finished it.
Characters: 4.5/5
It’s such a short story that there’s no room for major character development but I do think most of the important characters felt like real people. They seemed like they truly have motivation instead of just riding the wave of the plot.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 5/5
Very cool concept and well thought out. It seemed very immersive even despite being such a short story. I could see myself watching a tv series set in this world even if it didn’t follow this particular story.
Plot: 4/5
Pretty straightforward. Once you know the premise of the story it happens largely as you would expect. Entertaining but not groundbreaking. The twist/reveal at the very end got me-did NOT see that coming
Writing: 4.5/5
Excellent, as I would expect from these authors. The only minor issues that kept this section from being a 5/5 for me was the noticeable moments of infodumping and the repetitiveness of the POV character’s thoughts about her unexpected abilities. Both minor in the grand scheme of things
Narration/Sound: 5/5
The narrator does an excellent job portraying the emotion of the POV character and has great timing and pacing with the action sequences. The sound effects and music also added a lot—I’ve never listened to an audiobook with those effects before but I really liked it.
I picked this up purely because I had to make a longish drive and the length was just about perfect for the round trip drive time. I’m a huge fan of Sanderson and greatly enjoyed one Kowal book before so I had high expectations. Fun story, good performance by the narrator, the perfect length for what it is. I already recommended it to a friend of mine before I had even finished it.
Characters: 4.5/5
It’s such a short story that there’s no room for major character development but I do think most of the important characters felt like real people. They seemed like they truly have motivation instead of just riding the wave of the plot.
Setting/Worldbuilding: 5/5
Very cool concept and well thought out. It seemed very immersive even despite being such a short story. I could see myself watching a tv series set in this world even if it didn’t follow this particular story.
Plot: 4/5
Pretty straightforward. Once you know the premise of the story it happens largely as you would expect. Entertaining but not groundbreaking. The twist/reveal at the very end got me-did NOT see that coming
Writing: 4.5/5
Excellent, as I would expect from these authors. The only minor issues that kept this section from being a 5/5 for me was the noticeable moments of infodumping and the repetitiveness of the POV character’s thoughts about her unexpected abilities. Both minor in the grand scheme of things
Narration/Sound: 5/5
The narrator does an excellent job portraying the emotion of the POV character and has great timing and pacing with the action sequences. The sound effects and music also added a lot—I’ve never listened to an audiobook with those effects before but I really liked it.