mrericsully's reviews
1302 reviews

Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson

4.0

It's hard to review a complication, but as I read this I marked the original work instead. I've added this to my shelf for completeness and because it is the only place where White Sand in a non-graphic novel format exists. I read that the day I marked this as completed.

White Sand: Volume Three by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I've thoroughly enjoyed this series. Sanderson is excellent at creating unique magic systems. This also proves (along with some of his short stories) that he can write well even when that writing is condensed. I don't love dramatized or full-cast audiobooks usually, but this one was descent and was a great way to consume the series.

Content Warnings

White Sand: Volume Two by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I am not a big fan of full cast audiobooks or dramatized adaptations, but this one's another solid one. The series definitely lags a little bit here in the second act, but I'm excited to move on to the final one and finish it.

Content Warnings

White Sand, Volume 1 by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

A solid adaptation and an interesting magic system. Another creative world in the Cosmere. Since it is short, the pace is way faster than a standard Sanderson novel. The world is in peril almost immediately and so the plot exists immediately and easy to follow.

Content Warnings

Habilis: The Aura Seed by Diane Shirk

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.

To be clear 1) I won this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway and started reading it when it arrived today & 2) I'm choosing to not finish the book. Maybe I just can't get into the mindset of a young reader, but the writing is very clunky. There's a overuse of commas and new paragraphs. I'm a well versed reader, but I found myself having to reread a lot in simply the first chapter to just understand some sentences because of the awkward structure. It is possible that this is a young reader issue but there were also several times something was implied, or even directly stated, and then immediately restated in the most obvious way for emphasis. The book definitely has potential so I gave it a bump up from 1 star. I teach at a preK-12 school and plan on passing it along to the librarians to let them test it and then recommend it to young readers to see if they like it instead. I'll updat this review if I get feedback.

The Holy Bible: King James Version by Anonymous

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

3.25

To be clear I am critiquing the translation and the audiobook performance and not the text. Having said that, despite many churches being "King James only" there are major flaws with the translation. For its time it was good, but since-discovered transcripts, less reliance on the Vulgate, and some bias removal has made modern translations better. My dad has always insisted that he lives the poetic style of the KJV and I don't disagree with him. Rather than updating the language, ai would love to see someone update the translation flawa while preserving the 1600s/Shakespearean language. As for the audio performance, I listened to the Max McLean performance on YouVersion from The Listener's Bible, the Fellowship for Performing Arts, Cambridge University Press, & BFBS (because I couldn't find a copy of the James Earl Jones version). The audiobook version was solid with my only complaint being the 5-15 second pauses between Chapters (at least the way it was cut for YouVersion). I actually read through the translation twice while following The Bible Recap reading plan (which is chronological). That plan encourages the devotional video/podcast to be watched afterwards. Thinking that I would struggle with this translation (which I did not), I thought it'd be nice to have the devotional sandwiches between two identical readings. It was nice to have my radar up to look for some details that I may have not connected or listening that I zoned out on (because I barely ever read along), but I didn't really need the double readings. This was my 8th year reading through the Bible in a year (with a different translation & reading plan each time) and with reading it twice here and twice last year makes it my 10th read-through.

Dawnshard: Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced