BOOK: A Gathering of Shadows (2016)

by benmweilertNo Comments
A Gathering of ShadowsYear: 2016Author: V.E. SchwabLength: 969 minutes / 16.15 hours It’s been five years since I read the first book in this series and the only thing I remembered was that I thought that book was just kind of average. Nevertheless, I finally got around to reading A Gathering of Shadows, hoping that something would improve the series going forward. Fortunately, I found the last half of this book to be entertaining. That I had to sit through the boring first part wasn’t great and seems to be a continuing issue with this series. There’s something to be said about starting a story in the right spot. As was the case again, the main character just doesn’t resonate with me that much. Luckily, there were enough other characters who stole the spotlight and brought up the entertainment value for me. Even with my last exposure to this series being five years ago, my memory of these characters came back easily....
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BOOK: A Darker Shade of Magic (2015)

by benmweilertNo Comments
A Darker Shade of MagicYear: 2015Author: V.E. SchwabLength: 694 minutes / 11.57 hours A co-worker of mine suggested I check this book out, and I have now finally gotten around to it. While he gave this series of books a glowing review, I can only hope that the other books in this trilogy fare better than this one. For what it was worth, A Darker Shade of Magic didn’t seem to be original enough for me to care much about what happened in it. It’s filled with so many fantasy and YA tropes that I could almost swear I’d read the same book somewhere else before. Perhaps part of my problem comes with the audiobook production of this story. I generally liked Lila, except when she was particularly annoying. There were quite a few times the narrator made her sound like Audrey Hepburn in the early part of My Fair Lady (1964), and that’s not much of a compliment. Overall, though, I...
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