Once Upon a Time IX: Mini Reviews

As you might remember towards the end of March I joined the Once Upon a Time "challenge". Here I want to share my thoughts on the first 2 entries I have for my Quest the First.

 
Off to be the wizard by Scott Meyer

Format: Audio

Time: 389

Source: Own (Audible)
Narrated by:Luke Daniels

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher:Brilliance Audio

Thoughts: I listened to this one because my boyfriend got it (we share your Audible credits) and I decided to give a try. First of all let me say that I really like Luke Daniels as a narrator. He did the Brilliance saga and I think he does a great job pairing voices with characters. The story made me think a bit of a A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with some elements from The Matrix. Martin is a regular guy who happens to discover that he manipulate reality since, it turns out, it is nothing but a computer program. When things got out of hand, he flees the present to Medieval England, only to learn he is not the first one to try this escape route. As funny as the story was, it felt predictable. Sure, it was entertaining, but you can tell what's going to happen from the beginning. And there is only one girl in the whole story! This, I realize, might not bother a lot of people but it bothered me. We still got the rest of the series since it was on sale, and again, I really like Luke Daniels. Apparently things get better on the second one, so we will see.

 

Wyrd Sisters by Sir Terry Pratchett

Format: Paperback

Pages: 332

Source: Lybrary

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Corgi (Random House)

Thoughts: This was the April pick for the Sword and Laser Book Club. I was hesitant at first to enter Discworld in the 6th book. But their arguments were quite convincing and here we are. The story follows 3 witches, a dead king, a duke going crazy of guilt, a fool and a lost son. As you can probably tell by that, the book makes a lot of references to Shakespeare's theater plays. Reading this I found all the elements I so enjoyed when I read Good Omens: it was fun, it was witty and it was very, very entertaining. The 3 witches, as different as they are from each other are just hilarious. Even if you haven't read Shakespeare (I haven't) most of the references have become such a big part of the popular culture that you see right thought them. However I know from the discussion afterwards that there were several things I missed. Even so, this did not tempered my enjoyment of the story.