It was as if the author forgot parts of his own mythology. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief to an amazing degree sometimes, but this book demanded too much of me. This is one of the worst books I've read in ages. The synopsis looked good and I needed a book. When this showed up for sale, I picked it up. Get the new Bartimaeous 'Ring of Soloman' instead, or the first 2 books in the Leviathan series-both terrific listens.Ī whole lot worse than I thought was possible Mostly the disappointment was the main character who just could never get over himself-and himself sure wasn't very compelling. Yes, true love blah blah blah, but done so poorly. He just basically made the other characters sound like they were mentally deficient. I really wanted to like this book, and was willing to put up with a poor narrator-what other said about his female voices was right on-but add ANY other voice than the 2 main characters-all done with a very heavy hand.

He did redeem himself at some point in the final battle scene but my son didn't even feel like finishing it-after putting up with the inanity for many hours. At every turn, our hero could make the right call, reach above himself, pay attention at the very least! But he didn't, choosing to go into a ridiculous moony thing over his girlfriend. We've LOVED the Bartimaeus series, Leviathan and Behemoth, and countless others-and so wanted to like this book.but the hero was so irritating, stupid and never learned-that character transformation that happens in all great stories just didn't. My 11-year-old and I like to listen to books during the commute. I'll probably get around to it eventually. Bottom line I'm not going to jump through any hoops to continue this series, but I'm not opposed to the idea. I'm not sure if this was his fault or the writing, but its of little consequence. Neil Kaplan does a good job narrating this book, but at times he gets a little goofy (for lack of a better description). That has no bearing on the quality of this book.

I never read that book, but I distinctly remember Oprah Winfrey tearing him a new one on national TV for being a liar back in the early 2000's. Another surreal aspect of this book came about halfway through when I googled the author and found out he is the 'Million Little Pieces' guy. However, I kept listening because despite all of that it was entertaining and kept me engaged. It has huge gaping holes in its plot, and it made me role my eyes a lot.

I am number four ebook