- Title:
- Bridgefinders
- Author:
- Joshua C. Cook
- Release:
- May 6, 2016
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrator:
- Brian C. McKee
- Series:
- The Echo Worlds, Volume 1
I’ve mentioned numerous times in my reviews that I’m a fan of the whole good vs. evil battles while humanity remains miraculously, blissfully unaware. It’s fair to say that I have a bit of a bias towards this type of story.
This is one of those rare exceptions for me. I did enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s incredibly slow. Little to nothing happens in the grand scheme of things and it’s almost entirely setup and world-building. When it finally starts to get interesting, it ends.
The story constantly brings up memorable protagonist and his ex-girlfriend’s relationship. But it never goes anywhere with it. It never hints that they might still have feelings or get back together, so it feels like a waste of time to even bring it up. It seems the only reason for ex-girlfriend and memorable protagonist’s relationship is so she can constantly talk about how logical he is in his decision making, every time he does something rash.
The other characters are all generic. Bossman, who I want to call Isran because he reminds some of a character from a videogame, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He’s the tough, gruff boss-man who’s always been in charge and doesn’t like this new kid who doesn’t bend to his will. There’s generic evil villain who’s evil because evil, generic evil sidekick who’s evil because evil. Finally, there’s generic throwaway character because they needed another body to make the roster feel less empty.
The premise is interesting. The world and lore are interesting. The story is slow and the characters are paper-thin, and by paper, I mean tracing paper.
The narrator is a mixed bag as well. He constantly pauses awkwardly between sentences, as if each sentence is the end of a paragraph. He reads the number 0 as “o”, which I find insufferably annoying. While this didn’t annoy me, I’m mentioning it because it might annoy some; he constantly makes smacking noises while he talks. It sounds like he’s got a mouth full of spit or a piece of candy clinking off his teeth every few words. You can tell when one audio recording session ends and another begins because the audio will randomly be louder or quieter than it was before, which is incredibly distracting.
For those of you wondering why I referred to his narration as a mixed bag; He’s amazing at doing character voices. He does a superb job of bringing personality to these cardboard cutouts.
NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.