Michael

Interesting story and a good read, but had a Lord of the Rings length of denouement. Well fleshed out but probably longer than it had to be.

It was a collection of maybe a dozen anecdotes. Could have been an interesting series of podcasts maybe, or blog posts, but much like Freakonomics stayed too shallow near the surface to really engage me.

I liked it, and there was certainly a lot to like. The world-building was great, and at times the stream-of-consciousness narrative style really quite worked (though generally took a while to get used to). Overall though there were a few too many moments where the author told instead of showed, and it led to some reveals that I didn't find satisfying. I'll get around to the sequels, but I'm not in a particular rush for them at the moment.

The book and story continue to be great, but boy is the audiobook narrator rough to sit through.

Also, listening to the book in audio format really highlights how often George R. R. Martin uses the same writing tricks over and over again. Still a great story, plot, world, etc., but a bit of a disappointing read-through.

It wasn't at all what I expected from a Michael Lewis book, so I'm probably rating it lower than I should. The story was told in a weird order at times, almost like it was told in one go between friends at a bar. I would've preferred more pop psychology, less drama, and way less accents by the narrator.

Sanderson's world-building continues to be top-notch, and the exploration of the world and its characters stays compelling for me. Definitely excited to see where the rest of the series goes, but I felt all in all it wasn't as tight as the first two.

Spoiler: I definitely was a bit disappointed that the extent for “character development” for most of the main characters was to develop a mental health condition and then simply... get over it. Shallan at least had an arc to her issues, but Kaladin and Dalinar both were just depressed for a few chapters then rallied. It was a bit strange.

Some interesting thoughts, but not much in this book that I haven't read from earlier books. Really short too.

Second chapter: get a mentor. Or don't.
Third chapter: people who are good at things do well. Don't be someone who's bad at things, or you'll do badly.

The book continues like this, with the occasional interesting anecdote. Each chapter seems written after having forgotten the previous chapters. Just not a great book.

Had some cool anecdotes, but was sort of a glorified listicle. Not a big fan of the audiobook narrator.

Started out strong, but definitely fizzled out near the end.

Couldn't finish.

I can only imagine part of the point of the audiobook was to hammer home how bad digital is, because the audio quality was horrible.

The book was pretty pretentious and poorly written. It was essentially a listicle, and couldn't make a point in 100 words when 1,000 would do.

The book is fine, but the included New York Magazine article at the end made me realize it's just an expanded version of a magazine article. Not great in audio format.