Interesting premise, tiresome characters
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“I’ve listened to a good part of season 1 because I found the premise intriguing and enjoyed the various ways that magic is manifested in the world of this podcast. But after giving it a real chance, I’m not sure I’ll listen further. Overall, this feels like a missed chance to have a full-cast series, rather than structuring this as an audiobook. I don’t want to criticize the narration too much because this podcast gives the narrator a tough job. However, the strained voice used for male characters started to get irritating, and several of the accents are unconvincing, which is hard to forgive when they belong to important characters. On the plus side, it is generally easy to tell who is talking and to follow what’s happening in a scene.
The biggest issues with the show, as other reviews mention, are the characters. A few of the core team have intriguing backstories, but a number of the side characters seem to be just cartoonishly evil. The main character, Sal, falls into the cliche of the brash, straight-talking American who has a problem with authority. She often displays surprising naïveté for someone who is supposed to be an experienced New York city police officer.
The ethical gray areas explored by this podcast would be genuinely interesting, if Sal did not constantly do her best to flatten them with her self-righteousness. She constantly reacts with surprise and moral outrage at discovering that the new organization she is working for (the Catholic church) does some ethically dubious things. In all her years as a cop, has she really never withheld information from the public, never at least witnessed a suspect be threatened or mistreated, never dealt with internal politics and corruption? Has she ever heard what the police do in her city?? Has she ever read the news about the Catholic church abuse scandal?? Since these issues always seem to put her just on the verge of quitting, I can’t see how she could possibly have lasted as a cop with this attitude, unless the real fantasy of this show is that the police force contains only paragons of virtue.”
Enayti via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
01/22/24
More reviews of Bookburners
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“Can’t handle how they finish every single sentence with he said, she said, sal said, menchu said, apple said banana said. Ugh. If your going to change your voice for each character, you really don’t need to end every 5 word sentence with “it said”. I had to stop at the end of the third episode.”
Rupesh K Sloane via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
04/17/23
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“Well performed but poorly written. Been a while since I tried and gave up listening. From what I remember it had repetitive phrasing and poor grammar that ripped me out of the story - the story itself was interesting”
Alfie089 via Apple Podcasts ·
Germany ·
01/27/24
“I happen to listen to a lot of podcast, and I’m especially fond of long term stories, and I can say this is without a doubt one of the best to ever exist. I’ve been addicted since the first episode, the action is well done and engaging, and even more than that the characters development, history,...”Read full review »
ChaoticDruid via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
02/17/24
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