In our final episode of Under a Black Sky, Brynn wants to take Ava out for gator, Ava has a root beer float frostbite tale, and we give this book a rating of 33% cat. BONUS: Brynn's kitty graces us with her presence.
Unfortunately, this book is no longer free on Amazon.
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From Amazon.com:
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Anchorage, Alaska: A prominent Danish volcano scientist, Asger Vad and his wife and son, are found shot on the outskirts of the city.
The killer has placed the victims around a table on which there is a doll house with four small dolls and a pile of volcano ashes. However, one person is missing at the table.
The Family’s 11-year-old daughter has disappeared from the house, and a massive search starts. Has she run away, or did the killer take her? Also, what secrets do the family keep?
Inspector Daniel Trokic is sent to Alaska to participate in the investigation. He teams up with the half native detective Angie Johnson, and their hunt for an insane killer and the missing daughter begins.
The killer has placed the victims around a table on which there is a doll house with four small dolls and a pile of volcano ashes. However, one person is missing at the table.
The Family’s 11-year-old daughter has disappeared from the house, and a massive search starts. Has she run away, or did the killer take her? Also, what secrets do the family keep?
Inspector Daniel Trokic is sent to Alaska to participate in the investigation. He teams up with the half native detective Angie Johnson, and their hunt for an insane killer and the missing daughter begins.
TRANSCRIPT:
Ava: What were your final thoughts on this book?
Brynn: I loved it. It was very long, it took us a long time to get through – as you can see, three episodes. But um, it had good flow and it – there wasn't really – I mean, you had a few chapters where it was like, well, this could kind of be shoved into another chapter, but there were never any boring parts, you know?
A: I liked this book a lot except for the weird mental health and race stuff. Other than that, I really [inaudible] really enjoyed it. The plot was very good.
B: I'd like to see the, um, the original Danish version to see if it's just something that got lost in translation with that stuff, you know? The Slippery Salmon is a real place by the way, that's in the afterword.
A: Yes, I love it! Excellent.
B: Yeah, it mentions that, um [pause], she, um, went to Alaska to do research.
A: Excellent.
B: Which is probably how she found out the Scotland Yard stuff that we can't find.
A: Yeah [laughter].
B: But, um, she stayed at that hotel, she, um, went to the Slippery Salmon, and she went to the volcano observatory. And so, I thought that was pretty cool, that she did all this research to make sure she got the setting right.
A: Yeah.
B: Okay, so now we're gonna go and do the star reviews. Um, first is editing. What did you think about the editing?
A: I gave this a three out of five, I thought it was pretty average editing-wise. The only thing I really didn't like was the scene and chapter breaks.
B: Yeah, I'm gonna go with a four out of five on that for pretty much the same reason. Um, the editing was overall good, especially when you take into account that it was translated [pause] and, um, it's like you said with the scene breaks. Okay, so plot.
A: I gave it a five out of five on plot, it was great.
B: Me too.
A: There's not much to say about it, I liked it. [laughs] That's the thing, when you give something a five out of five there's not a lot of explanation.
B: Okay, so characterization.
A: I gave it a four out of five on characterization. There's not really much to say there, I guess the thing that I deducted a point for, um [pause], was [pause] the way she went way overboard to make the crappy characters extra, extra crappy. It just wasn't necessary for me.
B: Yeah, I see that. I went for a five out of five because everybody had personality, which I appreciated, like even the minor people that you'd see, like Smith and Ian and them.
A: Yeah.
B: A lot of people neglect their minor characters.
A: Yeah, definitely.
B: But everybody had some depth to them, and I really appreciated that. So, for dialogue?
A: I gave it a four out of five. Um [pause], most of the things that I didn't like in the dialogue I think probably should have been caught by the translator. I suspect that they don't exist in the Danish version. Um, just like [pause] slightly weird turns of phrase, um [pause], stuff like that.
B: Yeah [inaudible], dialogue's a hard one to do, simply because it was translated. I went with a five out of five on it though, because – you know – the conversations made sense, and [pause] I did appreciate that, um [pause] either her on the translator put in, like, accurate slang for Angie and, just figuring out the little differences on things Daniel didn't understand, et cetera. It – it – that all felt natural, you know?
A: Yeah, this is our first translated work, but I think that when you're looking at a translating work – a translated work – especially with dialogue, you have to look at it as sort of [pause] a team effort between the translator and the author.
B: Right.
A: So I gave it a four out of five, when you average it out.
B: So I guess that makes my overall five out of five.
A: Nice.
B: Well, four-point-seven-five, but you know [laughter]
A: Round it up [laughter]. So, uh, what was your favorite part? [pause] I was hoping we had the same favorite part.
B: What's your favorite?
A: Stubbs! [laughter]
B: Yes! That was it! That was my favorite!
A: Yay! Stubbs! [laughter]
B: Yes, I'm like, I know I'm missing something – it was Stubbs.
A: [laughter]
B: Stubbs was my favorite.
A: Stubbs was the best. So what was your least favorite part?
B: It was mostly Griffin.
A: Yeah, he sucked [laughter].
B: [laughter] Like, any time Griffin was around it was just kind of like "oh."
A: This is gross and I hate it [laughter].
B: Exactly.
A: My least favorite part was, um, the [laughter] the really boring part where he was on the plane describing boring things.
B: [laughter]
A: I was like "snore, this doesn't have to be in here."
B: Also least favorite: "that cat was black, the man was also black." [laughter]
A: [laughter] So corny and weird!
B: [laughter]
A: I don't even know, it was so bad! [laughter]
B: Oh, and more black cat stuff; Ian with the black cat.
A: Oh, yeah, that was – that was rough [laughter].
B: The cat must be black.
A: We had serious cat problems in this book. So we had one good cat thing, and two bad cat things, so unfortunately, our [pause], uh, cat score is only a one out of three. Thirty-three percent cat. So that's gonna do it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Amazon Warriors. You can find us on Twitter @thebookwarriors, and you can email us at warriors (at) superfuntimes (dot) net. Next episode we'll be discussing His to Protect by Elena Aitken.
