Battle Hill Bolero

Bone Street Rumba, Book 3

De: Daniel José Older

Narrado por: Daniel José Older

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

In the third in the "richly detailed and diverse" (io9) urban fantasy series, the time has come for the dead to rise up against the shady powers-that-be...The time has come for the dead to rise up...Trouble is brewing between the Council of the Dead and the ghostly, half-dead, spiritual, and supernatural community they claim to represent. One too many shady deals have gone down in New York City's streets, and those caught in the crossfire have had enough. It's time for the Council to be brought down - this time for good. Carlos Delacruz is used to being caught in the middle of things: both as an in-betweener, trapped somewhere between life and death, and as a double agent for the Council. But as his friends begin preparing for an unnatural war against the ghouls in charge, he realizes that more is on the line than ever before - not only for the people he cares about, but for every single soul in Brooklyn, alive or otherwise....

©2017 Daniel José Older (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"It's clear that Older not only lives in the same vibrant neighborhood his characters inhabit but also that recent social and political events have informed his novel. "Tonight we rise as one and change the world!" A powerful conclusion to an excellent urban fantasy series." (AudioFile)

Older is fantastic

Any additional comments?

Really great narration and good story make for another great listen from Older. If I had a complaint, it might have been better to let a female do the female voices. There were frequent and multiple character changes and a few times I had to backtrack so I knew which character was speaking. Older is so smooth though, I thoroughly enjoy listening to him wax poetic, especially from Carlos' perspective.

Entertaining!

Where does Battle Hill Bolero rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is one of my top ten audiobooks here on audible.

What did you like best about this story?

because this book was a part of a series, I loved that it was just as entertaining as the previous books, it wrapped everything up very nicely and it can stand on its own if you have not read the previous books

What does Daniel José Older bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He brings the essence of New York and the flavor of its characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes! if I only had the time...

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to this author's next work

Urban Fantasy Soup for the Soul

Quick disclaimer: I both read and listen to every work created by Daniel José Older, so throughout this review you will see both actions present. DJ Older's voice and narration are too delicious to pass up, but I also have to read the books so I can highlight and annotate my favorite parts. I also highly recommended having both the Audible and Kindle versions of his works, as sometimes the audible draft read from is missing some words or even phrases that the written text has. Now on to the content review!

I really, really took my sweet time reading and listening to this, because as the final installment of the Bone Street Rumba series I just didn’t want it to end. I’ve loved this series since the debut of the first book, and I’ve loved every spin-off short story and novella. Older writes AND narrates with such beautiful mastery of language - his writing and oration is as rhythmic and poetic as the many genres of music that makes appearances throughout.

The action is well-paced and very much alive. The development and structure is brilliant. Everything pushes the story forward and grows the characters further and deepens the story. Not a single word is ever wasted.

Plus Older presents a beautifully rich world. It’s a semi-fantasy world that I’m at happy to believe in. And bonus for me - it’s diverse and realistic in its diversity. The whole range of every demographic to be brought up (Black, Latino including Afro-Latinx, White, queer, age, class, etc) is presented and none in a tokenizing or faux-knowing way. I’m all about Older’s authenticity in his approach to the Brooklyn of his series and it’s overlapping/interwoven spiritual world. Now please be sure to catch that - Older’s Brooklyn and it’s spiritual world components. This series may not be the Brooklyn, you the reader/listener know personally, but I think it’s totally worth introducing yourself to this version if it’s not.

If you’re new to the series and trying to figure out whether it’s worth it to even start and commit to all three books - I say go for it. It was a wild and wildly pleasing adventure and I will surely reread and listen again to this series. I even made my boyfriend and my mother listen to the audiobook versions on road trips with me and I read the books to them until they gently told me “enough for today, Love.” They got invested and soon I didn’t have to ask them if they’d listen or read with me, they were asking what would happen next. If you have read or listened to any of the previous books in the series or any of its companion shorts or novellas, you know in your heart of hearts you gotta see this through and read this book. It is so worth it. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to this journey.