Three Slices

By: Kevin Hearne, Delilah S. Dawson, Chuck Wendig

Narrated by: Luke Daniels, Alex Wyndham, Julia Whelan

Featuring A Prelude to War, an Iron Druid novella

A Prelude to War by Kevin Hearne: After an old friend is murdered in retaliation for his mercenary strikes against the oldest vampires in the world, Atticus O'Sullivan must solicit the aid of another old friend in Ethiopia if he's going to have a chance of finishing a war he never wanted. Meanwhile Granuaile MacTiernan starts a private war of her own against Loki, the lord of lies, and if it brings Ragnarok early - so be it.

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys by Delilah S. Dawson: The number-one rule of the circus? Don't kill your volunteers, even accidentally. That's how young magician Criminy Stain ends up on the run in a forest, where he meets a beautiful woman holding a bucket of blood. But is Merissa the answer to his prayers - or the orchestrator of his ruin?

Interlude: Swallow by Chuck Wendig: Miriam Black is back. Miriam is tired of her curse and finally believes she knows how to be rid of her ability to see when and how other people die. She follows a lead to the mountains of Colorado, where she believes she sees signs of a serial killer she thought she already killed. (Set between The Cormorant and Thunderbird.)

©2015 Kevin Hearne, Delilah S. Dawson, Chuck Wendig (P)2015 Podium Publishing

1 and 3, not 2

If you check out the reviews there is a lot of love for story 1 and 2 and a dislike of 3. Personally I preferred story 3 to story 2.

If you are not a fan of the Iron Druid series the first story will be completely lost on you. The second and the third stories are more self-contained.

Story 2: Found this to be a trashy romance novel with a bad romance story. The main character’s feelings were very spelled out through his monologue. The author is constantly telling you exactly what is already apparent to you through the interactions of him and the other characters, it’s redundant. It feels like a lot of unnecessary self-doubt is promoted to the fore front of the story. It is the same crap you will pick up along the lines of the Twilight series.

Story 3: There is a good amount of backlash on this forum for this story. I thought the main character was relatable and interesting. Also thought the story was clever and kept me wondering what was going to happen.

Love Iron Druid but not rest

The Iron Druid story is wonderful but the other two are not. One is far too gothic and esoteric and the other is too dark. If you like horror/thrillers though, these may be good stories for you (though they are not too graphic), but to me, they just clash too much with the fun loving spirit of the IDC.

third slice not as palatable as the first two.

The Last story including the narrator just was not of the same quality as the first two.

Enjoyable - Themes were Fun

Who was your favorite character and why?

Atticus - of course!

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

Stain - the performance was very good. The character himself is a douche though.

Any additional comments?

This was actually fun to listen to. Apparently the instructions to each author were to write a story with prescient cheese and incorporate a few sayings ("Not my circus, not my monkeys") so it was interesting to see how these were worked into the stories. I enjoyed all three actually.

First two stories good the third well Not liked

Would you try another book from the authors and/or the narrators?

All three of the narrators were good. The third story was incredibly pedestrian. Sorry Chuck Windig, I found your story to be limited in it's imagination. And to be honest, I hear enough vulgarity in everyday life, I don't need to buy a book that contains it. The use of vulgar language was gratuitous and only caused a dislike of the main character. The book would have been fine with only two stories.

If you’ve listened to books by the authors before, how does this one compare?

Kevin's Story left me wanting, but I'm sure it will tie in with "Staked" Due out 01/26/2016. Though if you're not familiar with the characters, the story sort of started with the assumption you know the series. Probably still enjoyable, but you might get lost if you've not read any of the previous stories. Delilah S. Dawson's Story was delightful, and almost had a flavor of being in the head of one of Hearn's characters. It gave some insight into how vampires think, at least some anyway. and I found it a little fanciful, but entertaining. Delilah's use of higher or more formal language was a pleasure.

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

Luke Daniel's needs to continue to be Mr Hearn's GoTo Narrator. His ability to play all the characters, especially Oberon, is with out a doubt why I love to listen. Even while I read the books, Luke's voice is the one I hear in my head. two thumbs up.

Alex Wyndham was masterful. Differentiating the characters well and with tempo and tone helping to draw the picture.

Julie Whelan has a great voice to listen to. The main issues were with the content, not the presenter. I would without a doubt feel happy to listen to her work done by another author

Was Three Slices worth the listening time?

Two Thirds of it. The last story can be skipped.

Though there were attempts to tie all three stories together with some callbacks and cross references, each story was a standalone piece. Delilah tied her cross references well, while Mr. Wendig seemed to drop them in to get them in vs really tying the stories together.

Any additional comments?

If authors are going to try and collaborate on books with separate stories, I'd really like to see all three authors have similar lyrical values. Having two stories using the language well, and the third just muddling through really detracted from the overall experience. If two books are using proper language why on earth would you through in an author who is not capable of telling a story without vulgarity? It makes no sense. That lyrical gear switch is distracting. If vulgarity was necessary to the story fine. But real craftsmanship comes form using language properly, oddly enough vulgarity, by definition is the improper use of language.

strange but fun easy

live all things from Kevin hearne. the others were okay, just every strange.. worthy of listening.

It's Ok

I liked the Iron Druid and the second story. I didn't like the arrangement or lack thereof of the last story. That story brought the rating down to an ok.

one out of three

The first book is actually Chapters that should have been in an Iron Druid book that starts where this one finished .
One decent story about a circus.
And finally a very bizarre Tale that didn't have a proper ending. Perhaps it's a teaser for a book.
The voice performance was extremely well done though. However it would have been far better without foul language.

Interlude Dragged The Other Stories Down

The book felt like that game where someone whispers a message or sentence to another person, who then whispers it to another person, who whispers it to another person, until the only left to hear the sentence is the person who initially shared it. At the end of the game, everyone gets to see how the sentence evolved as it was shared. In this case, the thing being passed off from Hearne to Dawson to Wendig was a plot device, and just like the game, things fell apart at end.

Prelude was what I expected from Kevin Hearne, and Dawson did a better than expected job incorporating Hearne's plot device (I won't spoil the surprise by saying what it is) into Not My Circus. Unfortunately, Wendig took Dawson's plot device and went left...WAY left...crafting a story that felt forced and unfinished. Even after listening to his Interlude twice, the only significant thing I can remember is that the plot device is used by one of the characters.

2 out of 3 were great

Any additional comments?

REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Kelly
NUMBER OF HEARTS: 4
REVIEW:
I listened to this one on audio and loved every minute of two out of three of these stories.
A Prelude to War: Read by Luke Daniels
As always the combination of Kevin’s words and Luke’s voice takes me right into the IDC world. Love love love hanging with Atticus. Love Oberon (and yes Oberon I know you did it!!!). And of Granuaile is on her own journey at the present time. But I love that A Prelude to War sets up for the next book in the IDC. I for one can not wait.
Off to Toronto we go......

Not My Circle, Not my Monkeys: Read by Alex Wyndham
This was my first read of Delilah S Dawson and my first listen to Alex Wyndham. The combination of these two make for an awesome story that I didn’t want to end. I loved Criminy Stain I can’t wait to read more of Mr. Stain.

Interlude; Swallow: Read by Julia Whelan
Interlude: Swallow I just could not get into. I am not sure if it was the writing, the narrator or the point of view. But it just didn’t grab me.

Disclaimer:
I purchased this audiobook from Audible.com and this review is my own opinion and not a paid review.