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chrisk's review
5.0
This story is so good! Tremontaine is from the point of view of three women each trying to be something else. The Duchess is keeping up appearances, the Trader wants to wield a sword, and the Farmer wants to be a Scholar... or Card Sharp. It's hard to tell with her. Tremontaine is set in the same world as Swordspoint. In just this short chapter the characters, their histories, and their motivations are all well established. As with Swordspoint, there are several gay and lesbian characters, and they are treated no better or worse than anyone else. In this installment the POV characters do not know each other or intersect, and I'm really interested to find out how they eventually meet and what happens when they do.
The audio version is read by a different person for each point of view. This is not my favorite type of reading since it makes listening feel choppy and takes a while to acclimate to each reader. They also have hired actors instead of narrators. Actors focus on the performance while narrators convey the story, so sometimes the performance gets in the way of understanding what's going on. That said, the readers are all very professional and so far the story stays with each POV long enough for me to sink in.
Arrivals is part 1 of the serialized novel Tremontine available through Serialbox.com. The first episode is free in audio or e-form.
The audio version is read by a different person for each point of view. This is not my favorite type of reading since it makes listening feel choppy and takes a while to acclimate to each reader. They also have hired actors instead of narrators. Actors focus on the performance while narrators convey the story, so sometimes the performance gets in the way of understanding what's going on. That said, the readers are all very professional and so far the story stays with each POV long enough for me to sink in.
Arrivals is part 1 of the serialized novel Tremontine available through Serialbox.com. The first episode is free in audio or e-form.
pers's review
3.0
An intriguing start... Some characters interested me more than others, but I'm eager to see how all their arcs pan out.
graculus's review
4.0
Tremontaine - episodes 1 and 2 Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner is one of my favourite books, so I was an incredibly easy sell for this series - published weekly by Serialbox, Tremontaine is a prequel to that book set some 15 years earlier in the same universe. So far, I am in love once more with the whole universe Ellen Kushner has created and she is now letting other authors play in it with her as well.
Anyway, how the whole Serialbox thing works is that you subscribe and each week, for 13 weeks, you get a new part. It comes out in various ebook formats or as an audiobook, with the ebook running to about 45-50 pages and the audiobook being naturally significantly longer (episode 2, for example, clocked in at 1 hour and 38 minutes if I recall correctly). The audiobook is narrated by a number of different people, so it's not just a straight reading of the text, and so far I've decided that's the route I'm going to go with Tremontaine.
Here's how the website describes it, since I can't really sum it up much better than this:
A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; her husband’s dangerous affair with a handsome scholar; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius on the brink of revolution—when long-buried lies threaten to come to light, betrayal and treachery know no bounds with stakes this high. Mind your manners and enjoy the chocolate in a dance of sparkling wit and political intrigue.
I've very much enjoyed the two episodes I've heard so far and am looking forward eagerly to next week's installment - it's a close-run thing to say who is my favourite of the characters, with the main contenders being Kaab and Micah. Kaab is so clearly an outsider, not quite as adept as she thinks she is with the culture in which she now finds herself, while Micah is so very fascinated by numbers, even while simultaneously being used by others to make money by counting cards in the local taverns! Can't wait to see how these storylines develop...
Anyway, how the whole Serialbox thing works is that you subscribe and each week, for 13 weeks, you get a new part. It comes out in various ebook formats or as an audiobook, with the ebook running to about 45-50 pages and the audiobook being naturally significantly longer (episode 2, for example, clocked in at 1 hour and 38 minutes if I recall correctly). The audiobook is narrated by a number of different people, so it's not just a straight reading of the text, and so far I've decided that's the route I'm going to go with Tremontaine.
Here's how the website describes it, since I can't really sum it up much better than this:
A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; her husband’s dangerous affair with a handsome scholar; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius on the brink of revolution—when long-buried lies threaten to come to light, betrayal and treachery know no bounds with stakes this high. Mind your manners and enjoy the chocolate in a dance of sparkling wit and political intrigue.
I've very much enjoyed the two episodes I've heard so far and am looking forward eagerly to next week's installment - it's a close-run thing to say who is my favourite of the characters, with the main contenders being Kaab and Micah. Kaab is so clearly an outsider, not quite as adept as she thinks she is with the culture in which she now finds herself, while Micah is so very fascinated by numbers, even while simultaneously being used by others to make money by counting cards in the local taverns! Can't wait to see how these storylines develop...
bichitofeo's review
3.0
Love the concept of a serial novel... The first part was intriguing enough that I want to read the second.
thatonenerdygirl's review
4.0
This was a pretty good pilot and I can't wait to know more about the characters and this whole new world.
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