Anywhere But Here (Bookburners #1.2)

Season One: Episode 2 - Sal's First Mission In this Episode 2, Sal gets a tour of the Black Archives in the Vatican and she goes on her first mission. They are called out to an apartment in Madrid when the Orb lights up which signals that it detected a magical anomaly.  The neighbors started hearing weird noises downstairs so they sent their daughters, who play over there all the time, to investigate. When the daughters don't return and the father witnesses the door breathing, he calls the poli [...]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:First, a bit more about the format: each weekly episode is meant to take about 45 minutes to read or listen to in the audio format. The audio format is also released weekly in conjunction with the regular version. I am a pretty quick reader, and it took me -- minutes to read ANYWHERE BUT HERE, the second installment.This episode introduces the main home of the Bookburners, in Rome, in a secret basement library of the Vatican where magical books go to b [...]

If this is how Serial Box is going to roll, they can have all of my money forever and ever.

I really like the series, the idea, the characters, the story, the way of telling. It’s all great and fun. BUT this episode I find unbearable to listen to and that’s solemnly because of the craft. In nine sentences seven times a “Sal said”, “Menchú said” and so on, it is horrifying. I can only hear that and miss the story Just a bit of editing would have done the world to this one.

(Originally posted on The AudioBookaneers "Bookburners Listen-a-Long".)Well, I’m again late late with the listen-a-long recap, as Episode 3 (“Fair Weather”, by Margaret Dunlap) has been out since Tuesday. With Episode #2 we see Bookburners HQ at the Vatican (“Looks a little Satanic for around here, doesn’t it?”), meet a new team member, and ride along for Sal’s first official mission with the Societas Librorum Occultorum.Coming into the seven-sided-star-themed headquarters, Sal mee [...]

originally posted at: thebookplank/2015Just a quick note for those hopping onto the Bookburners bus. Bookburners is the latest writing project collaboration of Mur Lafferty, Brian Francis Slattery, Margaret Dunlap and led by Max Gladstone. The important message from the first book was that some books have teeth!Sal was a bit unofficially inaugurated in the first episode Book, Badge and Candle into the order of the Societas Librium Occultorum. A special organization that locates and eliminates th [...]

I ran into the Book Burners team at PHXCC2015. I liked the idea of the way they wanted to do their serial. I’ve been a fan of collaboration in my own writing, and the group of authors I met seemed down to earth. I was interested in the serial, but a few delays along the way led me to “back burner” the serial, and it wasn’t until I saw episodes two and three on NetGalley that I remembered the entire venture.The first thing I need to say about Book Burners is that it is definitely episodic [...]

So far, Bookburners reminds me of The Librarians tv show - which is a good thing, but it doesn't have the math/literary/science references The Librarians. What it does have is a group of non-magical people very good at what they do who go around the world collecting magical artifacts - like books and bringing them back to a place where they are all collected and safeguarded. Each episode of Bookburners is just that, a self-contained story that forms a part of the overall storyline."Anywhere but [...]

Sal travels to the Vatican to learn more about the history and function of her new team. Meanwhile, a dude in Madrid accidentally opens an old book that allows him to create anything he can imagine. I liked this episode more than the first one; the evil book in this one was deliciously creepy and full of inventive, fascinating imagery. The length was just right for the story, and it was a great first case.(I read this as an ARC via Netgalley.)

A little lower on the action than the first story, this was more of a 'let's find out a bit more about the world, and how Sal is settling into it.' Even the dangerous book feels a little less dangerous, since all it really does is suck people into a fantasy world.Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but more as a middle book that does not really introduce anything new, or solve any leftover threads from book one.

Sal Brooks, in Episode 2 of the Bookburners series, gets a tour of the Secret Vatican Archives. The reader is also introduced to the Orb, the warning device that sends them off on missions. Of course a mission comes up, and off Team 3 flew to Madrid. There Georgia got to fight animated furniture while Sal got to close the book (literally) on the case. A good second tale. We will have to see if they can keep up the pace and the energy level.

There's some nice writing going on here, and some very cool descriptions of the effects of demonic possession on an apartment in Madrid, but other than that, the main plotline is simply a rip-off of the idea behind "Warehouse 13." At $4.86 per 1-1/2 hour episode, these are the most expensive audio books I've ever purchased. After I listen to the third episode, which I've already purchased, I will not be continuing with this series.[I listened to this as an audio book read by XE Sands]

Probably more like a 4.5 I liked this better than the opening section.fedpeaches/2015/0

4 stars.