Listened to the audio book; the narrators were fine by some of the accents and inflections were initially grating until I accustomed to them.
Contrary to what my rating might say, I did not like a Plague of Giants. Despite my personal enjoyment though, the book has competent characters, world building, progression and prose (though the dictionary was over-used in some places.) It is a competent narrative sprinkled with some light comedy, several nice action sequences, and uses of magic. It is also a story the insists on punishing the reader for investing in its characters, killing no less then three POV characters for no other discernible purpose than gritty realism. It is a punishing book, which is fine at the start where the inciting calamity occurs, but as the narrative progresses into the second half and the author kept adding misery onto the narrative, I grew first tired of the misery, then frustrated and aggravated as characters I was supposed to like and root for (and nominally did) were given romance interests and teased with happy endings only to be summarily killed by the author. It wasn't a fun, rewarding, or enlightening reading experience.
There are some readers who will enjoy this for the same reasons I didn't. For these: the plot is solid, but a bit slow to start as you accustom yourself to the way the narrative is composed the various primary POV's are introduced, and set up where set up is required. There's only a few moments during the story where the plot got me excited to keep reading/listening (the discovery of the sixth kenning and the translation of the book along with the answers that promised) but the rest of the narratives are solid. I listened to the book while working, but for plain reading some people may find the lack of a concerted driving narrative a bit of a slog. ( )

Added this to auto-buy on my series list. Nicely done! ( )

What a read. A bard comes to a town and tells stories every day. This way even the many viewpoint characters don't confuse me. Very well done.

The worldbuilding is easy-going, doesn't take too many complex concepts at once, the action sometimes happens between the stories more than in the stories themselves.

Hearne has started a truly epic fantasy here... ( )

DNF. Stopped at page 144. Was there a story? No idea but the characters were flat and uninteresting. I wasn't going to force myself to read this any longer. The world building was good but lackluster characters and lack of plot make it pointless. ( )

It can be hard to start a book this large. It feels like a commitment -- especially because there are so many characters, so many details, and that dreaded phrase on the cover "book 1".

I admit that I began it some months ago in an advanced reader's copy, and then I dithered. I set it down. I never quite came back to it. Finally, a long plane trip offered an opportunity to really spend time with it and the storytelling did not disappoint.

I love the structure of the book -- bard telling stories from many viewpoints about an epic war, with an undercurrent character to balance out the flow and give us more context on the politics of the world. I love the costs and payments for the magical system -- it's extreme, but feels fitting and balanced. The peoples are strange and interesting as well. While there is some George RRMartin-esque character murder, that also feels appropriate to the story.

I'm still not in love with the series nature of this book, but I admire the deft handling of the storytelling, which actually leaves us clearly at the end of one arc and the beginning of a second. I await the sequel with pleasure.

Advanced readers copy provided by edelweiss. ( )