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    The Builders
    The Builders
    The Builders
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Builders

    Written by Daniel Polansky

    Narrated by Corey Gagne

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Magnificent Seven meets The Wind in the Willows in this action-packed fantasy adventure from Daniel Polansky, The Builders.

    A missing eye.
    A broken wing.
    A stolen country.

    The last job didn't end well.

    Years go by, and scars fade, but memories only fester. For the animals of the Captain's company, survival has meant keeping a low profile, building a new life, and trying to forget the war they lost. But now the Captain's whiskers are twitching at the idea of evening the score.

    PRAISE FOR THE BUILDERS

    "A living, breathing world of vivid, winsome characters hellbent on their blaze of glory and as unforgiving as a runaway train carrying all your friends over a cliff. I haven't cared about animals this much since Watership Down." — Delilah S. Dawson, author of Hit and Wicked as They Come

    "Nobody does dark like Polansky. The Builders is Redwall meets Unforgiven, combining the endearing wit of Disney's Robin Hood with all the grit and violence of a spaghetti western." — Myke Cole, author of the Shadow Ops series

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateNov 3, 2015
    ISBN9781427269621
    The Builders
    Author

    Daniel Polansky

    DANIEL POLANSKY was born in 1984 in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of the Low Town series, the Hugo nominated The Builders, and A City Dreaming. He currently resides on a hill in eastern Los Angeles.

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    Reviews for The Builders

    3.5/5

    117 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wind and the Willows took a nasty turn in this one. I think I need to go read all of Polansky now.
    • 5/5
      This book was amazing, and is a must-listen for anyone who is a fan of this style of book. I think describing it as a "Grimdark Redwall" is a perfect description. The narrator did a fantastic job with the voices and the overall reading, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sort of satirical style of writing. One of my favorites that I've read this year.
    • 2/5
      this was truly terrible, and i don't know why the writer would think it was a good idea to foist his adolescent scribbling on readers, i must assume for the sheer joke of doing so.
    • 5/5
      This was so amazing!I never even bothered to read the synopsis, I saw the cover and was hooked!But then I started reading it and it actually has anthropomorphic animals!!! And it wasn’t your typical bears and wolves, it was mice and rats, salamanders, owls, foxes, badgers and so much more, ugh it was so fun!I loved how the first half was set up, it was this past and present style and it flowed so well and it really gave you a good quick insight to who these characters where.The 2nd half was all action! And the whole time I was trying to figure out who the traitor was and who could possibly be a traitor. Oh also I kept going “what the heck is Boudicca doing!???” And then of course you get to the end and your like “ahhh I see!!”I loved these characters, this is a novella and I was instantly hooked on these characters which isn’t always an easy thing to do. I want so much more of this world!!!
    • 5/5
      Why has no one told me about Daniel Polansky until now? Oh, I have been blind. If it wasn't for TOR, and their brilliant series of short fiction, I may never have discovered this extremely talented author. If you'll recall, I promised myself that I'd get back into both Fantasy and short fiction this year. Well, Polansky has made that mission all the more attainable. If this is what I can expect, I have no qualms whatsoever!

      When I was a teenager, the Redwall series was one of my favorite things to read. Sentient animals, with loyal blood running through their veins, constantly at war with one another. I ate it up. This took me back to those days. However, I'm pleased to say that this story is infinitely darker than those. It's gritty. It's bloody. There is death and revenge involved. It was like my favorite stories grew up with me, and I couldn't have been happier.

      The Builders is like Redwall meets a western featuring John Wayne. The characters are raw. Their pasts are filled with violence, and it is only the promise of revenge that calls them back to those lives they attempted to leave behind. This story is action packed. It's filled to the brim with twists, and turns. At the end of the day, it will leave you breathless. All of that, smashed into one novella length story.

      I'm impressed. More Daniel Polansky is definitely in my future.
    • 2/5
      I don't dislike talking animal stories. I'm quite fond of many of them. This one isn't being added to that list. I've enjoyed "band of rogues" stories, too. Again, not this one.

      A mouse going by the title of "The Captain" is gathering his old gang together after five years. As he collects his comrades in crime, including a rat, a stoat, an owl an opossum, a badger, a mole...oh, who cares. There's no reason to care about any of thee character. They do have a goal, though, and that is overthrowing the toad who is current Lord of the Gardens and the skunk who is his Chancellor (and the real ruler, as well as their real enemy), and seize power themselves, the name of the toad's older brother.

      We read endlessly of how unprincipled and lacking in loyalty even to each other the captain's gang is. The skunk and his supporters aren't any better, but we spend less time with them, so there's that advantage.

      There is no reason to care what happens to any of the characters. There is no reason to care who wins the power struggle. In an afterword, Polansky describes this as "a one-note joke" that he still find funny. After giving it some thought I've decided that the "joke" is that we keep waiting for at least one character or some potential consequence of who wins matter enough that we care about the outcome.

      For me, at least, it never happens. This story was a complete waste of my time, and if I weren't reading for the purposes of Hugo voting, I doubt I would have gotten beyond the first forty or fifty pages, and consequently would not be writing a review of it.

      Not recommended.

      I received this story as part of the 2016 Hugo Awards voters' packet.
    • 3/5
      The Magnificent Seven meets Redwall, as the Captain gets his band back together for one last mission.
      To right a wrong. To end it all, once and for all. Short punchy chapters introduce the characters. Bonsoir, a very individual stoat, Cinnibar, dragon or perhaps salamander, Gertrude, the guinea pig (unique amongst her kind, being tailed and all) to name but a few.

      There is a buildup, back story, plenty of death and mayhem (mostly of rats), and a fine punch line to what the author calls a 'one note' joke.

      Diverting enough to provide a bit of diversion on a long flight. 3.5 stars
    • 3/5
      Pérez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste meets Jacques' Redwall. It’s okay, but not as good as either of those.
    • 2/5
      'The Builders' is, I guess, intended as a satire of grimdark-style fantasy. In the afterword, the author himself refers to the story as a 'one-note joke.' The joke is that all the characters - a nasty, brutal bunch - are small, furry animals. The trouble is that - yeah, that's all there really is to it. It's just not that funny.

      The style aspired to, as well as the plot and content, reminded me most of Scott Lynch - and the thing is, Scott Lynch IS really funny and clever. It's hard to poke fun at something by being less amusing than the original.

      The plot involves one of those old gangs of thieves, being re-gathered for one more dastardly plan. Far too much page real estate is devoted to painstakingly introducing each of the gang, one by one, and detailing how each is recruited, induced or blackmailed into signing up for the venture. It got tedious. By the time we get around to the predictably bloody and disastrous mess that bringing this untrustworthy crew together was bound to result in, I was ready for it to be over.

      Full disclosure: I've never liked stories with anthropomorphic, talking animals. I'm not sure why. I guess there have been a few exceptions, but in general, though I love reading stories about aliens of every physical description; start calling those characters animals and I just get turned off. I'd heard enough good things about this story that I'd hoped it would be turn out to be one of my rare exceptions, but - it wasn't. If you find the idea of a talking mouse in trousers inherently amusing, your mileage may vary significantly.

      Read as part of the Hugo Voters' Packet.
    • 5/5
      I have wanted to read this since the pre-release buzz described it as a "grimdark Redwall," so I was glad that the Hugo nomination gave me a good excuse to buy it at last. I found it to be much more than a dark fantasy story with anthropomorphic animals--it's also a western. It's gritty, it's visceral, and it's such a fast read that I made it through the whole novella in about an hour. It's darn good, too, with lots of twists and betrayals.