Amazon Customer

Great story, horrible narration.

Revisado: 04-24-25

This is a great story about a period of history many people aren’t aware of. It feels like a spiritual successor to pulp fiction and the works of R. Kipling.
The decision to use an AI narrator was unfortunate. The narration is dull and monotone. You listen to it for a while and suddenly realize your mind drifted off a while ago, and you missed everything from the past 5-10min. It’s the worst part of being back at school. The narrator also constantly mispronounces names and places, using a different pronunciation almost every other sentence; it also frequently mispronounces words by substituting their homographs (words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings). One example is pronouncing the word “lead”, as in the metal, as “lead”, as in to lead troops.
Ultimately, I would love to see this production re-recorded with a proper narrator.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A tragically overlooked piece of history.

Revisado: 07-14-24

One shudders to think how different recent history and events might be if politicians and bureaucrats learned to read. Yet this book clearly demonstrates how similar events happen over and over because the same kind of uneducated, ill informed people worm their way into decision making positions. Through it all, it’s the poor bastards on the ground who suffer.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great yarns, but lose the guitar.

Revisado: 04-20-24

The random bars of guitar break the flow of the stories, especially as they don’t correspond with scene changes or anything. They just crop up almost at random.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Where's MacArthur?

Revisado: 10-24-21

This is a superbly detailed and researched account of the Pacific campaign, but it focuses almost exclusively on the Central Pacific campaigns under Nimitz. Very little coverage is given to events in the South Pacific such as the New Guinea campaign. MacArthur looms in and out of the background like a pseudo antagonistic Phantom of the Pacific, squabbling with Nimitz and other commanders before fading into the shadows.
My one real complaint is the narrator mispronounces a lot of words, and not just foreign place names but some English words as well. Otherwise he reads clearly and steadily so you don't struggle to understand him.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A bit rambling and forced, but solid.

Revisado: 08-24-21

This book is a strong testament to the devotion Patton inspired in his men, as well as a fascinating record of one soldier's experiences during the war. It has a tendency to ramble and backtrack or skip ahead at points, but honestly that isn't much of a problem. It genuinely feels like listening to an old vet tell his story without being polished. The real problem for me was what I call "expositional dialogue". Dialogues are embellished with facts and statistics which are unlikely to have been known be the individuals at the time. It feels like the author wanted to keep the audience abreast of the greater events in an organic way which came across as forced. Honestly it worked better when he just said straight out, "what we found out later," or "what we didn't know at the time was".

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A solid biography, sympathetic but frank.

Revisado: 08-21-21

Some spotty audio issues, but not too severe.
The author does a commendable job of delving into Patton's life, giving credit and critique where they are due. Oddly he completely glances over Patton's attitudes towards black soldiers. The book is unflinching in its frankness about Patton's racism, unsurprising in the proud scion of displaced Virginia aristocracy. The author goes into great detail about Patton's crippling post war antisemitism, but no mention is made at all of his handling of black troops. This is unfortunate because his approach showed just as much of his character as anything. Possessed of all the prejudices of his upbringing, he nevertheless gave the blacks under his command an unprecedented opportunity to distinguish themselves.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Fine piece of war fiction.

Revisado: 12-30-20

I only have one complaint about this story; the main character is always right. It's a problem I have witth a lot of fiction : The main character always has some premonition or intuition that hints at what's going to happen, but the people in charge are too blind to see it.
Apart from that, this is an excellent piece. The pacing is good and the action is believable, none of those Call of Duty charges into heavy fire without receiving a scratch. This is also a good book for anyone who would appreciate a accessible look at what it was like in a WW2 US Army platoon, and how they operated.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Wish it was longer.

Revisado: 10-15-20

The author does an excellent job recounting the events triggered by the 1763 treaty, however there's one area I wish he had covered better. In the prologue he discussed the purely negative portrayal of Anglo-American settlers that has predominated modern coverage of the era. He says that this book will take a long-biased look at those settlers, but he doesn't really deliver. The book glances over the migration of these peoples into contested land with barely a nod rather than a look at the social forces moving them. The policy makers and land speculators are well covered, but not the settlers themselves. Speaking as someone tired of the black/white coverage of the events of the era, I can't help but feel this was a missed opportunity.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Could use some better editing.

Revisado: 09-14-20

This is a great biography of an American legend, revealing the actual man behind all the movies and pulp novels that do him such a disservice.
My only complaint is how the audio production was put together. The narrator does a fine job but, in editing the recordings together, they left awkward pauses that lasted just long enough to break up the flow. I was listening on my phone and I kept thinking I was getting a call.
They also divided the book into segments of 30min and change rather than with the actual chapters of the book, so good luck if you need to double back and check something from before.
Otherwise, this is a solid production.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

SKIP

Revisado: 08-05-20

The audio is rough, and the whole prologue is included in book 12, The Gathering Storm. The only addition is a nice dedication by Robert Jordan's widow.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona