Miriam

Reacher back on the road

Revisado: 11-10-17

Nobody does the empty backroads of America like Lee Child. In this latest novel, Reacher is in Wyoming chasing down drug dealers and helping a fellow soldier: familiar ingredients, but why mess with success? Dick Hill's performance is excellently suited for this series, with one caveat: all his women sound a little sulky, on the verge of tears, even when they are just ordering lunch or talking about the weather. And there are three female characters with significant dialogue. On the plus side, now I'd like to see Wyoming.

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Excellent performance of SFF classic

Revisado: 10-27-17

Bill Homewood's performance is well-suited to Rider Haggard's adventure tale from the height of the British empire.

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Listening with gritted teeth

Revisado: 10-23-17

The only way I was able to listen to the whole recording was knowing that the previous narrator, Gerard Doyle, does the next book in the series, a series I have been enjoying and want to continue. If this had been a standalone novel, or if the same narrator had done subsequent books, I would have given up early. No doubt there are books for which Michael Healy would be suited, despite his many mispronunciations, but his fey, affected delivery and roving accent are not a good match for Herron's work.

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Can't go wrong with Wells, or with Vance

Revisado: 10-22-17

H.G. Well's _The War of the Worlds_, despite being a century old, still feels modern. Vance, as usual, is excellent.

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Should have read it instead

Revisado: 10-17-17

An interesting story that took awhile to grip me but when it did, I was hooked. Unfortunately, the narration is distracting: this actor has a lovely voice, but he cannot do American accents to save his life. And there are a lot of American characters in this novel!

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Cotard's syndrome is the new black

Revisado: 08-15-15

What made the experience of listening to Spark the most enjoyable?

The protagonist is fascinating, and the first-person narration, although limited by his perceptions, skillfully fills a larger picture.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

Scott Brick's narration is understated, as it has to be for such a character, but nuanced nonetheless. A good melding of narrator and text.

Any additional comments?

I had never heard of Cotard's syndrome before reading this novel, but since then I discovered a series of Welsh police procedurals with a protagonist who is struggling with the same condition, Fiona Griffiths. The two characters are very different, though both extremely engaging.

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Worthwhile despite flaws

Revisado: 08-15-15

Would you listen to Aurora again? Why?

Don't read Robinson for interesting or realistic characters. If you can get past that lack, however, there is much here of interest. In a nutshell, the novel is a meticulous dismantling of fantasies of human expansion beyond the solar system, and generation starships in particular. If those topics are of interest, this is an important, even a crucial, novel.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Ali Ahn has a lovely voice and when she does straight narration, or speaks as the Ship, she is effective. However, her presentation of virtually all the characters is distracting. The females sound whiney and girlish, whether children or middle-aged women, and when performing male characters Ahn's apparent single-minded focus on speaking loudly and deeply prevents nuances of character. Cross-gender narration can be tricky, and it seems to work best when the narrator concentrates on the character's personality, not their biological sex.

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Always good to read the description

Revisado: 09-22-14

Where does The Steel Remains rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Richard Morgan writes gripping novels, and The Steel Remains is no exception. He does "damaged dark hero" as well as anyone. In this series he takes the fantasy genre and makes it fresh.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Gil, the lead character, is complex. Sardonic, an aristocrat with many upper class prejudices, he is also an effective military leader and a consummate soldier. He is a loner, follows a warrior ethos, and also has a self-destructive side. He undergoes significant changes in the course of the novel and I look forward to the second part.

Which character – as performed by Simon Vance – was your favorite?

Simon Vance is an accomplished reader, and the two male leads were excellent. I was less excited by the female lead, as her accent, at least to my taste, was a little distracting. Too bad, as her character — half human, half alien, left behind — was fascinating.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was compelled to finish the novel and have already cued up the second one.

Any additional comments?

Some have commented on the depiction of the lead character's homosexuality, which underscores the importance of reading the description and the reviews if you are easily offended. Interestingly, these same readers did not seem the least bit bothered by the equally graphic, equally frequent, depictions of heterosexuality. (In fact, the heterosexual relations depicted were often non-consensual, while the gay sex occurred between consenting parties. I guess raping enslaved women is less offensive than gay sex between equals.) Nor did they seem bothered by the continuous, and highly graphic, violence. Remember, following Dr. Kinsey, that one in ten sword-swinging gore-covered berserker warriors are, statistically, likely to be gay. Which puts a whole new spin on "hearing the lamentations of the women."

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Excellent second novel in series

Revisado: 07-31-14

What made the experience of listening to On the Steel Breeze the most enjoyable?

I liked the way the narrative shifted between the two cloned protagonists. The world of this series — a future in which Africa and China became the superpowers — is refreshing.

What about Adjoa Andoh’s performance did you like?

Adjoa Andoh has a lovely voice, and her voicing of the main character(s) was impeccable.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It was satisfying to catch up with some of the characters from the first novel in the series.

Any additional comments?

The director did Ms. Andoh a disservice when s/he had her voice practically every character with a different national accent. The effect of multicultural diversity could have been achieved less jarringly, particularly with the male characters. This is not a reason not to listen to her marvellous reading of this highly interesting novel, however.One final suggestion: when different actors read novels within the same series, it might be less confusing if the recurring characters are not voiced in a radically different way.

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