David

great and well defined characters and story

Revisado: 02-23-25

This is my first book by this author and I'm excited to say I've finally found someone that compares very nicely to Michael Connelly. Very procedural approach to a thriller/mystery with interesting and believable characters and intriguing back stories. I couldn't out it down for long and finished it in just over a day. I'll continue on with this series and see how it holds up.

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Homerun For Weird and Fun Koontz..Welcome Back.

Revisado: 02-07-24

I've been reading Dean Koontz pretty much from when he first started writing. It's been an on and off relationship sometimes as he can sometimes be a different writer on some books than on others. But my most enjoyable reads are when he just has some fun and doesn't take himself too seriously. Not many authors can change like that and it's refreshing for long-time fans like myself.

This is one of those books, and it's been a while. Great characters, fast and witty dialogue and wild sense of the weird, but still strangely believable. If you remember how much you enjoyed Odd Thomas when you first encountered it, you're going to love this one. I was especially impressed with Ray Chase's narration. He's a GREAT narrator and I'm going to keep a lookout for him in other titles now.

My only problem was it was a bit too short so the end seemed a bit rushed. But the story still got told and told completely. However, there's plenty of interesting and thought provoking ideas shotgunned out in the final chapters so I'm hoping this leads to some follow on books because I'm certain I'll enjoy them.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

D. D. Warren....Really???

Revisado: 11-14-20

This is the second book I've read out of the D. D. Warren series and although I thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters in general I find the character for which this series is named to be a very odd choice both in this story and the previous one. Maybe it's just me. I'm used to the key protagonists in books like these to be very clever, thorough and insightful when it comes to dissecting a crime. Characters like Harry Bosch who live and die on the constant examination of the facts and evidence with an inquiring and skeptical mind to make sure the objective evaluation of the evidence and facts lead to a proper conclusion and not the pre-disposition toward a conclusion coloring the analysis of the evidence. That would be the polar opposite of the heroine here who represents the absolute opposite of such things and openly exhibits the worst traits a real world detective should ever have of jumping to a conclusion and then doggedly holding on to and force fitting a story to fit that conclusion. I would hope a detective with those traits in the real world would be fired as that's the most common characteristics behind convictions of innocent people and creating a legal argument that could be used to exonerate guilty parties.

That aside, I thought the story was creative, moved along at a decent pace, had fairly interesting characters and kept me engaged. Although I did spend a significant amount of my time wanting to yell at the D. D. Warren character to calm down, get rid of her attitude, be a professional investigator and do her job without all her personal drama subverting her work. I think Gardener is a good writer capable of creating good characters such as the Tessa Leoni character in this book. But I think this will be my last call for any more D. D. Warren stories.

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Story is kind of okay....dialogue is horrible

Revisado: 09-13-20

This is the second book I've read by this author. The first was questionable, but I struggled getting through this one and won't be getting any more of his books.

I chose these books based on the reviews, but maybe the folks drawn to these books are more easily pleased than I am. I'd just finished a number of books by Micheal McGarrity dealing with the same time frames and found them quite enjoyable, so that prompted me to try this author. But the problems fall into two broad categories.

1. This book is a mystery set in the old west. As was the previous book I'd read by this author his logic and description of what motivated the crime was very weak and incomplete. As is the case with almost all bad western, the hero generally escapes with flesh wounds while his enemies are all killed with perfectly placed shots.

2. The dialogue is the biggest problem with this author, "pard". All the references to "hosses", "skalywags", etc. had me convinced I was listening to the dialogue from a very bad 1960's television western (although some of them were much more passable than this). More likely it mirrors the dialogue in the children's cowboy shows of the era. But anyone over the age of 8 is going to be very disappointed in how unrealistic, stilted, and embarrassing the dialogue is. And how dependent on these bad dialogues are in moving the store forward. That's useful for an audience of 8 year olds, but not so much for adults.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Looks To Be Another Fun and Interesting Series

Revisado: 05-27-19

I got introduced to Ray Porter's work through the Bobiverse series which I thought of as an entertaining storyline with a very creative premise based on explainable and understandable science. This series looks to be much the same. The best thing about his writing is that he doesn't appear to care as much about creating a big time science fiction epic that takes itself too seriously. He fills his stories with characters you can easily identify with due to their normal, everyday human qualities very much like people you've probably met or have known. It's just that they're placed into unusual and sometimes difficult situations that often require creative solutions, both scientific and otherwise.

The problem some people might have with this book is it might not be serious enough for them. It's very light-hearted and entertaining. But in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with that. Clearly the idea that a bunch of graduate level college students in a variety of disciplines could come up with a way of creating the technology that allows people to easily walk through a portal into another version of Earth challenges credibility. But on the other hand it's a very fun "what if" exercise that keeps you captivated. And what on Earth...or any other version of Earth, is wrong with being entertained, as long as the scientific basis appears to be solid.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Decent Idea...But Poorly Executed

Revisado: 08-31-18

This was my first book by this author, and I doubt I'll read any more from her after this. I was able to get through the book, but it wasn't due to the story itself nudging me forward. The further I got into the book was like sludging through mud to the inevitable ending I had predicted before I even got to the halfway point in the story.

First, the good. I found the idea behind the story was pretty interesting. There are all sorts of revenge type stories, but this has a bit smarter and more (seamingly) modern take on the idea. It was intriguing enough that it kept me going once the pace fell off and got sluggish. Secondly the narration was above average, just not exceptional. I found the concept of first person storytelling from different points of view to be creative and different, and the changes between different narrators didn't really bother me. The weakness in the narration was the female narrator's Boston accent for the character specified to have a heavy Boston accent was really weak. Other than that, narration was well done.

Unfortunately, now you have the bad and there's plenty of it. The author uses flashback sequences throughout the book to fill in details about the core conflict that happened 5 years prior to the telling of this story. The intermittent breaks in the storyline were fine in the beginning, but she carries these flashback chapters on for far too long in the book until they're no longer adding anything to the story and are just slowing down the pace...and creating more sludge to wade through for little payback. This results in these extra chapters taking away from the main process in the revenge story leaving very little left for the details involved in the execution of and response to the different revenge plans, so it becomes more fantasy requiring the reader to suspend belief in how the real world actually works in order to just accept things and move forward with the story. It's more like a deep idea with very naive and shallow storytelling.

My major complaint with this author was the overall shallowness of her story telling. I thought Harvard educated people with A-type competitive personalities were supposed to be intelligent people with a broad understanding of how things in the world work, but you couldn't prove that by the characters she created in this book. She totally missed the opportunity to have very smart and inventive protagonists and antagonists squaring off with each other in surprising and creative ways reflective of their intelligence and cunning. Believe me...none of that was happening here.

The most pitiful aspect of the book was her inclusion of adequately politically correct characters...I'm supposing to add to the "coolness" factor in today's media world. I could have accepted the idea of a gay best friend. That could happen even though it's a totally overused gimmick in much of the schlock stories you see used in cable TV series, but then to add another character with gender identity problems was just taking it a bit too far for no substantial reason especially given the focus of what the main story was supposed to be about. She would have been better off focusing on the execution of the plot by intelligent people than these sort of gimmicks that added nothing of real substance. You don't have to have a degree in mathematics to understand the very low probability of both of those type of characters playing a substantial part in one person's life given the rather tiny ratio of those people in society as a whole.

I will freely admit that I may have had too high an expectation for this book given that most of my reading comes from much more well developed authors of thrillers and mysteries...but believe me when I say this author is no Nelson DeMille or Michael Connelly, so don't go in with that kind of expectation and you might be okay.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

Stop Whispering!!!!!

Revisado: 05-30-18

This is the first book I've ever had to return in over 4 years with Audible. To be honest the story showed promise but the narrator was so bad as to literally be unlistenable. The longer I listened the more aggravated I got until about halfway through I couldn't take his ridiculous whispering and yelling. Bear in mind I have never once had a problem with a narrator. Some have been better than others, but I've never had one so bad I had to return the book. The swings in volume were such that in some cases I could barely make out what he was saying through his mumbled whispering...even at full volume. He mumbled and whispers during normal everyday conversations. Not for effect...just to be whispering and mumbling for no reason. To make matters worse he'll go from a quiet whisper direct into yelling. Try managing that with your volume control. This guy is an absolute pain and amateur and it's a shame I have to miss out on this Stephen King book all because of him. I just couldn't take the torture any longer

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esto le resultó útil a 25 personas

Some Interesting Concepts That Don't Go Anywhere

Revisado: 03-05-18

This was my first book by Jeremy Robinson. I've been a long time science fiction reader, but lost interest in the genre over the last couple of decades until recently trying out a few of the more popular books. For the most part I haven't been disappointed, until this one.

I bit on it due to the reviews of this book as well as some of his other books so I figured it might be a good bet. To be honest the publisher's summary didn't build a lot of excitement so it took a while before I went ahead and spent the credit. I have to say this author has an engaging writing style and is pretty easy to listen to, but the storyline wasn't up to par with the quality of other science fiction books I've been reading recently.

The first half of the book shows great promise even if it's premised on something of an overused cliche' of finding a prospective new home planet so humans won't become extinct from abuses brought on by their own human shortsightedness and character flaws. In that regard it has some of the problem solving aspects of 'The Martian', but without the hard science. It still flows pretty well, and has a couple of surprises but at the halfway point the major conflict is generally resolved. From that point on it becomes somewhat of a tired space opera of encountering a conflict, life and death struggle, all appears lost, then a last minute save...then onto the next space opera sequence. Then it finally fizzles out with a nothing ending.

The sad part of all of this is the first half of the book is actually interesting and results in a somewhat startling discovery. But there's no real investigation of that discovery to find out the truth behind it which would have lent itself to maybe a much more creative and intriguing plotline. Instead it just space jumps around into a couple of new adventures and then fizzles.

Maybe it's just me and my expectations were too high from having been a sci-fi reader for 5 decades having been exposed to hall of fame authors like Phillip K Dick, Felipe Jose Farmer, Asimov, Harlan Ellison and others. But this book doesn't live up to that level of storytelling, and it's probably going to be hard to convince me to give this author another try.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Good...but not up to my normal expectations

Revisado: 11-02-17

I bought this on the day it came out and finished it in two days. Obviously I'm a big fan of Michael Connelly and both his Bosch character and Mickey Haller. Actually I love all of the characters Connelly creates, but Bosch will always be number 1 for me.

But he tried something a bit different this time in combining a couple of different story lines into one book. I understand the purpose of it in that the book is almost half Bosch and half Haller, and it's not a bad combination. The story flows along well as is evidence by my finishing it in two days. The problems I have with it is that the culmination of both stories ends up being somewhat rushed and less believable than most of his stories. All of the good stuff is still there in terms of evidence and procedure, but the climax in both cases is not up to his normal standards on either of the plot lines.

Other than that, the book was entertaining and Titus Wlliver does an EXCELLENT job on both Bosch and Haller. In fact, in some cases you can hear a little bit of Matthew McConaughy seeping through which was quite entertaining.

One other small problem I have with this book. I've recently seen a trend among some of my favorite writers throwing in a bit of national political narrative or barbs at one side of the aisle or the other. It's getting very tiresome. First, I see this author is a very fine fiction author, but there's nothing in his background that would suggest to me he has any great insight into politics other than to follow along with the talking points and rhetoric of one side or the other. No original thoughts or insights. So why subject me as a reader to it? Especially when I came to read a crime mystery novel and it has nothing to do with the story. You accomplish nothing by it other than to alienate readers..so what's the point?

I came here for a good mystery story and I couldn't care less about your (or any other author, actor, or generally famous person's) political orientation.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

A Fitting Character to Carry On the Bosch Legacy

Revisado: 07-22-17

Any additional comments?

I've been a huge Harry Bosch fan for years now and have followed all of the great characters created by Michael Connelly. He never ceases to amaze me as a great storyteller and character creator, and Rene'e Ballard is certainly no exception. Although a detective with the LAPD and somewhat of a lone wolf, the comparison with Harry Bosch pretty much ends there. She has her own family dynamic, her own distinctive life and her own driven motivations, but different from those of Harry. I still love all the Harry Bosch stories, but it's getting harder and harder to find ways to keep him actively involved in detective work as he gets older. So I truly believe Rene'e will carry all of us fans into the future for many, many years to come.

The storyline is classic Michael Connelly with all the great pacing, investigation, intrigue, twists and turns, and of course, the politics and drama involved in the LAPD. Ballard is just a driven as Bosch, but has a deeper sense of ethics and integrity in the way she approaches things. She bends the rules a bit, but stops short of the Godzilla versus Tokyo approach Bosch uses sometimes. I like that, because it causes a lot more internal struggles for her which makes her a more interesting person. She still can get into some trouble, but is always ultimately in the right. It's also nice that she's a woman as it gives us a greater sense of the struggles a woman might have in dealing with a predominantly male environment.

There's been a lot of negative comments made about the narrator. Some of it I agree with, some of it is way overstated. She's not the best, nor is she the worst. She kept me involved in the story which is all that really matters. The only time I was ever confused was when there is a conversation between two characters. Because she doesn't really change the tone of her voice in any way it sometimes was confusing who was speaking during an interchange. That would be the one thing I hope she does better in the future if she continues to narrate this series.

In short, if you want to catch the next wave after Harry Bosch, this is where it all starts (that statement will be more meaningful to you once you read the book).

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