Ian

Hard to swallow

Revisado: 10-21-24

I really want to dislike this book. We the reader are implicitly asked to treat scenarios as ethically ambiguous where no such ambiguity exists. What you have here is the story of an orphan with dissociative identity disorder being groomed by a murdering psychopath. The ends justify the means? Nah. The author is quite weak on historical detail and this pokes through suspension of disbelief in odd places; casually applying lipstick in Italy in 1944? Hmmmm. The narrative tempo is effective at maintaining reader engagement and the inevitable rug-pull (ha HA I bet you found these characters relatable and now they're DEAD!) is predictable but impactful nonetheless. I was skeptical of the protagonists dysmorphia/DID as a narrative device but the author manages to massage it into literary effectiveness before the end. Gabra Zackman gives a spectacular performance as usual and maybe that's just enough to carry the work. Will I be reading more by Derek B. Miller? Never.

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More hyperbole than substance.

Revisado: 05-17-24

More hyperbole than substance and more "digestible" than insightful. Not much use as a historical document except perhaps as a jumping-off point towards building or expanding a reading list.

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Deranged

Revisado: 02-07-23

Unfortunately nowhere near as good a listen as "Sailing a Serious Ocean." Little more than soapbox ranting by a hopelessly tonedeaf, solipsistic luddite.

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Not for everyone.

Revisado: 09-09-22

John C Wright has quite a collection of axes and they all get a fine grind. If right-wing ideas frighten or offend you, probably skip this one. If you are a flexible thinker and choose to suspend your disbelief you are in for a big, fun, goofy traipse through ideaspace in the footsteps of Niven & A.E. Van Vogt.

Vocal performance a bit idiosyncratic. Takes a while to warm up, but pretty good overall.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Deadpan comedy at its finest!

Revisado: 04-27-22

Haven't laughed so hard in years. The author perfectly parodies a tone-deaf, technically and ethically illiterate cold war-era catspaw of the military industrial complex. Just the sort of character that would have played a supporting villain in a 90s film.

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Juvenile doggerel

Revisado: 10-02-21

Extremely disappointing after, "War for the Hell of it."
Five more words remaining, oh well.

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Dry

Revisado: 09-30-21

Not interesting unless you are very specifically looking for information about the weapons and tactics employed by the US Air Force in the air campaign against Iraq. The airmen who developed and made use of these weapons and tactics in the 2nd Gulf War were SO successful against Iraqi air defenses that, by a wide margin, the single most hazardous anecdote in this book relates to a sandstorm.

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Brilliant

Revisado: 06-30-21

The gorgeously performed allegory of how and why the BPD cognitive subspecies goes extinct. Smart, poignant, fresh.

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Worst narrator ever

Revisado: 06-22-21

Random midsentence pauses, incomprehensible shifts in cadence and intonation, inconsistent character voicing even within a given paragraph.

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It's Alright

Revisado: 09-30-20

Smart prose that gradually unveils itself as a sort of inverted harem fantasy. The political elements are well considered but a bit of a bait-and-switch from the core relationship issues that really drive this series. In short we have a cop out from a writer who is capable of better.

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