Marci

No doubt a valuable history but a difficult listen

Revisado: 02-26-20

I tried but I couldn't get far in this. Its written to be a comprehensive history, but it's a dry, difficult listen. There is a lot of detail. The narrative interrupts itself at crucial moments; for example: there is a build up to when Tesla is about to present an important invention, but at that moment the author stops to introduce various rivals and potential investors who are about to feature in the story. Sometimes the detours themselves have detours! Occasionally there is a good anecdote, but even these can be interrupted by analysis of whether the story is actually true.

Prebble is great as always.

Maybe serious history (and Tesla) buffs would get more out of this.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Very good

Revisado: 02-26-20

Got this to listen to after reading an excerpt on Tor.com. It had a neat premise: British mediums collect intelligence reports from recently deceased WW1 soldiers. Naturally Germans spies want to put a stop to this.
So it's a WW1 adventure story mixed with mysticism (a magic system with well-defined rules) and romance.

It's well written, and the characters are appealing if occasionally a bit sterotypical. The Brits are all stiff-upper lip, though being a medium the main character can sense the turmoil underneath. And the author does not gloss over sexist and racist attitudes of the time.

The author does a good job reading her own tale. She manages a lot of accents too, though they aren't subtle, and at times it feels like every soldier we meet has a different accent just so the author can show off a bit.

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Wonderful overview of so-called "Classical" music

Revisado: 01-28-20

I took a survey course on European concert music back in college, but I thought a refresher might be fun. This was great! The professor is lively, sometimes a bit corny or irreverent, but it does break up the lectures and clearly he has honed this style over years of teaching students. He knows his stuff and his enthusiastic is contagious-- he's almost gotten me to listen to Schoenburg! (Almost.)

There's a lot of European history, some great anecdotes about all-too-human composers, and in-depth listens and analysis of representative works. Important points are always reviewed later, and if you are serious you can also follow along the course notes.

The main frustration is that despite the luxury of 48 lectures, no matter how much time he spends on a particular piece or composer, he's just scratching the surface. This point is hammered home when, after spending a whole lecture on concerto form, Prof Greenburg points interested parties to another of his Great Courses: The Concerto - 18 hours! Many composers and works he barely has time to name-check, but that's necessary so that he can go deeper on others. One could always quibble about some of the choices but he strikes a very good balance I think.

I'll be checking out some of Robert Greenburg's other music courses in future.

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Fun and very inventive; some plot holes

Revisado: 07-26-18

Story: I enjoyed this a lot. Fun characters, intriguing and unique world, some great payoffs. Sanderson can be counted on for those!

Unfortunately I found the plotting is sloppier than usual (it's a very early work by Sanderson.) Two small examples: a couple times a Seon is sent as a messenger instead of having it contact another Seon directly. Seon's are also described as rare enough to be notable, yet Sarene talks to hers openly in the king's throne room yet remains inconspicuous.

One more: Reoden doesn't think about his impending marriage at all in the first chapter. I think this is so that Sanderson can reveal it in the first sentence of chapter 2. It's a great hook for that chapter but hardly seems realistic, particularly when Reoden talks later about his high esteem for his betrothed..

But the truly frustrating examples are when characters behave inconsistently in favor of advancing the plot. I can't give examples without spoiling anything so I won't.

Many people won't notice these flaws and maybe I'm being too picky. Sanderson is so inventive and good that I find it annoying when he falls short of "great". (Maybe if he slowed down his writing a little? But I don't see that happening-- he's a fountain of stories and they need to come out!)

Narration: The narrator doesn't so much read the story as proclaim it. It I found his reading style ponderous and annoying. Thank goodness for Audible's 1.25x setting-- at that speed it sounded like a normal reading to me!

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If you got this far, you have a pretty good idea

Revisado: 07-26-18

This is the weakest of the Bobiverse books, but it's still good and if you finished the previous two you will of course want to find out what happens. My main complaint is the jumps between multiple plots with hugely different stakes. One plot might be concerned with the fate of an entire race, another they might be purely personal, and they play out at the same time, without either plot informing the other. It's a bit schizophrenic. But I still recommend the whole series, and Ray Porter's voice will always BE Bob to me.

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Strong and ambitious, occasionally frustrating

Revisado: 05-01-17

Overall it's a very interesting and ambitious book. It attempts to mix near future sci fi with contemporary fantasy, and is mostly successful. The characters are interesting, and the book can be both depressing and laugh-out-loud funny. The stakes escalate convincingly. Good stuff!

However in a few places I grew angry with the author and I almost gave up on it once. I'm going to rant a bit here, but there are no spoilers.

The parents are two-dimensionally clueless, believing any accusation made against their own children. The other adults are no better. (Characterizations improve later on.)

At times it's not clear which characters know what, and sometimes they fail to ask obvious questions. For example there's a turning point where the kids are accused of something bad, but we never learn what it was, and it seems the kids don't learn it either. Loose ends like this litter the book.

More sloppiness: the book is always told from someone's point of view, except for exactly one scene where the author suddenly lurches into third-person omniscient. I found this very jarring, as was the unexpectedly explicit sex scene.

And yet, I give it 4 stars. Read my first paragraph again-- most definitely not a waste of time or money. But I think its flawed and I will be annoyed if it wins the Hugo award.

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Weaker middle book; occasionally careless reader

Revisado: 10-25-16

Plot:
This book was less satisfying to me than the first one in the series. Some characters I grew attached to in the first book appear but do little here. And at least two important events happen through astronomically-unlikely random chance.

Reader:
Fiona Walsh has a pleasant voice and changes it just enough to distinguish characters without being showy about it. This is exactly how I like books read! She pronounces some key names very differently than Prebble did for the first book, but for all I know Walsh's pronunciations could be the correct ones.

The big problem is that sometimes Walsh just reads a sentence wrong! A simple example: someone was told not to provoke the armed warriors around him. His response: "Tell that to THEM." But Walsh says "Tell THAT to them." There were about a half a dozen of these clunkers! And other times when the prose didn't flow well I strongly suspect Walsh made a subtler mistake somewhere.

Ah well. The world of the riddle-masters is still an interesting one, and I still want to know what happens next.

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Good, but better if you haven't seen the movie

Revisado: 05-27-16

Performance: Simon Vance is extremely good at distinguishing the different accents and voices without being showy about it. I hadn't heard him for a while and I'd forgotten what a good job he does.

Story: This was an entertaining listen even though I'd seen the movie. But knowing the movie ruins many surprises (and vice versa I suppose.)

Now that I've heard the book, I have to say I think the movie did a great job cleaning up some issues that the book has. In particular, the movie dispenses with the modern-day framing story. We start with some interesting characters and some mysteries. This seems to sett the stage for a 4th act in which the modern-day characters solve the mysteries, or at least come to terms with what was revealed. But when we return to the present day it amounts to little more than an epilogue. So there's much less resolution than I expected.

But the central story is still quite good. Listeners who didn't see the movie will enjoy it that much more.

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Starts strong, payoff is unsatisying

Revisado: 04-07-16

I do like to back up my opinions, but I'll be very vague. So no spoilers.

The book first jumps back in time to introduce a bunch of new characters, backstory. (eventually) a whole new situation for the characters of the first book to deal with. This felt like a left turn, but Cronin is an enthralling writer and I got pulled in. (Having flashbacks within the flashbacks was frustrating though.)

Eventually we catch back up to the "current" timeframe and the middle part of the book is suspenseful and satisfying. Great build up.

Unfortunately things fall apart towards the end. The payoff of some storylines is weak, others rely on incredible coincidences. There are frustrating plot holes that I can't relate here, and missed opportunities for satisfying exchanges between key characters. The finale is one of those elaborate set pieces involving a dozen actors, coordinated to give each one a defining moment. One has to wonder if the fact that the books have been optioned for movies influenced the writing.

I do give Cronin mad props for resolving as much as he did, instead of pushing everything to the third book.

Overall, The Twelve is entertaining but uneven, and disappointing compared to The Passage. I'm going to have to read some reviews before deciding whether to bother reading the final book.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Payoff more than compensates for the frustrations

Revisado: 02-20-16

I liked this 2nd Reckoners book less than the first. The protagonist's quirks are wearing thin.
As before there are intriguing mysteries and action along the way, but several plot points hinge on characters not exchanging key information or asking fairly obvious questions.

To make it worse, after David hears or sees something interesting, Sanderson doesn't always tell you whether that information was related to the rest of the team. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes that matters, sometimes it doesn't. It's sloppy.

But I am pleased to say that the last few hours of the book came together nicely. Once Sanderson had maneuvered the characters to where he needed them to be, the payoff was big. Lots of action, lots of reveals. He just didn't get everyone into place as seamlessly as he has managed in the past (IMHO.)

Will I listen to the 3rd book? Definitely. I suspect it will resemble the last part of this book more than the first part.

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