Tim Fellows

Awful

Revisado: 10-16-24

There may have been a good short story buried in here somewhere, but this felt like three cobbled together storylines that had nothing to do with each other. No character is believable or sympathetic. The main character rapes Helen of Troy by disguising himself as her lover and Simmons plays it off as a funny prank. Please don't waste your time.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Adds Nothing to Prior Books

Revisado: 10-06-24

I enjoyed Zubrin's earlier Mars books, particularly his ideas on transportation logistics and the chemistry of terraforming. This book adds nothing useful and takes a very long time to do it. It's mostly highschool-level rambling about possible Mars social customs with a handful of semi-technical summaries of dome construction techniques thrown in for good measure. Frankly, it reads as if he couldn't afford to hire an editor.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great story, amateur narration

Revisado: 05-25-24

Garver tells a fascinating story about her role in the (ongoing) dismantling of the corrupt aerospace contracting industry. She comes across as spiteful and defensive at times, but it's understandable given how aggressively she was targeted while at NASA.

The one serious flaw of the book is that she's really not a good narrator. Her tone is patronizing and she stumbles through her delivery fairly often.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Ok story, bad narration

Revisado: 12-04-23

Rosamund Pike has a great normal reading voice and a calming storytelling style, but she tries to do way too much in this book and the result is just annoying. I would be across the room struggling to hear her as she drops into barely a whisper, and the next moment she's blowing out my eardrums with a war cry. Just TELL us the character is screaming and we'll take your word for it. Some of us listen to these stories while we do other things and can't be constantly adjusting the volume.

She also has a habit of adding too much emotion to lines that should be delivered flatly, specifically when the teens are talking, and it makes them seem immature and angsty. I was getting tired of a couple characters in particular until I realized most of their annoying traits came from the way they talked, not what they said. And finally, she should just use her normal voice for male characters. I have the same problem with male narrators who try too hard to do female voices. Most of the time it just sounds weird.

The book itself has some good moments, but it's more than half LOTR tropes. Powerful wizard and a king with no throne lead rag-tag band to confront dark lord who has been defeated but is struggling to reassert physical form. Not-nazgul and not-orcs chase them from town to town for half the book, and eventually they approach the mountains of Dhoom (seriously?). There are a half dozen other suspiciously similar plot points. I'm told it gets better, but on the fence about reading any more in the series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Great book but a little too much fanboying

Revisado: 10-04-23

Interesting book, just don't come into it expecting an unbiased look at the digital revolution or Apple's role in it. This book happened to come out right as Apple was taking half of Silicon Valley to court over allegedly stealing its IP, and some of the descriptions of how it all happened sound like they come from Apple's PR department rather than a reporter. The last hour of the book is basically an Apple commercial. Isaacson makes sure we know his book was really definitely independent by telling us over and over how really definitely independent his book was. Feels more like Jobs picked out a dependable Apple fan to put in a good word for him.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Hard to listen to the second half

Revisado: 05-30-23

I don't understand how Rothfuss dropped the ball so badly in the second half of this book. Imagine a book about sex, written by someone who learned everything they know about it from 50 Shades of Grey, and you'll be pretty close. It felt like a sexually frustrated teenage ghostwriter took over halfway through, and was told nothing except the names of the main characters. Some minor spoilers below.

16-year old virgin Kvothe gets pulled into an alternate dimension with an immortal, homicidal nymphomaniac who spends a month teaching him about sex (which he tells us he is extremely good at by the way), then he wanders off and randomly encounters an omniscient being who gives a prepared and unsolicited monologue on the secrets of the universe. Then Kvothe returns to his home dimension and immediately wanders off to a completely unrelated reclusive community of (wait for it) nymphomaniac ninjas who live in a hidden free love utopia and never tell any outsiders any of their secrets except when they immediately begin telling Kvothe all of their secrets.

Hopefully this sounds interesting, because Kvothe's sexy ninja instructors/lovers have HOURS of nonstop exposition for us as they, looking straight into the camera, tell us every excruciatingly precise detail we could never want to know about the history and culture of this boring and one-dimensional society.

Then, immediately after leaving, Kvothe encounters a band of travellers who proudly advertise that they've kidnapped and abused a couple of teenage girls. Kvothe kills them all, and Rothfuss spends over an hour letting Kvothe ham up how morally superior he is, as if opposing rape is some sort of brave ethical stance to take. Please don't waste your time with this book if you want any actual character development.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not perfect but makes you think

Revisado: 04-23-23

I don't agree with everything NNT says in this book, which covers a huge range of philosophy and statistics, but I appreciate how well thought out and assertive it is. At the very least, it will force you to reevaluate what you do or don't know.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Interesting story, poorly written

Revisado: 11-17-22

Show us how sympathetic a character/situation is, don't tell us 50 times. The sadness of this story should speak for itself, and the author ruins it by endlessly stating the obvious.

She also tells us at least a dozen times how legendary the father is. It may very well be true, but she says it so often that it shifts the focus of the book to him instead of his son. The praise is so over the top that it makes me wonder if it was a condition on the author being allowed to write the story.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Exceeded high expectations

Revisado: 09-06-22

Just to be clear right off the bat, this book is more of a biography centered around space than a pure space book. Mike describes his early life and path to NASA, and his two shuttle flights to repair Hubble.

What gets this book five stars for me is Mike's ability to talk about himself and his truly extraordinary accomplishments for hours without ever slipping into narcissism. He's very up front about his insecurities, his failures, and his reliance on "The Team™." I'm not sure if it would work as well in print format, but when Mike uses these standard NASA platitudes, I believe him. This is a fun and engaging book read by a talented storyteller, and I'll probably be listening to it again soon.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

More like a list of fun facts than a history

Revisado: 09-06-22

Brier comes across more like an enthusiastic and opinionated layman than a serious academic. He gushed about how every accomplished Pharaoh was "a really great guy," based only on their political propaganda. When an aging Pharaoh he liked took a new young wife, he told us, with absolutely no evidence, that the primary wife was completely fine with it because that explanation made the Pharaoh look better.

It was hard to tell the difference between hard archaeological fact, educated guess, and blind speculation, because he mixed them together so freely. Listen to this series for interesting anecdotes if that is what you're after, but don't come expecting any academic rigor or critical analysis.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña