C.

Not Cute Enuff

Revisado: 01-07-17

Would you try another book from Gigi Pandian and/or Julia Motyka?

Very probably not. I found Ms. Pandian's plot contrivances unacceptable. With violence sprouting round the protagonist like mushrooms, no one notices... Sigh.

Would you ever listen to anything by Gigi Pandian again?

I won't let the reader get between me and a book I wish to hear.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom! To the point I quit before finishing it.

Any additional comments?

The living gargoyle is, truly, cute.

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Fun but

Revisado: 06-30-16

Mr P writes wonderfully. This is not his strongest work and possibly a bit self indulgent but still fun

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Wonderful for technical detail - only

Revisado: 05-18-16

First, if you haven't read his 3 volumes about Magicians, go do that. It/they is/are world class wonderful
This book not so much. He has, and displays extremely well, an exciting knowledge of - yes, really - library; wrong word but he's got solid material and displays and uses it very well.
Plot is - sigh - shaky with logical and common sense 'gaps'.
Read to me like a first novel and not nearly as bad as other 'firsts' I've read.
Reader/performers, regrettably, don't add to the book.
Has Mr. G other books?
I'd try another than this without hesitation.

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Didn't Finish it because ...

Revisado: 03-03-16

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A total re-write; This reader had no sense of the alleged attraction of the male to female lead. Story read by a female Brit and in a range I found 'difficult' to understand.

Has Murder in Thrall turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, but I shall not try this author - or the reader again.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Marcella Riordan?

No idea: Kate Redding reads superbly. But! A poor story is not saved by a reader, no matter how good.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom. Three murders, yawn. Boy/Girl relationship as exciting as used bread.

Any additional comments?

The 'plot' is 'who done it'. The story as told (wrote) was almost exciting as an indifferent yawn.

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Good First Novel

Revisado: 01-07-15

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It's I think! first of a series. (e-sources vary on which he wrote first). Stay with Jack Reacher!- it may be an insult (for which I apologize) but - way "Better than Bond," is appropriate. Better telling of violence, thinking and (but of curse) sex.The reader - wow, it's a hail of a thing to say of any pro, but ugh! Pacing 'strange', emphasis 'monotone'. OK, a reader must keep him/her self out of the book, but not to the extent of reciting - in monotone - a grocery list. (Listen, please! to a great reader - Kate Redding, a sex apparently 'not allowed' to read Masculine Male violent books... which is unfair since she's a girl, but still great.)

What was one of the most memorable moments of Jack Reacher: One Shot?

First Novel: BUT! Good sense of the man over all; 'his' description of 'back when' he first encountered the accursed is very good indeed.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Dick Hill?

Me. A dog with whooping cough. OK, I'm being mean. But, geesh... Dunno why a guy has got to read a 'guy' (garbage, but that's how 'they' are marketing it) has to read a 'guy' (see previous paren) novel.

Did Jack Reacher: One Shot inspire you to do anything?

Let's see ... The Bad Guys kill 4+ innocents and JR (oh! sorry about that! pun) kills at least that many. NOT an inspiration which inspires me.

Any additional comments?

On an airport impulse I picked up a (much, I think) later Reacher book than this and it this 'this' was wonderful. Good enough that (a) I gave it to a friend (a 'not often' - twice in 15 years event) and (b) I'm now reading/listening to the series in order.* Author is that good.*Order! appears to be dependent on what e-source one uses. Sigh...

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All Back, No Story

Revisado: 08-07-14

OK, not fair, I couldn't get through it. Our Glorious Hero spends LOTS of time being 'nice'. The vicious, rotten, no good, stinking evil villain has enough faults to tire a wrist, arm, shoulder and other body parts shaking a stick at. Worse neither 'reads' well. And, oh, the gloriously beautiful, insanely talented, spectacularly insipid heroine. 'Nuf said?
In the small part I could bear, everybody is dancing - not merrily - to a totally unnecessarily complicated plot.
Heaven help a spy agency as incompetent as those described.
If 'tedious' is you, listen to this book.

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Couldn't Even Get Started Well

Revisado: 06-15-13

I couldn't make it through the first 15 minutes. The reader was fine.
But ... Oh, golly.

Plot ... Totally and completely different from the summary. "The Summary Says," it's about the first 100 on Mars, building a colony.

Nope. Maybe, eventually there may be a flashback, but... as the story opens the population is 1,000 with - oh horrors!! - MINORITIES!!! How dare anyone bring those vile foreign folk anyway? (Never mind that I find the representation of that group as offensive.)

But, let's talk about the 100. Those 100 were - at least it doesn't seem unreasonable to suppose and I believe may have been stated - 'the best and brightest' that COULD be selected. Which didn't hear to me very much like the case...

Of the first 100; presented as 'leaders', one I hear as pretty much a nut case. One more time! This is one of the first 100 ... Maybe they selected folk (never mind what the text says) for instability?

The book allegedly received raves for scientific accuracy. Like building on the surface with a see-through dome where meteors are pretty common?

Oh bother.

Text didn't grab me. Plot seemed to me stupid, childish and not very believable.
Dialogue to me dragged.

I couldn't stay with it.

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The Best Story Ever With a Horribly Bad Plot

Revisado: 04-07-13

Mr. Clines writes beautifully, wonderfully, compellingly. I love! his characters. You see these people. Those that are to be liked I loved, and that's almost all of them. How good are they? Wail, even the ones one is supposed not to like are believable; you've met them and know them and I was rooting - hard - against them. The 'good guys'? Wonderful; people you'd like to have for your friends. That's some terrific writing.
But.
Oh, dear. The plot. Ignore it. Has more holes than a paper target after 20 rounds from a 12 gauge at 6". Or more.
The audible reader is excellent.
But, oh that plot.... To list the plot idiocies is to give the book away and the man writes much beter than that. Ignore the plot, love the people.

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Repetition, Anybody?

Revisado: 09-24-12

Kate Reading is one World Class Wonderful Reader. (Yes, I do think she's that good. Thank you for asking.)
Try her reading "Revenge of the Blood Lilly."
Here she's held prisoner by an overwhelmingly repetitious, repetitive story that also keeps saying the same things nearly endlessly.
Oh. yes. by the way. It repeats a lot.
I started it on audio, gave up. On an extended trip I took it along as a sleeping pill and it was too dull - being annoyed with a book does not put this reader to sleep.
"It's not your fault, Kate!" Even the best reader may be a victim to a l - o - n - g and boring novel.

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GDB - Great Darn Book

Revisado: 09-24-12

OK, someone! will complain about the sex parts; "Is it really necessary to have one of the central characters BE that sexual?" (Or if you like, "Suffer such explicit sexual humiliation?")
yes.
This is a future with Genetic Engineering Run Wild. This is a future in a time and place you can see, smell, hear and darn near touch. This is a location that is precisely today and absolutely in a distorted and warped future.
Reader read it well. Writer nailed the locus - and the characters.

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