Joshua C. Mccormack

Not much happens, horrible ending

Revisado: 04-15-25

It is important to know what you are getting into here. This is not a story with any real tangible antagonist. If you are looking for something fast paced and exciting you will not find it here. It seems the author was trying to put together a story of what might actually happen on a generation ship on its way out to another star system and then when it gets there. There are no big developments, just the social/political/technical problems that the people on a ship like this might really run into. Nothing imaginative, no big discoveries out there in space, just a lot of commentary on social hierarchies and moral aspects of condemning future generations to a lifetime of spaceflight.

The most interesting character doesn't make it past the first act - if there even is a first act. This story didn't really have a beginning, middle, and end. It began, and just kind of kept going until its non-ending. I guess it is hard to end a story where nothing happens. You just kind of, stop writing, and that is what the author did. Nothing was resolved, but yet, there was nothing to resolve.

There are also many silly instances where I think the author forgot they were writing about the future. For example: a character having to go through chemotherapy for cancer... in the year 2500. If we are still using chemotherapy 475 years from now when we have the technology to build several kilometer long generation ships and have colonized the solar system, something is really wrong.

If you want a story about a generation ship with some science involved (although large portions of the tech and how critical things work are glossed over) and lots of situations involving people dealing with challenging moral issues and social conflict, you will enjoy Aurora.

I kept waiting for something to happen. I kept looking at how much time was left in the audiobook, wondering when they were going to introduce the real story/main conflict. It never happens.

The presentation is good. Not amazing, but good. I would listen to a book with this narrator again.

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All horror, no sci-fi with a disappointing payoff

Revisado: 04-08-25

Imagine an Event Horizon knock-off but not nearly as good, with plot devices that are much less interesting and you have Dead Silence. The dust cover synopsis of the book tells you this is a story of a spaceship crew finding a derelict ship that disappeared decades ago, so you know you are already going to be in familiar territory with this one. Although this has been done before, it is such a creepy setting for a story to unfold in that I was excited to see where the author Stacey Kade could take it.

The first act was promising, balancing a fast pace with good character development. However, the story massively bogged down in the 2nd act. The entire 2nd act is nothing but the main character re-analyzing and lamenting the events that already happened. The narrator really went in hard on the dramatic acting of the dialogue which became tedious at best, annoying at worst. Imagine listening to the same emotionally charged dramatic wailing about what happened in the first act, for an entire third of the story.

It picks back up in the 3rd act nicely, and while I appreciate getting a fully fleshed out explanation for what caused all of the bad things to happen, the plot devices used to do so are pretty thin. At least the story gets neatly wrapped up, but not in a way that treads any new ground. It seemed like the author settled on the explanation for the antagonist's actions because she couldn't think of anything better. The plot devices behind Event Horizon were so much more interesting and thought provoking.

There is not much science in this book, and I was expecting more from what I thought was a sci-fi horror novel. This is more of a haunted house story that happens to be set on a spaceship, with any real sci-fi elements left out.

When it comes to the narrator's (Lauren Ezzo) performance, there were positives and negatives. I appreciated her trying to differentiate individual character's voices by making them sound different, but her male voice was a bit cringe. She also seemed to voice every thought or line of dialogue from the main character in a super overly-dramatic whiny, emotional way. Imagine a local theater troupe play where the main character's family and friends are in the audience. It was a bit overdone and became annoying to me. Having said that, I wouldn't hesitate to listen to another book narrated by her as she overall did a decent job.

If you like haunted house / ghost stories and want to read one set on a spaceship but without any real sci-fi elements, you will probably enjoy this. If you are into more of a harder sci-fi experience and/or have read Event Horizon or seen the movie, this book will be a let down.

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No science, just emotional wrecks of characters

Revisado: 04-03-25

So, I like a little "science" in my science fiction. You won't find that here. So the story starts off with a space walk on a ship that is at cruising speed through space, but the characters stay attached because they periodically tether themselves to the ship. Let that sink in. When an explosion happens that kills the captain, there is no incident response. Instead, characters react by losing their proverbial sh*t, break down emotionally, and shout at each other. No damage report, no dealing with the problem, just arguments and emotional breakdowns. Most of the characters even go on with their daily responsibilities like nothing has happened. It is hard to get into a novel that has characters reacting so unbelievably. I'm used to professional astronauts and scientist being trained to manage crisis in a calm, problem solving manner. Not these women. They turn into emotional wrecks who bicker and shout at each other when faced with an emergency.

Every character so far is female. Some have what I guess are pronouns of "they/them" which makes for a confusing narrative. The only male character that is mentioned is done so in past tense and negatively. Every female character is beautiful and amazing. This novel reads more like ultra woke femme-fiction than science fiction. I'm not opposed to progressive ideas in storylines, but I am when it takes the narrative into ridiculously unbelievable directions.

Maybe there are male characters introduced later in the story, and maybe the story actually has some cohesive science in it. I won't waste any more of my time to find out. I returned this after 10 chapters and am on to a better novel.

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Massive dissapointment

Revisado: 08-19-23

I read Larson’s “Dead Wake” about the Lusitania, a fantastic book. How could the same author who wrote that book be the same person that turned in this never ending drivel on the mind-numbingly boring minutia of useless detail? Seriously Larson?!?! 14 hours of monotone, stale descriptions of randomly selected characters and events that have nothing to do with anything remotely interesting?

So Larson has the following source material to pull from:
1. A serial killer who designs a murder castle to aid in his killings.
2. A world science fair in which you can talk about the breakthroughs in science and advancements in conjunction with the murderer and his murder castle.

But nope! Larson has no such time for those silly things. Want to hear the endless drivel of all the minor geo-political machinations that were going on to get the fair started? Worry not! Larson has you coveted!

Completely uninterested in Holmes and his murder house? You are in luck!! Larson barely has time to touch on it, and even when he does it seems like an afterthought.

This is a must miss. I learned more about Holmes and his murders in a 30 minute true crime podcast than I did in this 14 hour marathon of the most tedious and mundane drivel possible.

I rarely ask for my money back, but I will this time. What a snooze fest. How is it possible to mess up a topic like this?!?!?

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Great story just two hours too long

Revisado: 10-11-22

This story is told in a pretty straight forward, linear fashion which I like. It is sometimes hard to understand all the jumping around some authors do. The only problem here is the length of this book. At well over 14 hours, this book spends too much time with courtroom details. While there are some pretty good Law and Order style gotcha moments in the trial, way too much time is spent on the minutia of the trial.

Also, some reviewers are complaining about the author's choice to imitate an Asian-American accent for the forensic expert.
Why does that upset folks? He does a different accent for everyone's voice. Would you get upset if an Asian person was imitating an American's accent if they were speaking say.. Japanese? Or Mandarin? No. you wouldn't. So what is the difference?

This is a good true crime book about a lesser-known freak show serial killer. The hubris of this guy was off the charts. Also, there are many graphic details about his crimes - but even more graphic is the insight into this guy's mind. As I am a true crime veteran, I am more and more interested in the "why". What drives these monsters to do these things? What leads to the sick desires that can only be tamed with blood?

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A few questions were a bit too goofy but still very good

Revisado: 09-22-22

I loved the first book, and this second entry was about … 80% as good? Which if you are a nerd like me, that’s still better than 99.99% of the stuff out there. This is starting to sound like a question in “What If”

Question -
If we wrote a book scientifically answering any question imaginable, and averaged roughly 115 answers per-book (assuming we count the short question chapters), how many books would we have to go through before we’d get to questions so silly that their answers are not particularly interesting to listen to?

Answer:
Assuming a population of 7.5 billion people, and 1 question per person…. but not all of those 7.5 billion people are mature enough to ask questions, unless you accept “goo goo ga ga” as a question, then that leaves is with… yada yada yada… witty banter… at this series’ rate, about 10 to 12 books. (Tell me you didn’t just read that in Will Wheaton’s voice!!)

Seriously though, what if mount St. Helens erupted light bulbs? That’s the best ya got?!?!!

How about:

Question:
What would happen if you fired a bullet from a conventional firearm at a Jedi and the Jedi tried to block it with his light saber? Would it vaporize the bullet or just cause molten hot lead to hit the Jedi in the face?

Someone please at least answer that for me??!!?!?

Will Wheaton slays, obvs. Seriously, outside of Neil deGrasse Tyson himself taking over, I couldn’t listen to anyone else answer these.

There are some fascinating questions in here also, for example:
If you walked from Texas to New York, but for each step you took, you went back 30 days, what would that look like from the perspective of the time traveler.

I won’t ruin it for you but hearing how the landscape would change in front of you (assuming you wouldn’t be affected by it) was fascinating! I think I listened to that chapter… 3 times?

Anyways, long story short (too late)
I hope a 3rd book doesn’t stray quite so far into absurdity that it defeats the purpose.

However if it does, I’ll still read it.

And enjoy it.

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Jumbled mess of incoherent babbling

Revisado: 08-30-22

Colson Whitehead does nothing to build a world that you can immerse yourself in. I have no idea what is going on in this story. Nothing is fleshed out, established, who is what and where... this narrative jumps all around, all over the place. I couldn't keep track of when/where the story was taking place.

It's a shame, because there is some really creative writing here. There just isn't enough actual story going on to really get traction - at least not for me.

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Hope you like hours of unnecessary detail

Revisado: 07-21-22

I'm three hours into this, and so far, it is mind-numbingly boring. If you want to know what the inside of the main character's great grandfather's office looked like, then this is the book for you! You are going to get that level of detail, and more! Chapter after chapter... The author even thought necessary to go all the way back to the pilgrims and native Americans - and I honestly can't find a connection to the actual story line there. Why? Well to make an 8 hour story last 14 hours of course!

Disclaimer: I like a good backstory and character development, but this is purely ridiculous, For great lengths this narrative has nothing to do with the main, actual story, and is all over the place with loads of mindless and unnecessary detail. If it gets better, I'll update and let you know where to skip forward and start from...

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1st narrator sounds like she's reading to kids

Revisado: 01-14-22

It makes no sense to break this story into thirds and assign a different narrator to each part. This is one continuous story, and it seems they just arbitrarily picked about 1/3 of the way thru the narrative to switch readers.

The first author was the least effective - Ann Marie Lee. She has a very relaxing, smooth, buttery voice, which she uses like she's reading a fairy tale to kids in kindergarten sitting crisscross apple sauce around her. Her tone does not match the content of the story she is reading. I could picture her with a big warm smile on her face as she was reading about murder and other horrible things.

By the time the book finally gets going with the second author, Will Patton (by far the best) I had to re-listen to the first part to pay attention to the names Just when Will Patton starts making sense of this whole complicated story, it switches narrators yet again!

The third narrator does not have any inflection in his voice. He sounds like he is tired and getting out an entire sentence sometimes seems painful for him.

It is a shame this content couldn't be presented in a better way. Stories like these should be taught in schools all across this country. I had no idea about any of this until I was turned on to this book.

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Ok story meets just ok narration...

Revisado: 01-04-22

I kept thinking of the movie "Leon, the Professional" with the character Mathilda played by a young Natalie Portman while listening to this book. Sadly, King's version of the "hitman meets innocent girl he has to care for while killing the bad guys" story isn't half as good as Leon was. King falls flat on his face trying to develop the character of Alice. What a horrible job. Her dialogue is wooden, generic and awful. I kept asking myself what Billy loved so much about her? There is zero chemistry between the two. Also, we never feel like Billy is in any real danger, nor does he dish out the type of violent vigilante justice he should in some cases (no spoilers). Overall, this is a C- hitman meets innocent victim story, and the C- is generous.

Also, we slog through many hours of preparation for things to happen, but little action when they do. The 3rd act takes place in the last 90 minutes or so of the book, but happens very fast and seems like an after-thought.

The narration was good at first, but the super slow, breathy delivery and pause after every 3rd or 4th word became tedious at best, and frustrating at worst. The only saving grace was when Paul Sparks voiced the mobster, Nicky. His voice was hilarious and I could picture a fat mobster saying those words.

Finally, anyone who has ever trained any martial arts or been in a fight will find some aspects of this story silly. Like Billy getting out of the car and roundhouse kicking an armed guard in the head... very amateurish writing and I expected more from King here.

I think King bit off more than he could chew here. Either he didn't research enough about combat tactics to be believable or those aspects of his stories aren't important to him. What should be of utter-most importance, is how to build a character, something he's usually good at - but falls flat here. I can't say enough how boring, wooden, stale, and unlikable Alice is. She does nothing for the story, other than to act as inspiration for Billy's struggles.

There was never any suspense in this book. I never worried for any of these characters... that should tell you something about the job Mr. King has done here... perhaps stick to horror?

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