OYENTE

Richard Delman

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Mr. Burke has become relentlessly violent.

Total
1 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
1 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-13-20

In the beginning of his career I thought that Mr. Burke was extraordinarily talented. He could evoke a sense of place like no other writer. You felt like you were in the Bayou Teche, walking down the streets, feeling the heat and humidity, interacting with the people who lived their whole lives there. Dave Robicheau and Cleve Purcell were violent men, but the situations they found themselves in gave rise to the violence. Dave's alcoholism was a subject that lent him some empathy.
Now, I regret to say, Mr. Burke's overwhelming preoccupation with violence is completely off-putting and monotonous. I have read several of the recent books, including The Jealous Kind. In these books we find continuous violence and chaos. Men do almost nothing except insult each other, threaten each other, provoke violence and justify it with utter nonsense. The protagonists and the villains are the same people. They think of nothing but violence, other than the brief moments when they are devastated by love. The women are perfectly one-dimensional. They are saints. The men are reduced to mice that are enslaved to these heavenly creatures.
This has become a terrific disappointment for me. I will buy no more books by Mr. Burke. The violence has become laughably predictable and cartoonish. There are no motivations other than the need to revenge themselves for slights. They treat each other like trash. The same talent that once allowed us to stroll through lovely locations as if we were born to be there is now reduced to a lowly, mindless need to punish. Mexicans are insulted as being subhuman. Children grow up in homes that are full of disturbed parents, lost in the world around them, usually violent themselves. Sometimes the women are mentally ill. I see no respite for this unrelenting torrent of the absolute worst of human behavior. I don't know what has happened to Mr. Burke to precipitate this horrible denouement, but at this point I don't care. I am done. Don't waste your money.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

A fantastic book. Post-apocalyptic, indeed.

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-15-19

This book is the story of a fictional catastrophe on the scientific base called McMurdo, in Antarctica. I won't disclose much of the plot as I wouldn't want to spoil it for other readers. Suffice it to say that both Jonathan Stone and Christopher Lane have done truly outstanding work here. The occupants of McMurdo are mostly scientists who are there to study many aspects of the highly unusual setting: a continent of ice, where it is full dark and sixty degrees below zero for four months at a time. The people who stay there during that time are said to be "over-wintering." The conditions are brutal, although the accommodations for human beings are warm and protected, in the most literal sense. The protagonist is a cop named Joe Heller (yes, that's his name). Heller is chosen to work there for a limited time to attempt to solve a mysterious death, which turns out to be a murder. There are more of them as time goes on. A scientist named Manny Hobbes is the director of the base. There is a doctor named Callaway and a number of other characters. Two of the most significant of these are a couple of radio technicians named Dolan and Pritchard. The plot gets very thick, indeed. Four murders pile up, and Heller doesn't really get close to solving them until the very end of the book, the last half hour. The book contains a startling number of insights into the human condition in such artificial conditions of cold and dark. Mr. Lane does wonderful work with the entire narration. My only complaint with it was that it got a bit wound up during the worst of the catastrophe, but I think that is just a matter of taste. I hope you will enjoy it. I haven't given that many books five stars across the board. This one deserves the accolades.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

My first post-apocalyptic book. Good listen.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 11-06-19

Twenty-five hours is a long time to listen to any book, as the adoring readers acknowledge. I did find it kinda repetitive, with the basic us-vs.-them setups occurring too frequently. That said, The writing is very good. The narration is also fine, although one can feel how taxing it is for Christopher Lane to squeeze himself into about two dozen Tennessee accents. Quite a challenge. Having lived in Tennessee, I can testify that there are at least that many, and maybe several hundred.
Billy and Rhonda are a fine couple. The whole Adam and Eve thing plays out nicely here. There is no forbidden fruit, although the presence of cannibalism in the plot certainly horrifies your average reader. The ingenuity of the good guys and their inventiveness is very impressive. The lessons on proper parenting are very nicely threaded in. Without being married and without having their own biological kids, Billy and Rhonda are wonderful parents to the traumatized children who come to them. There really is not a major flaw in the book other than its length, and I see that a number of fans love that aspect of the book as well. So, enjoy. I have very few criticisms, and there were a number of genuinely moving moments, in which I found myself truly rooting for the good guys.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

A fine, entertaining book, very well read.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-28-19

Brian Doyle has written a moving, deeply personal narrative about a young man, clearly the author, who spends five years of his young life in Chicago, the city of big shoulders...
The second most important character in the book is Edward, a seriously anthropomorphized dog. Edward has so many adventures that the reader finds many human characteristics in him, no matter whether we be canine fans or not. The third main character in the book is a building. An apartment building with about twenty apartments, I think. The people who live there and the neighborhood they inhabit are unforgettable. The landlord, the super, the people on floors above and below him; the woman who bakes empanadas in the basement on Saturday mornings. The fourth most important character in the book is the lake. Seriously. The author runs by the lake, dribbles his shiny=worn basketball on the lake side trying to improve his weak left hand, the alewives which spawn and die in a frenzy there every spring...The book is a love letter to the city of Chicago, and as such is a fine success. It does wander around a bit, keeping pace with the author's wanderings around the city. He discovers many fine people, food and other things. The best gyros, the best...The White Sox, his favorite team. Listening to the games with his super and with Edward on a transistor radio. His mostly absent love life, which appears near the end of the book and is the inspiration for his departure, to a relationship that barely lasts a year. We fast forward to his life in the present, in which he is a married writer with two kids, living somewhere unmentioned. His travels to cities all over the world, about which he seems to have almost encyclopedic knowledge.
The narrator is great. I had never heard him read anything before, but I will look for him in the future. My only complaint, and it is truly a nit, is with the volume dynamics, which is something for the director or producer to know about. When he drops his voice it is almost an inaudible whisper. When he raises it with passion it is too loud, annoyingly so. Other than that, I heartily recommend Chicago. I loved the musical a little bit more, mostly due to the unimaginable charms of Catherine Zeta-Jones, a woman in whom the music lives. Irrelevant? Perhaps. And? Is this important?

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

An unusual combination of great and preposterous.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-15-19

I have not felt so mixed about a book in a long time, if ever. The first two thirds of this book are amazing, as some readers say. The narration is wonderful. The plot is full of interesting developments, and it makes you think. The author's knowledge of death row is encyclopedic. The protagonist is a man who is truly innocent and is a victim of the kind of judicial errors that make the death penalty a horrible error. It is as many know absolutely riddled with human error and prejudice that can never be overcome. It is barbaric. Politics aside, most people who know it thoroughly know that it represents the worst of our government and society. Travel outside of this country and talk to citizens of other societies. They look at us as barbarians.
Sadly, the last third of the book is preachy, preposterous and boring. The idea that this man could create a private prison in a missile silo is ludicrous. Even with almost infinite resources of time and money, it just strains credulity. I certainly understand the primitive need for revenge, the need to get even. However, the author could have found a more believable place for his novel to go. I gave up with about two hours left.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Another great book with familiar characters.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-14-19

It seems impossible for C. J. Box to write a less-than-entertaining novel. I have read the entire Joe Pickett series plus the Cody Hoyt-Cassie Dewell books, and all of them are just plain enjoyable reading paired with very good narration. There is humor and great warmth toward his cast of characters. We get to know Wyoming and the Great West very well indeed, or at least the version of it that the author portrays. The plots are interesting and hold my attention. I am a city boy and have been so all my life. I have never been anywhere near the locations in which these books are set, but the author makes me want to go see them. Between this and the Walt Longmire books there is an entire world encapsulated. The two authors vie for my attention, and I eagerly anticipate each new work. I just can't find anything wrong with any of these audiobooks. They aren't great literature, but they don't presume to be. They're just a great way to spend your time and your Audible credits. Go for it. Even if you've lived your entire life in Manhattan. The adventures will keep you turning pages and looking forward to what will happen next.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas

You probably have to be a Kiwi...

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-14-19

First let me say that I love New Zealand. Virtually everything about it is great. I even applied for a job there about twenty years ago, having traveled through both islands for about three months. However...this book is uneven at best. It starts out funny, as a lot of art works do, but quickly runs out of that steam. Then it wants you to get very deeply involved in what I assume to be the author's world, which is the art bureaucracy in Melbourne. This is a cloistered world full of very particular types of people whom I did not find interesting enough to form the basis of an entire novel. Way too many in-jokes and in-references that you just can't be expected to get unless you happen to inhabit that world. I didn't get all that involved with the protagonist or his struggles with the bureaucracy and with his love life. It left me cold. As I said, if you happen to be a Kiwi or have some connection to the tiny world in which the book dwells, then I imagine that you can appreciate what goes on in it. Otherwise, from 8000 miles away, it feels quite foreign to me, and is aimed at very specific tastes that I don't share.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

One of Mr. Block's best, which is saying something

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-29-19

Even the wicked has one of the best plot lines that Mr. Block has ever written. Truly. A mysterious man who calls himself "Will of the People" has begun killing victims in New York. He writes letters to a columnist for the Post, teasing readers with who the next victim will be and how/when Will will strike. Some of the murders are truly mind-blowing. Naturally Matt gets himself deeply involved in the drama, with no regard whatsoever for his own safety or for Elaine's. The twists and turns keep you glued to your ear phones. Mark Hammer does his usual excellent work. He has begun to sound like a junior George Guidall, certainly a fine fine thing. His voice is more gravelly and full of nuance. The political ambitions of various law enforcement personnel get caught up with Will's machinations. City and Federal officers get all twisted around trying to be the hero who saves NYC and makes the city breathe a sigh of relief. Meanwhile Matt's usual sojourn through his sobriety and his loving relationship with Elaine and also his paternal-like interactions with TJ: all of these make for interesting reading, even if they are beginning to become a bit repetitive. Matt's interactions with Anita, his ex-wife, and their two sons could be excised from the book. I just don't see what purpose they serve in the novel. Yes, Matt is morose. We see why he poured himself into the bottle for decades. However, people do get better! Take heart, all ye Friends of Bill. A normal life is attainable, one day at a time.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Talk about a tough act to follow!

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-29-19

The Ice Limit is one of my very favorite audiobooks, and that is saying something. I just love it and recommend it to everyone I know. This is interesting in itself, as I am not a sci-fi fan. The original book is so masterful that I happily granted it license to violate all kinds of suspensions of disbelief. In the closer the travelers have returned to the South Atlantic to try to kill the monster that they have inadvertently planted at the bottom of the ocean near the Antarctic Ice Limit. One could easily spoil the excellent plots here, but I won't do that. The thing has grown into a plant-like substance with a kind of intelligence that makes it truly frightening. The world is definitely in mortal danger. The crew tries a number of attempts to kill it, with no luck. It is too evolved, too clever. And Palmer Lloyd has now descended into the very pit of hell. He is severely mentally ill and must be constantly restrained. He cannot be trusted not to do himself in. His temper is out of control. His feelings of guilt unman him. He knows that he made the decisions that cost 108 lives (he plus Eli Glinn) and he will never ever forgive himself.
What happens on the ship is extremely harrowing and genuinely scary. It's a little like a million tiny Aliens. (Enough spoilers.) The authorial devices are extremely clever. I am so impressed with Preston and Child. I don't love the other primary character and his strange exploits (somebody help me with his name?) Aloysius Pendergast? For me he stretches credulity far far beyond the place where he loses me completely. I have tried a few of those books and just can't get into them. I do enjoy Gideon Crew, though, and wish that the guys would let up on his death sentence and restore him to ruddy life and health. He is great, a true hero whose exploits are totally enjoyable. Have fun! There is lots of it to be had here.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Very good writing. Narration not so great.

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-29-19

This book centers on a clever idea known as the Club of 31. The Club is a secret group of men who essentially are watching each other to see who dies first. A bit ghoulish. When the membership gets down too low, like maybe in the low teens, key group members reach out and recruit possible new members. It's an interesting conceit. The book also wanders through the usual suspects in Matt Scudder's personal life: Mick Ballou, Elaine Mardell, TJ, Joe Durkin, Danny Boy Bell, etc. Elaine obviously holds our interest as Matt's long-time lover and partner and long-ago call girl. How Matt manages his internal voyage through her ex-profession is an interesting study in the male psyche. I do have to register a complaint. Writers know that each scene exists to push the plot forward. I am failing to see how many of these scenes are simply anything other than checking in with old friends. They do not advance the plot at all. Now Mr. Block has written about fifty novels, so who am I to quibble, but as a reader I have to say that this cycle repeats itself like a laundry machine, and it gets a little pointless. If all they are doing is supposedly building the tension for the grand reveal, then I find that hard to distinguish from padding. And to make matters worse, the large lumps of indigestible prose (thank you very much Tim Hallinan) that appear in order to cover all the bases near the end of the book: totally TMI, IMHO. I personally do not need to carefully wrap up each minor subplot. Lengthy explanations of these serve to almost completely undo the suspense that the author has carefully built up over the prior 300 pages.
Also, Joe Barrett is beginning to wear on me. He is very talented, but the director is clearly pushing him very hard to speed things up, and this is distracting rather than being any kind of stylistic addition. His voice by now has a lovely lived-in quality that comes with age and experience, but pushing things forward does not improve the book. Once again, I have to say, listen to the Grand Master, Frank Muller. His voice also was lived-in and comfortable, but his pacing was masterful. You felt the need to speed up and slow down. It's instinctive, I think. Just imagine how many audiobooks we could have had if Frank could have been allowed to live a normal lifespan. George Guidall is 80; I am 70; Frank died in his late fifties. Boo, frankly, hoo.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

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