Panda

Mediocre narration

Revisado: 11-21-22

It would be great if, for a space race / exploration story, a narrator was hired who pronounced NASA normally. She used the word many, many times, as one might expect… and pronounced it “nas-AHH” every. Time.

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A story for young and old

Revisado: 09-10-20

Colorful and imaginative, rediscover your own sense of childlike wonder alongside Oakie and his band of exciting and eccentric companions. Justin uses simple allegories to deliver deep life truths to which we can all relate. The audiobook format really brings this story to life. Enjoyed every minute of it.

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Prepare for Tears!!

Revisado: 06-20-20

I was not prepared for this book. Be aware it is about love, devotion, forgiveness, and death. It is a real tear-jerker with excellent characters.

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Flawless narration; did not enjoy the story.

Revisado: 06-01-20

⭐⭐

SPOILERS AHEAD.

In one word: sharp. The narration is superb, the inflection precise. The metaphors illuminate his mind. His wit bites and his points are clear. His writing is a joy to read/listen to

However. The hypocrisy is DEAFENING. He has the audacity to sling all the blame one way when discussing how much MURDER stinks. Then blindly continues into a next story in which he ironically doesn't notice or care to point out that the VC murdered, raped and pillaged with abandon, even if that's what he describes. It's intensely heavy-handed bias

"...this is war. Innocent people get killed. It's only MURDER if you KNOW they're innocent. Even so, that's a tragedy, not a crime." As Bon is about to go assassinate (murder) a man who the Captain said was the actual mole. Hypocrisy on hypocrisy

The Western women are "enormous" with "hard" eyes while the Vietnamese women are irresistibly nubile, inspiring infinite salaciousness in their gorgeous ao dai...

The Captain is extremely racist... These insults and all the hate is getting old

His description of Lana is SO tedious. Is there something I'm not getting here? She's the poster child for liberal California college girls and has an absolutely divine body the narrator "WILL POSSESS" because he *needs* her flesh so badly. It was gross and so overwritten I cringed. She's decadent and steamy and leather but also creamy and innocent... Gross

"The only cure for being a bastard is to take a side." Interesting quote but would have been more thought-provoking and significant if he had actually been torn. But he was decided from the outset

I never care to hear the words "affectless" or "crapulent" ever again. EVER

I do appreciate that he used biceps singularly

I hated the ending

The narration was FLAWLESS.

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Flawless narration; did not enjoy the story.

Revisado: 06-01-20

⭐⭐

SPOILERS AHEAD.

In one word: sharp. The narration is superb, the inflection precise. The metaphors illuminate his mind. His wit bites and his points are clear. His writing is a joy to read/listen to

However. The hypocrisy is DEAFENING. He has the audacity to sling all the blame one way when discussing how much MURDER stinks. Then blindly continues into a next story in which he ironically doesn't notice or care to point out that the VC murdered, raped and pillaged with abandon, even if that's what he describes. It's intensely heavy-handed bias

"...this is war. Innocent people get killed. It's only MURDER if you KNOW they're innocent. Even so, that's a tragedy, not a crime." As Bon is about to go assassinate (murder) a man who the Captain said was the actual mole. Hypocrisy on hypocrisy

The Western women are "enormous" with "hard" eyes while the Vietnamese women are irresistibly nubile, inspiring infinite salaciousness in their gorgeous ao dai...

The Captain is extremely racist... These insults and all the hate is getting old

His description of Lana is SO tedious. Is there something I'm not getting here? She's the poster child for liberal California college girls and has an absolutely divine body the narrator "WILL POSSESS" because he *needs* her flesh so badly. It was gross and so overwritten I cringed. She's decadent and steamy and leather but also creamy and innocent... Gross

"The only cure for being a bastard is to take a side." Interesting quote but would have been more thought-provoking and significant if he had actually been torn. But he was decided from the outset

I never care to hear the words "affectless" or "crapulent" ever again. EVER

I do appreciate that he used biceps singularly

I hated the ending

The narration was FLAWLESS.

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Uncompelling, Underwhelming (*spoilers ahead*)

Revisado: 05-29-20

THE BAD:
- I have literally never been happier for a book to be over
- Kvothe is one of the worst protagonists I've EVER encountered. He is unbelievably poorly written and the ideal hero for literally everything he does. He's perfect, faultless, angelic, dramatic, utterly magnificent!!!!! BORING. It sounds as if the author poured everything he wishes he was, or everything he thinks he is, into this lame kid
- Denna was un-compelling... It was hard to root for them to be together. As the book progresses, she gets even worse. She parades her lovers in front of Kvothe and he still loves her... but she HAs To fOR hEr SUrvIvaL!! Why don't they think of pooling all their resources and having a go of it together? Duh...
- What's with ALL the minor ultra-attractive female characters ("Upon further inspection, she was VERY beautiful..." x 30)
- SERIOUSLY? Denna is the one wedding attendee who lived? What the actual
- The beginning with Bast is super weird and creepy unless they're boyfriends? That doesn't match Kvothe's character. The end with Bast was also super weird and creepy
- The flowery language, metaphors and made-up idioms are so goofy
- The "world-building" was gratuitous to a huge fault. It read like this guy has consumed so much fantasy and had so many ideas he just stuffed them all into the interminably slow middle section of this book
- Kvothe's character development is NIL. He goes from a precocious kid abruptly to a weird teenager who has a "flair" for the dramatic that made be cringe... His "god" voice, his "expansive gestures" like he's onstage... smh. He has so much going on, he doesn't really HAVE an actual personality.
- Since he's such a genius, how does Kvothe completely forget his sympathy training in Tarbean? He doesn't use it once...
- He's such a punk. "Here's how to use sympathy. You need a heat source for some of this, but never ever use your own blood or you'll get the chills and die." He proceed to repeatedly do just that, and is always fine even though that's the one thing you must NEVER do!!!!!
- The writing is hilariously dense and juvenile. "We stayed close together, as two sets of eyes are better than one." ...
- All the contrived ways to keep Kvothe in poverty even after he gets his pipes and finds a giant supply of expensive drugs, etc... why does he have to be poor for the whole story? Lol
- Kvothe is meant to have a rich baritone and the narrator has a nasally tenor... Very unsuited. Also, he does the accents well but has a SINGLE (annoying) "old man" accent he uses for no fewer than 20 characters
- Auri is a hilariously weird and useless character. The "halo of wispy hair" and delicate insanity is so dumb
- What's up with the creepy hyper-sexual descriptions of the naked Fela... This is a teenaged girl and I couldn't help but picture those salacious descriptions coming from the author, rather than Kvothe... Because they are

THE GOOD:
- Kvothe's childhood was wonderful. I loved his mother and Abanthy
- Okay okay, *SPOILER ALERT* I felt the triumph over the hated Ambrose when Kvothe was un-expelled from the University (though it was a cheap trick... The reader has "known" since the beginning that Kvothe gets expelled from the University and it's true, but then gets instantly un-expelled, *eyeroll* ... Though I suppose he could still be kicked out later)
- This is both good and bad; the bits with the demons were interesting, especially the creature at the beginning. That was gripping. But why did I listen for hours on hours for another interesting bit and get... Nothing? He needed to bring that thread back. It wasn't enough to keep the attention for the whole interminably boring University section

Book was 1/5
Narration 3/5

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Resounding Eh

Revisado: 01-22-20

The imagery and prose relating to the circus and the subtleties of the sensual experience of the performances and atmosphere- beautiful.

The love story / competition story- mediocre.

I wanted to love this book, and I expected to. However, even with the length of the book, I felt the characters were underdeveloped. I actually found Marco largely an unsympathetic character. I thought he might be some kind of antagonist, actually.

There were a lot of useless bits to this book that took up lots of time: Chandresh, Isobel, the circus moving between different cities. But it was the tiniest details that made the story lovely and readable.

I loved Poppet and Widget, Bailey and Herr Thiessen.

But the main points of the book- the magic, competition, obsessive love between the players, the magic system, the ultimate "resolution"- were deeply flawed and unsatisfactory. I'm still mulling it all over but I don't think I'd read another book by this author. I'm glad I listened to it because I had been wondering about it and hearing of it for a long time. It didn't deliver.

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So good!

Revisado: 01-03-20

This was very surprising to me as I didn't remember a tie-in with the war or the emphasis on Wendy being everyone's (even the pirates'!!) mother in the Peter Pan I watched as a kid. It was pretty fascinating.

And the PERFORMANCES. Capt Hooks and Mr Smee's performers were absolutely first-rate. There are so many unexpected moments of dry hilarity. The gentle tom-tom sound effects had me rolling. The whole cast did a wonderful job (Wendy's voice was a bit congested/whiny but she still did fine) and I highly recommended this dramatization.

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Mixed Feelings

Revisado: 12-18-19

First things first: credit where credit is due! John Keating's narration was totally flawless. 10/10!

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This book was evocative, and it was obviously meant to be. So, mission accomplished to Mr. Uris. But several notes:

1. Leon Uris is not Irish. Had I known that, I don't believe I would've chosen this book. I would so prefer to read a historical fiction epic written by a member of the culture. It was rife with silly details that were REALLY trying to inundate you with the sense of *accents* and *luscious red hair* and *green fields* and *wistful spirit* and *only the fairies could've done that!* and *omg potatoes and liquor 🤤*.

2. I despise Uris' employment of the lovely character Shelley. SPOILERS AHEAD. She is the only woman ever to whom Conor has utterly and irrevocably given himself. She is witty, compassionate, and beautiful. She wholeheartedly adores Conor. And her function in the book is to open his heart, and then be BRUTALLY murdered. We're talking: kidnapped, tied down, skull bashed, stabbed to death, hair shaven, limbs sawed from her body, and more. It's horrific, gratuitous pulp fiction intrigue.

3. MORE SPOILERS: The use of Seamus as a narrator was very odd, considering he dies before the very end. I don't understand why Uris made that choice. Seamus first-person narrates much of the story and then abruptly stops narrating, to die. No closure of his last moments, no recovery of his remains, no funeral even though he contributed greatly to the cause as a well-received journalist.

4. There is ENTIRELY too much devoted to the Weed and Hubble families. So many wasted hours on their family drama when serious matters go unmentioned at the conclusion of the book.

5. After all the ridiculous detail Uris goes into in every unnecessary component of everyone's daddies' lives, there's no resolution to Bridget and Collum's marriage? The last I heard, they were too afraid to be naked together. Surely they get over it and have a fulfilling relationship? It just drops out of the story.

6. Several poorly-written bits had me rewinding and wondering if the original recording had skipped. In particular, we leave Conor being beaten within an inch of his life, and then he wakes up... where? Having already been treated? Shelley steps out of the shadows? It's very disjointed and Uris backtracks in the following paragraphs, in a way that's possibly supposed to be surprising, but is just confusing.

7. The end was anticlimactic and wasn't worth the THIRTY-FOUR HOURS of my life. It was SO RUSHED.

8. Hard "no thank you" to the characters of Atty Fitzpatrick and Long Dan Sweeney.

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For all the criticism, I can see why people like it and it was informative. I'll never think of Ireland the same way, and there are several central thoughts that I found particularly engaging. No one comes back to Ireland- they get drunk and shed tears once per year but they never return; and there's nothing new in Ireland- everything that happens is history repeating itself over and over.

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Eh

Revisado: 11-17-19

The facts surrounding Teddy Kyle Smith's tale were interesting enough.

However, James Dommek Jr. doesn't seem to know what he's trying to do here. This is presented in documentary format, as investigative journalism. But Dommek constantly interjects his personal bias and opinion even amid audio recordings he plays. There's objective fact presented, but his opinion is still ever-present.

Furthermore, he presents the tired binary of the constantly down-trodden native person and the evil white colonizer. Smith shot two men point-blank and tried to blame the incident on a (rather racist- "small", "hairy", "Chinese-looking" "creatures", not people, who communicate by "grunts" and "animal noises"...) creation from Inupiaq folklore... what did Dommek think was going to happen?

Dommek's words: "Will the jury give ancient Inupiaq folklore any credibility, or will it be dismissed?" You literally said it in the question, dude... FOLKLORE. Will the German justice system give the tale of Hansel and Gretel any credibility or??? Folklore is acknowledged to be fiction. That's the point. When you go off the rails and nearly kill people, steal their things and try to get away with it, you spend life in prison and are lucky the death penalty doesn't exist in Alaska.

Lastly, Dommek presents nothing new- all of this except Dommek's personal opinions could have been gleaned online. His performance is good, as is the audio mixing. Overall though, it fell flat for me.

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