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Great story, outstanding performance

Revisado: 09-23-22

I’ve never listened to this narrator before but he was outstanding. The story was very interesting, complex, and kept my attention the whole time. It was nice to read a thriller with character development that didn’t feature gratuitous sex and constant profanity.

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Good performance; Clumsy, unrealistic story

Revisado: 09-13-22

This was my first Michael DiMercurio book. I recognize that there’s a lot of backstory from previous books in this universe.

I enjoy naval thrillers from the likes of Larry Bond, P.T. Deutermann, and Tom Clancy. It’s obvious that the author has real world knowledge and experience in submarines. However, outside of the technical aspects and crew interactions, I felt that the story and the way the plot unfolds was very unrealistic. I also felt like there was a long period of foundation-laying at the beginning of the book but the main plot was rushed. The epilogue where everything was wrapped up felt like so much of an afterthought and added to the complete implausibility of the whole story. Without spoiling the story, the president’s directives as well as the Russian president’s response to the whole thing was just so implausible as if global politics were just a fun little game for their mutual entertainment and there are no consequences.

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A new type of mystery genre for me.

Revisado: 07-05-21

The story itself was great. Some of the events were chilling, others humorous. The characters invoked empathy sometimes for reasons that I didn’t originally anticipate. The storyline is very good and the reader is enlightened at the same time as the characters so you are always itching to get the next scrap of information to put the facts together. This combination of a mystery/detective book with courtroom drama was well done and a new area for me. You find out a lot through the investigation parts of the book but there are also things revealed in the courtroom parts that were previously unknown. I will definitely be checking out the other books of the series.

The narrator was not one of my favorites. I’m a bit spoilt because many of the series I listen to happen to have truly stellar performers that add so much to the book with their interpretations, voices, accents, and the extra unwritten flavor (crying, coughing, grunting, etc) that they add. This reader was very dry in my opinion; very plain. Kind of reminded me of having a book read aloud in school. She has about 3 voices and all the 50 characters share one of the 3 voices. The male voices remind me of a mother reading to a toddler “and then the big bad wolf came and blew the house down!”. Once you really get into the story though, you just listen past the performance and hear the story, which is excellent. It wasn’t bad…it was just not my favorite.

The editing/mastering/whatever was really rough. In just about each chapter there is one or multiple sections of a few sentences that repeat, sometimes once, sometimes multiple times. It totally takes you out of the story. At first I thought it was multiple takes of the same section that were recorded back to back with the purpose of the producer picking the best/preferred version and using that in the final recording. As I’ve listened though, I think it’s the same exact recording (not multiple “takes”) because the repeated sections sound identical. I don’t know how the publisher didn’t catch this since it isn’t just once but all throughout the book.

Despite the okay narration and the poor editing, this is still an excellent listen that I highly recommend because of the real star of the show, the story.

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Surprising Winner from JKR!

Revisado: 11-18-20

I never read the Harry Potter books and had no interest in them. I thought it was a very neat decision for JKR to write this series as Robert Galbraith. It completely differentiates this series from her former work. This is not a young adult book. This is somewhere between a police (detective) procedural, a mystery, and a thriller. Plenty of time was spent on character development and the book has great depth.

I found this series on accident and I am now hooked and will be eagerly awaiting each new installment.

I really enjoy the writing style. I felt very present and appreciated the details of the investigative process and lengthy interviews of persons surrounding the case. I connected with both Cormoran and Robin. I liked the depth of Cormoran's personality; his gruff exterior, his intelligence and cunning, and his kind heart. I personally feel like a Robin; dedicated and striving to go above and beyond in service to my employer and prove my worth.

I did not know where the story was going until everything was revealed in the last chapter. There were so many liars, but only one murderer. Excellent and clever writing.

The narrator deserves equal acclaim here. Had I read this instead of listened to it, I wouldn't have gotten the same depth of the story. He really "performed" the book. Every character had a different voice, accent, and mannerisms. The speaker was instantly recognizable. There was so much added to the performance by this narrator that really made this book shine even more. One of my top three favorite narrators, the other two being Michael Pritchard and George Guidall.

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Wow. New Daniel Suarez Fan Here

Revisado: 07-31-20

I loved the concept and how well written the science aspect was. Interesting characters, and captivating storyline. Normally I like political and military fiction such as Tom Clancy or Larry Bond, but I completely and thoroughly enjoyed this story, its techno-thriller theme.

The performance is what really made this book shine. The narrator had excellent voices making each character immediately identifiable. His accents for foreign characters were well done and not distracting like some narrators. There were some subtle effects used for AI characters which distinguished them as computers and not people. He really did well with female voices which is something that can be difficult for male narrators. My favorite part, though, was the feeling and emotion that he had. When angry, sad, hurried, etc, he made the characters sound so real. They would gasp for air while speaking or chuckle mid-sentence. These things aren't written but when added to the performance, bring so much life to the story.

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Realistic political and military fiction

Revisado: 05-30-20

This is the first Larry Bond book I've read with the exception of Red Storm Rising. I love political and military fiction that is very detailed and completely plausible. I really felt like this was such a great plot because it felt like something that could transpire tomorrow. The plausibility isn't just limited to the military aspects of the book. The political scheming that led to the conflict felt so real. I also enjoy the Clancy-esque style of having multiple character viewpoints, plots, and locations all taking place simultaneously and jumping back and forth between them. When I first started the book, the narrator was slightly annoying to me, especially having just finished a 40 hour book with a fantastic narrator, but as I listened, the storyline was so captivating that I started to not mind the reader. His accents (Russian, Korean, Southern US, etc) and pronunciation of foreign places and names were very inaccurate to the point of being comical, but over time I really didn't mind. This is too good of a story to get hung up on the narrator...and his performance wasn't bad, just not the best. I highly recommend this book and I'm starting another Larry Bond book next.

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Great sequel, frustrating narration!

Revisado: 11-26-19

Excellent story and a great sequel. If you liked Red Sparrow, you'll like this book.

However...and I really hope the producers see this...

Jeremy Bobb totally let me down on his performance, despite a strong job on Red Sparrow. Within 30 seconds of listening I was cringing. Why?

He had good Russian name and place pronunciation in Red Sparrow and terrible pronunciation in this book. It would have been far more tolerable if his pronunciation was bad in Red Sparrow because at least it would've been consistent. But to change the way you pronounce main characters' names between books was really hard. I mentally repeated the various words correctly every time, in a futile attempt to quiet my nerves. It's as if the production team used a language coach on the first book to help him know how to pronounce the Russian words, but didn't do that for the second book. What I can't understand is how he'd forget the common names and places that he read correctly dozens of times in the first book.

Examples:

Main protagonist Dominika -
First book - Doe-mee-NEE-ka
This book - Duh-MIN-uh-ka

Lefortovo Prison -
First book - Lay-for-TOE-vo
This book - Luh-FOR-tuh-vo

I haven't listened to the third book yet. I hope I can enjoy the performance of the third book more.

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