Charles Johnson

Agreeably fine

Revisado: 02-26-25

Passed the time well enough I guess. I’d listen to a sequel. Could have been better.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Claptrap

Revisado: 05-09-20

If you don’t want to be thought of as a misogynist, maybe don’t spend the first 3 chapters hammering home that order is male, chaos female in a book that’s subtitled “an antidote to chaos.”

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A celebration of a marriage, but not necessarily a celebration of marriage.

Revisado: 09-01-17

Like an onion. The prose sometimes gets in the way but more often delights, and fits the characters.

There is a place in every marriage that is only known to the people participating in it, a secret intimate space that nobody else will know, and that both experience differently but no less fully.

In finishing this book, I know that place between Lotto and Mathilde.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Meant to be heard

Revisado: 12-25-15

This story works on the page but it sings when heard read aloud. It was clearly designed for oral tradition, and this is the way it should be experienced.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

This American Life: Zombie Apocalypse

Revisado: 12-25-15

The way this is acted and recorded gives it the form of a This American Life episode writ large. The accounts of deprivation, survival, slaughter, triumph, and Pyrrhic victory seem fresh even in an over saturated genre. One of the best audiobooks ever. Get it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Irons is amazing

Revisado: 12-25-15

Irons' performance is amazing. He captures the dark humor of Nabokov's villain Humbert Humbert, the sometimes hilarious depths of his delusions, makes him human, and pitiable, and terrifying, and oh so much more monstrous in the result.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Paranoid delusions

Revisado: 12-25-15

A bizarre collection of paranoid, tinfoil hat fantasies thinly disguised as a thriller about Templats vs Assassins. I mostly just feel bad for anyone who thinks this is the way the world actually works. It must be exhausting.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Huge Deep Thoughts fan

Revisado: 12-25-15

Great performance. Can't fault Handey.

It turns out that 30 seconds of his Deep Thoughts character is hilarious, but several hours of his Deep Thoughts character is unwelcome.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Daring performance

Revisado: 04-29-15

This science-fiction story is told in the first-person, from the point of view of a dispossessed AI. The reader keeps her voice flat and frequently ends sentences with the wrong intonation, creating an effect much
like listening to a book read by a virtual assistant program such as Siri.

It's odd and off-putting at first, but ultimately the flat characterization of the narrator by the reader pays huge dividends, as her style matches the intentionally flat writing of the author. As the cast expands, other characters are voiced normally, and the contrast colors and deepens the work as a whole. It's challenging, but it works.

The story itself is mostly engaging. Intercutting flashbacks for a dual narrative of tragedy and revenge, mixed heavily with political intrigue.

After finishing this book I must admit that I'm disappointed to see an actor change for the sequel. I hope they don't abandon the characterization for the follow-up.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Too often tells instead of shows

Revisado: 02-27-15

Would you listen to My Dear Watson again? Why?

While I don't regret the time spent listening to My Dear Watson, I won't repeat the experience.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

As a lifelong Holmes enthusiast who has read all of Doyle's work several times, I enjoyed the perspective of My Dear Watson if not the execution. While the topic of the book is engaging, the end result often feels like a graduate literature review thesis with a threadbare narrative built atop it.

The story is narrated by Mrs. Watson, as she recounts her way through Doyle's stories in chronological order, adding in details that the good doctor did not publish, but has shared with her as his wife, about the true nature of his personal relationship with Holmes.

Unfortunately this structure too often has the unfortunate side effect of reducing many chapters to a Cliff Notes With An Agenda, and it becomes at times less a story and more almost a recitation of facts. At the moments when the novel is at its most engaging, it's also violating the narrator's perspective, with Mrs. Watson asserting emotions and motivations she could not possibly know, even if Watson had told her his assumptions about the motivations of others. When it stays true to her perspective, it often feels rote, telling instead of showing.

Abandoning Mrs. Watson's perspective and going with full flashbacks, perhaps narrated by other more transient characters observing the behavior of Holmes & Watson together, could have made for a much more interesting book. For instance a late chapter heavily involves Billy, a paige raised in Holmes' and Hudson's care. While listening I kept imagining how compelling that chapter could have been from Billy's perspective, rather than from Mrs. Watson's recounting of Watson's recounting of an event.

The 'modern day' portions of the novel, which center on Watson & Holmes' reunion at a dinner party late in life, are easily the most engaging and true.

Have you listened to any of Melissa Hearne’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator plays Mrs. Holmes as a very emotionally controlled woman, almost always keeping her intonation even and proper at all times, even when overwhelmed by emotion. This makes the moments when she does show feeling all the more powerful, and seems like the right choice for the character.

However, the pauses between paragraphs and sentences are often very short, and feel artificially abbreviated. This combined with the steady tone and the nature of the material results at times in a curiously flat feeling.

The voices for Holmes & Watson are well-chosen, although I didn't care for the voice of the Colonel.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona