Matt

Overall pretty good, but the plot has some gaps

Revisado: 02-22-25

I enjoyed this book enough to finish listening. The performance was solid, the characters are likeable and distinct, and the plot is interesting. I am a bit lukewarm on it though and it seems like something is missing, though I am not sure exactly what that is.

I did notice some of what I won't go so far as to call plot holes, as they may be covered later on, but a few things stood out.

1. I remember one part of the book mentioned how the main character needed to avoid using human idioms, but shortly thereafter did so, and nothing happened and it was just understood by the aliens. This felt like a mistake or a missed opportunity either for him to realize he did it later and be surprised that he got away with it and think about the cultural similarities or something, or to have it be a plot event of some sort.

2. The romance arc in the story just feels abrupt and forced. It's central to the plot, but it just happens too fast and I found myself thinking the main character just has incredibly bad judgement, though only on one subject. It would have been more believable if he had spent some time struggling with his loyalty and the incredible risk he was taking, but instead he just barrels ahead with it. It's not entirely unbelievable, but for someone who is supposed to be an intelligence officer and not some impulsive teenager, it just didn't work for me.

3. There was a lot of material around how the aliens are basically immune to deceit because of their bond and basically being able to read each other's minds to a degree, but they then proceed to lie to each other and even kill each other.


None of these are necessarily plot holes, and I think it will be possible for the plot to progress to show that a lot of these things represent common beliefs and social norms that can be violated rather than really being as strong as the characters think it is initially. Still, they gave me some pause, as that loop isn't closed in the first book, or foreshadowed for a next book, so I have to wonder if they were mistakes or just a mystery to be solved later in the series.

Overall though it is still an enjoyable listen,

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I am becoming a GTDer

Revisado: 08-02-24

I did a reading of this very early on in my career, perhaps 12 years ago and incorporated some of the concepts into my work habits. I honestly forgot all about this book until I came back to it looking for some ways to improve my productivity again due to feeling stressed at work.

I spent a lot of the first re-reading of it going. "So that is where that came from." and "I need to start doing that too."

I read a lot of materials like this and much of it is a lot of fluff. This book is one of the few exceptions which is worth reading and re-reading. I intend to re-engage with it again perhaps once a year to reinforce things and add greater depth to my productivity practices. There are very few books in this category for me.

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Actually Useful

Revisado: 08-02-24

I read a lot on self-improvement topics, and so many books are full of fluff and have very little actual content. Most of them are like panning for gold to get anything useful out of them.

This one is mostly useful strategies, though some of them are ones I already knew. For example, I went through this book twice, because I already knew about doing an initial casual reading of a book to see if it is worth engaging with before spending the time and effort on detailed reading for retention. Also, having read some of the source material the author cites, I think he did an excellent job of spelling out some key points in a concise and useful manner.

Anyhow, this book will give you some useful tips in study strategies, reading speed, reading retention, personal planning, critical thinking, and research methodology. If you are interested in these subjects, this book is worth your time and money.

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Everything done right

Revisado: 08-02-24

This was impossible to put down. Many books like this start far too slow, but the pacing in this one is excellent and it is engaging from the start. The characters are all interesting, distinct, and there's some well written personal growth for the main character. It's just good stuff.

The narration is excellent as is always the case from Ray Porter.

There is one thing truly amazing about this audio book though and that is that they used sound effects without ruining the book. I usually dread it when an audiobook features sound effects. They are almost always terrible, but they managed to not overdo it here and made it a relevant part of the story rather than a distraction from it.

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Okay story, horrible performance

Revisado: 06-19-23

First off, I have been enjoying this series thus far and will probably listen to all of them. I sort of knew what I was getting into when I saw "Audio drama" but I figured I wanted all of the backstory for the novels. I am biased in that I despise these full cast production "audiobooks" with sound effects, but this one is worse than most. Highlights include:

1. Listening to two "computer" voices saying variations on "error error" for minutes on end.
2. Cheesy dialogue. In particular, the Kristang sound like over the top children's cartoon villains. Battle scenes and pub scenes are also cringeworthy.
3. Far, far too many and too loud sound effects.
4. Singing - Admittedly the novels have a touch of this, but it is brief and just the punchline to a joke. This one takes it cringingly further.

The story itself is okay, but the writing is tied to the format and I have to deduct a few points from that.

If I could go back in time I would have just stuck with the references to these events in the following books. They mention the key points in the story and you aren't missing much by skipping this one.

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More to come I hope

Revisado: 11-24-22

Larry Correia is one of my favorite authors and I enjoyed this one as I have with everything else I've picked up. It feels like very familiar territory in terms of characters, though the setting is sci-fi / futuristic rather than the fantasy / modern territory which I am more familiar with from the author, I am also partial to stories about people surviving in harsh environments, so this was up my alley in that regard.

It is all well executed and I am looking forward to a sequel.

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Inferno minus the poetry

Revisado: 11-24-22

I was pretty happy with this. For a long time I've been interested in Dante's Inferno, but I am not big on poetry and the fact that the original was written as poetry, and then because I don't speak Italian, translated poetry always turned me off from it. There are good translations out there of course, but you can tell it was written to try to present imagery above telling a story.

This tells of a similar story, but from the perspective of a more relatable character and with more relatable references. It contains a lot of food for thought. I am not sure if the story is hopeful or horrifying, but it's an exploration of a lot of thoughts I've had myself. In the end, it tells an interesting story, though it feels a bit unresolved at the end. I understand that there is a sequel which I've heard mixed reviews of, but I think I am going to give it and other works by Larry Niven a try as a result.

It's not a fun book really, and the subject matter is predictably dark, but it is thought provoking and interesting, and there is a place for that in my library.

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Okay for a short story

Revisado: 11-08-22

This isn't anywhere near as good as the Bobiverse series, but it is an passable sci-fi short story. There aren't really any major twists or surprises and it's a bit on the bland side, but not bad.

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Possibly my new favorite series

Revisado: 11-08-22

I've enjoyed most everything I have read / listened to by Larry Correia, but this one is one of my favorites. It's a bit different than most of his work in that it is more serious and less humorous than most of his materials. I wouldn't really call it darker than his other stories though as I have seen others describe it. It is just lighter on the comic relief.

The characters are interesting and covers some archetypes you don't normally see. I won't spoil anything, but the main protagonist is fairly standard, but well written and has some personality as well as some interesting flaws. The power armor concept has of course been done before, but it still makes things interesting.

There is a love interest character which has an interesting backstory, but was probably my biggest disappointment with the story. There was a much more interesting female character that they (maybe) killed off though. I still have some hope that character will reappear later on, but it's clear she isn't a main character.

The more interesting part though is the various villains. There are quite a few of them, and one of them is borderline an anti-hero. He's a bit too evil for what most think of as an anti-hero, and it puts an entirely different dynamic than you typically see with the main characters in a series. He does have a few redeeming qualities though, and it's fun to see him pitted against worse people. I am curious if there will be a redemption arc, or if he will become more villainous over time.

Most of the villains seem to be some shade of grey though and even the darkest of them has interesting or at least mysterious motivations.

Overall though, I really like this one. It's a tried and true formula, but enough of it has been changed up that it feels very unique.

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Mediocre story, bad narration

Revisado: 06-06-22

I decided to pick this up because the war of the spider queen series was pretty good. I was rather disappointed in this one though. Only one character has any real personality, and sort of feels like a knockoff Pharaun. The biggest problem though is the narration. While I have heard worse, the narrator lacks the vocabulary to read a book like this. Frankly, I don't think someone should narrate a fantasy novel if "smiting" isn't a word they are familiar with. The narrator also has an odd cadence where she is clearly just reading the book off of a page without regard to the sentences, resulting in odd pauses. She does try to do voices, but everything is some variation of high pitched and many characters come off sounding silly.

To be fair, I have had audiobooks which were completely ruined by the narration before, and this isn't that bad. It is just off-putting.

The story itself is okay, but I just find myself not caring about any of the characters. It sort of jumped into big events without laying groundwork with the characters. I realize that this is part of a larger series of books, but it is the first book with the new characters and events, and it just feels forced.

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