Elisa

I *really* wanted to like this one

Revisado: 08-18-24

…but, honestly, my favorite part of the book was the author’s afterwords. The concept is great (a feminist perspective on Frankenstein), the execution solid, and … it just didn’t come together for me. The protagonist is angry and resentful, understandably so as a woman scientist in a repressive society, and remains so throughout. She doesn’t grow as a person, or learn to work the system to her benefit, or triumph over adversity. Her husband is an unhelpful, insensitive dolt and remains so; her antagonist is a talentless 2-dimensional thief of other's ideas and sea monster… and unlike the villainous professor of Lessons in Chemistry, the reader has to put up with him for the whole book. The potential lesbian love interest seems gratuitous.

Perhaps I've been reading too many romances lately. Your mileage may vary.

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Thoroughly enjoyable

Revisado: 01-05-21

I have a soft spot for audiobooks read by the author, even though actors are usually better narrators. However, Spider Robinson does such a good job as narrator that I didn’t realize that He himself was reading the story.

And...this book was part of the Plus catalog available to members! I had been planning on letting my Audible membership lapse again—it’s January, I renew in April, and I still have 6 credits. Downloadable audiobooks are now so readily available from libraries and discount services that it doesn’t make economic sense to commit to buying 12 audiobooks at $12.50 apiece. (Especially when I’ve already amassed several hundred.) But access to a library of decent “free” selections like this one might induce me to stick around.

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Justifies Audible's existence

Revisado: 01-10-20

This play was commissioned by Audible, and the playwright seems to have taken care to make sure that the characters and plot can be readily understood even when the audience cannot see the stage and the actors upon it.

The acting is phenomenal, and the story provides insight into both the specific historical figures and their times, as well as addressing universal themes about friendship and the role of women in society and the sciences. This play would be very useful for teaching; I hope that Audible's permissions aren't prohibitively expensive.

There are a large number of ways to access audiobooks, and a large number of companies producing spoken-word content. Sponsoring high-quality works that are not just entertaining but also have literary and dramatic value is something that Audible can be proud of, and will hopefully give them a competitive advantage. This play has caused them to rise a notch or two in my estimation.

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Well-crafted YA full-cast audio program

Revisado: 01-10-20

This was an entertaining listen, suitable for perhaps grade 4 up. It was nicely crafted as an audio program, with descriptions of settings and events woven nicely into the dialogue (something that is often neglected, thereby confusing the listener). Some of this dialogue/description does fall into the "As you know, Bob, ... " provision of background information that writing teachers deplore, but it seems appropriate for the intended audience. While the story doesn't break new ground, there are some interesting plot twists.

The cast does an excellent job of bringing the characters and story to life. The actor playing the part of Emory seems to be trying too hard, with the result that his flat character seems even flatter, especially as the story progresses. However, the script doesn't give him much to work with, and it could be argued that the unchanging immaturity of the character is intended to ensure that one of the plot twists has plausibility when it occurs.

This program was offered as a membership freebie in January 2020, but it's worth buying as a good family-friendly listen.

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Conscientiously updated for modern sensibilities

Revisado: 12-29-19

Kid friendly, and adjusted for political correctness (although there’s no fixing the story point that Wendy acts as “mother” to the lost boys.) Tiger Lily has become the feisty leader of the Lost Girls; there’s not a breath of Red Indians—oops, Native Americans—anywhere. Violence is not graphic but still present because, hey, this is for an American audience, and our culture is completely fine with the notion of casual killing. (But heaven forfend if children are exposed to bad language, nudity, or reproductive biology.)

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Deaver delivers

Revisado: 09-01-19

This fast-paced story is a good for an audio production. Because listening to audio is much slower than reading print, a listener has more opportunity to make predictions about where the story is going and what will happen when the character’s plot lines collide. Even though you know Deaver is famous for plot twists, the outcome is still surprising—and also forces you to think about the deeper issue about making assumptions. (Especially since the listener has probably been clinging to the same assumptions for an hour, and will be, of course, wrong on almost all counts.) A well-crafted work, presented well.

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Fun pop-science summary

Revisado: 07-08-19

I’m probably exactly the audience for this book—I once had to explain sheepishly to another museum visitor in the hall of dinosaurs that no, I didn’t have a six-year-old at home; I was the six-year-old who never grew up and ended up as a science teacher.

This was a great listen that raised my rather low opinion of Audible considerably. The narrator is a biologist, and therefore pronounces terms correctly. Recent (and not-so-recent) research is described clearly and accurately (as far as I could tell; some material dates back only a year or two and I haven’t read the actual sources).

This book is good for helping update somewhat rusty knowledge. I think it would also be good for teens, because it captures the wonder and excitement of science, although I’m not sure whether teens have the background to comprehend the significance of some of the material. For Baby Boomers who might have had a treasured Sinclair Gas toy, but missed developments after elementary school, the certainty of the paradigm shift is going to be mind-blowing. Dinoaves is a fact, and they’ve found the feathers, air sacs, etc to prove it. And the dinosaurs are still more successful than the mammals. Cool stuff.

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Better as a book?

Revisado: 06-25-19

As other reviewers have noted, the narrator generally does a good job, the one glaring flaw being the peculiar choice of a near-bass voice for the main female character. I think the narrator was trying to channel Natasha Fatale (of the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons), but failed to consider how deep, sultry tones sound with male vocal cords—especially in conjunction with the voices used for male characters. It’s distracting, to say the least.

The story is a good espionage/ thriller, with lots of twists and turns, grisly violence, and an exotic, interesting, current background. The writing is even lyrical at times (and better than some of the “literary” fiction I’ve read. But I think this book would be better served read over the course of a few hours while at the beach or on vacation rather than drawn over 3-4 times as long in an audiobook. Combined with this performance—save your money/credits and get it as a paperback.

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“See Figure 00” ??

Revisado: 05-29-19

This philosophical memoir is probably more meaningful to a woodworker like the author. However, the author does explore concepts of work, craftsmanship, and organizations that are more broadly applicable.

The audiobook is interesting enough, and seemed particularly appropriate while I was working at my loom. The references to photos in the book were a little off-putting, especially since the Audible version doesn’t seem to have access to the pictures (it’s possible that the original audiobook didn’t have a booklet, either, although they sometimes did). I guess I’ll have to get the book in Interlibrary Loan.

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Another poor Audible conversion

Revisado: 05-10-19

Like many audiobook versions of classics, this one was apparently originally released on cassettes or CDs, which means that a sentence or two is repeated at the point where one tape or disk left off and the other began.
This made sense back then; the flow of the story was already interrupted by the need to change from one cassette or CD to another, plus the end of the tape or disk was a convenient breaking point. But in the modern age, the repetition is jarring, and bespeaks a lack of concern about product quality and a disregard for customer experience.

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