John OConnor

Good YA book for book lovers

Revisado: 08-07-18

This is a fun book. Good for YA audiences. A mystery based on cryptic clues hidden in books. If you liked the Westing Game, you might like this one. Narrator was good.

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Mad Science and Secret Bureaucracy

Revisado: 02-12-16

I picked this audiobook up because I had read and enjoyed Daemon by Daniel Suarez. From the description, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was maybe expecting sort of a spy/espionage thriller with some light science fiction-ish elements, but that is not what this book is about.

This book if full of crazy science fiction things like anti-gravity belts, androids, cold-fusion, laser assassin satellites, AIs run amok, and more. Everything keeps a toe in the edge of the pool of plausibility, and it is quite a fun listen.

The protagonist is a physicist who invents a 'gravity mirror' and is swept up into a vast, hidden organization called the Bureau of Technology Control. The plot follows him as he struggles against this mysterious organization with seemingly limitless capabilities. The antagonist is an arrogant bureaucrat that just needs to be punched in the face.

It's fast past, clever, and entertaining, and the narrator is excellent. Highly recommended.

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Slow start, Great Middle, Weak End

Revisado: 01-05-16

I am not quite sure what to say about this book. On one hand, it is a fairly captivating story that held my attention for many hours of listening; on the other hand there are some things about it that rather irritated me. I will try to explain what I mean.

Shogun is set in 1600s Japan, and it is full of interesting details of the era and culture. I am not a historian and I can't speak to the accuracy of everything, but the setting is convincing to me. From some serious 30 second WIkipedia research, it appears this story was loosely based on real people and real events, which makes me slightly more forgiving of the overall white guy in a strange land plot line.

I have mixed feelings about the narrator. At first, I did not enjoy listening to him at all. He has a very slow, somewhat droning speaking voice that I found very annoying for the first couple of chapters. I ended up listening to most of this book at 3x speed, and it improved the narration somewhat. The narrator does do a good job with accents and varying character tones so it easy to tell who is speaking. Not the best narration I've heard, but definitely at least adequate. I am not sure if the narrator improved as the book went on or I just got used to it, but by the end I found it perfectly OK.

In general, the book has a weak start with poor narration and some annoying characters, a strong middle with a lot of intrigue and plots that explore the culture of the time, and somewhat disappointing ending.

Many of the characters are interesting and the main protagonist actually undergoes some honest to goodness character development over the course of the story. The book is long and involved, with a lot of characters and much intrigue and plotting and scheming which kept me very interested all the way through. Not as much sword fighting action as I was expecting but there is a bit of that. The plot keeps you guessing at what characters' motivations and goals really are. The ending however was not entirely satisfying and doesn't wrap up every plot thread, and I would have liked some more resolution.

I can't give this a one hundred percent super enthusiastic recommendation, but if you are in the mood for historical fiction it will keep you occupied for a few weeks worth of commuting.

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If words could kill...

Revisado: 12-15-15

I read and enjoyed Jennifer Government by Max Barry, so I though I would give this one a shot. It was pretty good. A solid, fast paced novel with some interesting ideas.

The big concept in this book is that words can be used to program and compel other people. Special words, that need to be tailored to the specific person, but once they hear these words they can be coerced into doing things against their will. The people who know how to speak these words are called Poets. They have a secret society, secret academies, and do all kinds of, well, secret things.

The story unfolds from two main perspectives, with the male and female narrators switching depending on which character the chapter is focused on. It works well. The narrators do a good job, and it is easy to tell the characters apart, and the accents are well done. The story jumps around chronologically, but there it has a lot of forward momentum and the story reveals what you need to know at just the right the time.

One issue I have is that some of the more central ideas, like who exactly are the Poets and what are there agendas is not really explained to my satisfaction, other than the main plotline. There is a whole society of these people with this weird, interesting skill, and I don't feel like the book established how they fit in the world as much as I would like.

This book reminded me in parts of the Magicians series by Lev Grossman. From what I have read, this is not the first book in a series, it is a stand alone novel (which seems rare these days). It does tell a complete story, though it did leave me wanting more after the end. I guess that is not a bad thing.

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First steps into a new* galaxy...

Revisado: 12-09-15

What made the experience of listening to Aftermath: Star Wars the most enjoyable?

I am a long time reader of Star Wars novels, from the original movie novelizations to the Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, and all the way through to the later New Jedi Order series and just about everything in between. When it was announced that the Expanded Universe was no longer 'canon', I was a little bummed out. All the characters and stories that I had read over the years, decades actually, were no longer part of the "official" Star Wars universe. Not all the stories were great, or even good, but there were some gems in there and there was at least a lip service attempt to maintain some consistency and cohesiveness. So now all that is wiped clean, and I have been hesitant to try out any the novels in the new, "official" Star Wars universe.

I shouldn't have been worried.

This is a pretty standard Star Wars novel. Fun, but not earth-shattering (like a Death Star?).It was centered around new characters, mostly, and was a fast paced and easy listen.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most interesting aspect of the story, to me anyway, are the little tweaks and changes to this history of Star Wars universe after the events of Return of the Jedi. The least interesting are the books "villains", a bumbling committee of Imperial officials trying to keep the Empire together. Not really threatening, and it seemed like they were just there to serve as a backdrop for one character's development.

What does Marc Thompson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration of this book is fantastic. The narrator keeps each character's voice distinct, and does a variety of accents quite well. His Admiral Ackbar is quite good. He reads with great enthusiasm during the fight and chase scenes, and it really helps the book move at a very fast pace. One thing that sets this book apart is that there is music and sound effects throughout. Familiar Star Wars music, background hum of machinery, screaming TIE fighters, blaster bolts, it all really adds to the experience tremendously.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Hey, another Star Wars movie? Aren't there like a dozen of them on the way already?

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Star Wars.

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