Eric

Great concept, marred by confused storytelling

Revisado: 03-16-21

The actual story here was a really solid one. However the telling itself was riddled with confusing shifts in point-of-views, jumping around with no warning, and sometimes even to a character whose POV we only see once during the whole book.

In some cases, presumably to add depth to a character, weird sprinklings of religion are used as deftly as an elephant. It's not out of respect for diversity, it's just weird.

Narration must have been a challenge under the shifts in POV, but even that was somewhat lacklustre. Characters were differentiated well (eg accents), but remained mostly unrecognisable. It wasn't until one of them died that I realised there were two Scotsmen.

Overall a very solid concept though, I'd love to read a rewritten version.

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Just... Awful

Revisado: 02-14-21

Deleted the book halfway through. Don't even know what more to say. Just plain awful.

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Unfortunately terrible

Revisado: 01-08-18

I'd love to support this new author's debut work, but honestly I can't. I found the sorry to be awfully weak. The characters were one-dimensional and uninspiring. I think S. L. Jones is onto a winner with the theme, but there's nothing thrilling or riveting about this book. After reading positive reviews I forced myself to listen through the end, but it didn't really get particularly better.

The narration was clear and high-quality, except it had the personality of an interesting sheet of cardboard; the narrator would be excellent for a different genre, but I think he was an inappropriate choice for this book.

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Absolutely one of the best

Revisado: 05-06-16

David Wong has created a masterpiece. I'm literally about to go through Audible and just buy all the rest of his work.

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Fantastic narration, great story

Revisado: 09-02-12

Davina Porter does a brilliant job narrating this brilliantly-written story. She does a very good job of the accents, as well as differentiating each character.

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Enthralling story, dreadful recording

Revisado: 04-14-12

Overall, this is an excellent book, and I intend to enjoy the entire series. The book itself is very well written. Others have commented on Edgar Rice Burroughs' "flowery" language, and I definitely agree. Listeners have to understand that this book is almost 100 years old, and yes language has changed somewhat in those years. This only adds to the story.

Jack Sondericker offered a good performance, and was a good narrator for John Carter, although there are regular unnecessary mid-sentence hesitations in the narration (you'll see what I mean). Audio quality is an issue: it sounds like it was recorded on a 1980's Sony Walkman. The production team has done a commendable job of remastering the audio and reducing clicks and distortions, but it's still very poorly recorded. However, it doesn't detract from the book too heavily.

From what I've read of the other reviews, I'm glad I bought this version instead of the others.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Narrator < Book

Revisado: 04-14-12

I HEREBY DECLARE: This book is a "Must Read" for any atheist, particularly those who have read anything by Dawkins.

After dispensing with the "is God real or not" argument in the first paragraph of the book, de Botton spends the rest of the book explaining why so many religious rituals are valuable ANYWAY.

Existence of a deity notwithstanding, I have a new respect for religion and religious rituals. There are lots of aspects that I now have a much clearer understanding of, and I understand that I was unfairly denigrating the practices of religious people, because I didn't understand the reason those practices were created. I'm still a committed atheist, of course -- but now I'm a smarter atheist. And that's what atheism is all about, right?

Although I can't praise this book highly enough, I wish I could have reached through my headphones and slapped the narrator. I managed to make it all the way through the book, but it wasn't great. Two stars because the sound quality & production was superb, but that's all.

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An amazing linguistic journey of hundreds of years

Revisado: 04-07-12

Robert Powell does a fantastic job of narrating this book, which surely must have been trickier than most. Throughout the story of English, we're treated to excerpts of older writings, clearly read in a long-past tongue.

I had to listen to this at 1.25x, because it was simply too much detail for me. I still found the book riveting, and felt like I was somehow quite lucky to be able to listen to the old pronunciations scattered liberally throughout.

Altogether, a great book for people who have an interest in linguistics and the path taken by a familiar language over the centuries.

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Best series ever

Revisado: 04-07-12

A simply stellar wrap up to the Salander series. In this book, everything seems to come together. I understand that the author died unexpectedly while he was writing the fourth story, but everything seems to be resolved at the end of this third book.

The Salander series is absolutely brilliant, and narrated wonderfully by Saul Reichlin. There are very few people that I'd rather listen to for twenty hours.

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Written for a younger audience, but a nice story

Revisado: 04-07-12

A lovely story. I listened to this directly after The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, which probably wasn't the best precursor... This book provides a rare chance to reflect on what really makes things special.

The book does an excellent job of putting forward some very deep ideas and concepts, in a way clearly written for the younger listener. However even as an adult this book was enjoyable... I just had to reflect on it before I realised that I liked it.

Very well narrated by Humphrey Bower, full marks there.

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