Ergon

O.M.G. - And not in a good way

Revisado: 08-06-24

Overall, this book is not very good. If you have any familiarity with Naval aviators, Federal Agents, top secret covert operations, search and rescue or civilian police operations in general, or just some plain old common sense, you will find this book pretty silly and downright nonsensical. If you don't know anything about any of those things and have never read any decent books about the military, national security, law enforcement, search and rescue or covert ops, then I suppose there might be some entertainment value. Ray Porter does his usual terrific job of narration but nothing can make up for ridiculous dialog and the inane decision-making by almost every character at every turn.

BE ADVISED - SPOILERS FOLLOW: Without giving away too much of the plot, in my experience professional military pilots, special agents, cops, and I assume most spys, not to mention the organizations they work, for don't conduct business in the ways described in the book. Federal agents don't conduct official national security investigations against top tier nations involving billion dollar US Navy ships, state of the art aircraft and known traitors within the ranks of the military - BY THEMSELVES - with no support, no oversight, and without coordinating with ANYONE. FBI agents aren't killed in the course of these operations without anyone knowing it or asking some serious questions and taking some serious and immediate actions in response. NCIS agents who know about such death don't keep it to themselves. US Navy Top Gun fighter pilots with no history of stupid, irresponsible or reckless behavior are not automatically and immediately assumed to be such by their superiors when such a pilot reasonably explains that his/her high tech fighter failed to respond to his/her inputs. That same pilot cannot simply then commandeer a fifth generation fighter, without anyone challenging the theft, because he thinks he needs it for his own unauthorized covert operation to support an NCIS agent he's known for less than 24 hours who is also engaged her own life or death solo investigation with huge national security implications. Every five minutes I found myself saying - nobody would do that! Why don't they tell someone? Why are they keeping that information to themselves? Where is the rest of the FBI, the NCIS the Coast Guard or law enforcement? How is he stealing an F-35 without someone saying or doing something? How is he flying around in a stolen F-35 during an official and high profile US Navy missile test without someone saying WTF? A Navy helicopter pilot on an official mission starts taking orders over the radio from some women in a civilian plane who claims to be a federal agent on a top secret mission? Really? I could go on and on. At the end of the day everyone involved in this story would be fired and potentially jailed for their actions.

I really hate to write reviews like this. I was looking forward to a good story written by a real life Navy pilot about topics I enjoy narrated by one of my favorite audio performers. But as a Marine and a cop with deep family roots in both Naval aviation and the federal national security arena I can't let this one pass without comment.

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Very, Very Annoying

Revisado: 10-08-22

I listened to the first of the four book series and I just couldn't get into it. In fact, I struggled to get through it. I love the post apocalyptic genre and was looking forward to this series due to the current real-life potential of N. Korea developing the capability to actually attack the US with a nuke. That plus, I've listened to the Hell Divers series and enjoyed it. Hell Divers however, was narrated by the incomparable R.C. Bray and having listened to Bronson Pinchot in the past, and hating the narration, I was hesitant to start this series. But the story sounded compelling so I took a shot.

My suspicions regarding the narration were correct. Bronson Pinchot...I love the guy as an actor, but I simply can't listen to his narrations. I realize many people somehow enjoy listening to him but his narrations just seem...off to me. Way off. His character voices are simply annoying. In this book they are particularly annoying, which makes the listening experience more than frustrating. He has a persistent tendency to raise his tone of voice at the end of sentences instead of lowering it, which grates on my nerves over time. Once or twice a chapter, ok, I could live with it. But nine times out of ten the intonation goes up when it should go down, like a normal person speaks. The result conveys an urgency to the character's state of mind that is uncalled for given the context in a particular setting. I was continuously thinking back to the Martian when Vincent Kapoor was speculating with Mindy Park about Mark Watney's email - "You think he means it like "Are you kidding me!" or like "are you kidding me?!"?" Who can tell? His female voices in particular tend to be, well, annoying. They always sound like they are whispering or whining, not like real voices.

Narration aside, much of the dialog and commentary in the first book is, frankly ridiculous. People are calm when they should be worried and worried when they should be resolute. They're freaking out one minute over something that could be at best worrisome but calm as can be in the middle of a life and death situation. They are in a post apocalyptic world. Nuclear war has been visited upon the US on several fronts. And yet, we spend most of the book "tracking" a serial killer, instead of say...surviving, or at least preparing to survive. The Force Recon Marine at the center of the story doesn't act, think or talk like any Force Recon Marine I've ever met, and I've met and worked with a few. A crossbow? Really? I tried to find a plausible reason that any squared away, rational former Marine would opt for always carrying a crossbow over, say, an M-4/AR-15, and I just couldn't see it. Yes, on occasion in a very particular situation a crossbow might be the weapon of choice. But in this book it's his primary weapon of choice for every situation. For hunting a killer in the Colorado Rockies. That's just stupid. And the confrontation with the killer...well, the whole thing was...hard to listen to.

R.C. might have salvaged this book and made it worth listening to but the combination of Smith's writing and Pinchot's narration wasn't very good. I managed to finish the first book before returning the box set.

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It All Comes Together in the End

Revisado: 03-29-22

This is an excellent book overall. I found the writing in keeping with other of MSF's action books, which are great, and RC's narration at this point needs no review...he's simply the best. As a former Marine Corps infantry officer and a police SWAT team leader I had some trouble accepting the conflict between the two units. It just isn't my experience with SEAL's and Rangers, which made it somewhat frustrating to follow...until near the end of the book where everything gels and makes sense. And you suddenly realize...ya, this could happen. Probably has to one extent or another, in different wars in different times. I think the story drives home the point that political leaders in D.C. have an impact on attitudes and actions at the unit level. Political rhetoric and policy decisions matter to the guys and girls on the ground and influence the way they think and operate. This story captures some of the moral, operational and leadership conflicts that can result when micromanagement by elected officials for purely political ends collides with the professionalism and dedication of elite and isolated military units, especially their commanders. In this case, the political players are part of TFG's administration, probably because it's fresh in the public mind. But the story could just as easily have been set in a previous administration or the current one. Set your politics aside and enjoy the story for what it is - an action packed combat drama filled with internal, as well as external conflicts. I do have to admit though, I laughed out loud at the ending.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

No Scientific Basis

Revisado: 03-15-22

I didn't finish this book. Couldn't finish it. His concepts sound interesting at first (the first ten minutes), intriguing enough to spend a credit and perhaps learn some interesting new concepts about training dogs. But Behan presents his ideas as if they are proven or obviously grounded scientific fact, as if he had phds in biology, human and animal psychology, genetics, and behavioral science, and he is the first and only scientist to have "discovered" the facts about training dogs and the human-dog relationship. As far as I can tell however (can't find a CV anywhere online), he's just a guy whose dad was a dog trainer, who grew up with dogs and became a dog trainer himself. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But apart from that he has no qualifications to justify the assertions he makes about dogs and their behavior, humans and their behavior, and the emotional and/or psychological connection between the two. No evidence, no proof, no valid research. The book appears to be a compilation of grand but unproven assertions about behavior, evolution, human and animal biology, mixed with some pseudo-scientific hypotheses about emotions in both humans and dogs, presented as if they were obvious facts, combined with anecdotal stories from his years training dogs. If he had presented his "ideas" as a new and perhaps better framework for dog training and human dog interaction, worthy of further scientific research and testing, it might be worth listening to for 30 minutes. But as is, it's just a guy talking for 12 hours claiming to have found the answer to life and dogs.

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esto le resultó útil a 42 personas

Very, Very Annoying

Revisado: 12-09-21

This is a book about a zombie apocalypse, centered in Austin, TX. I'm about halfway through the series but I have to write this review to try and warn away anyone who has listened to the Arisen series by Michael Stephen Fuchs and narrated by R.C. Bray. THAT is a zombie series worth listening to, a couple of times, at least. Slow Burn...not so much. If this is your first zombie book and you've never seen 28 Days Later, perhaps you'll find this interesting. Or better yet, save yourself a credit and go get Fortress Britain.

For the life of me, I can't understand writers who choose to write about a world wide human pandemic that turns people into ravenous, brain-fried cannibals, and make all the characters completely ignorant of "zombies". No one in the book ever uses the word zombie. No one in the book can imagine the rapid spread of an infection as crazed people start biting and eating one another. It's as if this is an alternate reality where Dawn of the Dead, World War Z or the Walking Dead were never conceived. Come on. Zombies are zombies. Everyone knows that. Hours of listening to people talk about "the infected" and "the whites", gets real old real fast.

Add to that, the main character is an idiot. He's absurdly gullible. Again, no clue about an end of the world scenario, he just teams up with any random person that happens along, some of whom are so annoying any normal person would leave them to die of their own cowardice and stupidity in the first five minutes after meeting them. Anyone who ever heard of zombies wouldn't waste more than 30 seconds with them before running in the opposite direction. On numerous occasions, his repeated gullibility almost gets him and others around him killed and their safe havens overrun. He trusts people he meets, immediately, never questioning whether or not they might be a threat, which of course, many of them are.

The narrator doesn't help in this regard. He doesn't have a wide range of voices. But worse than that, his manner of delivery just seems to make the continuous string of stupid coming from the cast of characters even more annoying. The dialog is largely simplistic and, at times, unrealistic. I just can't imagine two or three people having some of the ridiculous conversations they have. Ya, people are people and can certainly be annoying. But 55 hours of listening to dumb conversations and arguments, gets real old, real fast. Kinda like writing real old, real fast over and over.

It would be interesting to listen to this book narrated by Bray. R.C. can make many an otherwise mediocre book interesting, and that might be the case with this one. The author does create an interesting take on a zombie apocalypse. But the annoying characters coupled with an annoying delivery makes this a hard listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Another Enjoyable Half-book

Revisado: 03-10-17

This is a great series, wonderful writing, mostly authentic and believable (after you accept the whole "zombie apocalypse, end of the world" premise), gripping and action packed. This book is another great listen, continuing the epic tale of tier one combat and survival in Russia and the Horn of Africa, while setting aside (I hope temporarily) the plight of the survivors in Britain. Narration by R.C. Bray is superb, like every one of his readings. R.C is first rate, one of my favorite narrators. I've made the decision to purchase books just because he's the narrator, and he never disappoints. This one is no exception to that rule. He makes the story and the characters come alive.

But this book, like most of the others in the Arisen series (and a rapidly growing number of other book series') is really just half a book. I give it 3 stars overall for just ending in the middle of a cluster of parallel and evolving action sequences, leaving the listener hanging. Again. There are four or more groups of operators in various parts of the world up to their eyeballs battling zombies, the Russians or both at the same time and Fuchs (or his editors) decide to just end the book mid-battle. "Buy book 12 to find out who wins, who dies and whether or not the JFK survives another assault!" Other reviewers have pointed out this apparent editorial trend but I have pretty much had it with books/series that just arbitrarily stop after so many pages or a certain number of hours (usually a totally insufficient 8-9 hours), probably to maximize profits. Certainly, the last two books could have been combined into one and would have been better for it. Of course, I understand authors wanting to make a buck. But I truly appreciate authors like S.M. Sterling and Jonathan Maberry who can, and are willing, to write a comprehensive ten or twelve book series and make each book a fully fleshed out and action packed 15 or 20 hours of listening that is complete on its own.

I will end up spending the credit on Book 12 and any others in the series because, I'm already invested in this otherwise excellent story and because I enjoy even half-a-book when read by R.C. Bray. Fuchs does a good job with this one, a continuation of a really interesting story with good action over two continents. But in the future I won't start a series made up of a bunch of incomplete books that just...end for no literary reason.

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esto le resultó útil a 18 personas

Pretty Weak

Revisado: 08-11-15

If you like science fiction that leaves out most of the science in favor of mysterious new elements that have amazing powers, and action/adventure stories where the principle character always wins, always knows what to do and is always fully prepared to do it, against evil bastards who apparently control entire governments for their own self-gratification and nefarious purposes, then this book is for you. As just one example of how thin the plausibility factor is, I could accept a hand strike to the neck putting someone out for a few minutes, once perhaps, if done precisely in just the right circumstances with just the right victim. But after about a dozen times knocking adversaries out for indefinite periods of time, with the move performed flawlessly again and again, sometimes in combat, the whole invincible-former-Navy-SEAL thing became rather ridiculous.

To go hand-in-hand with the shallow story line the narration is equally weak. I really hate to knock narrators because the job has to be a tough one and listening to narration is such a subjective experience. But the narrator has no range of voices whatsoever, at least not in this book. The only real distinction between characters is the pitch of his voice and many of them sounded exactly the same. It got rather monotonous when two or three people were having a conversation and they all sounded alike. And he has a sort of imperious, clipped and mater-of-fact delivery that, coupled with the main character's invincibility tends to get annoying after a few hours.

I bought the book the day it came out because the description sounded somewhat unique and interesting. And I managed to get through it, barely. But I wouldn't recommend wasting a credit on it.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

A Great Study in Human Nature and Conflict

Revisado: 09-02-14

S.M. Sterling is quoted as having said "There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot."

So first, don't be dissuaded from listening to this book by those who complain about the amount of “wiccan propaganda” or pagan jargon in the book. I am not a religious person and usually chafe rather quickly at the sometimes constant interjection of (the mostly Christian) religious dogma within much of the survivalist literature out there today. This book is not about witches or wiccans. Only one main faction, out of several, is wiccan. There are pagans of various sorts, christians, buddhists, native americans, and even a few agnostics and atheists thrown in. Sterling does a masterful job of weaving this wide array of belief systems into the survival aspect of the story, and like everything else in the book, he does so in great detail at times. But that's real life. Humans throughout history have believed, and based their societies upon, a wide assortment of dogmas, myths and utter fantasies. Regardless of their spiritual bent, the tribes, clans and cultures with the strongest leaders, best social cohesion and greatest ability to mobilize, organize and prepare have prospered relative to those less able. Sterling has simply applied that fact to the changed world he has created, and he’s done it in an interesting, appropriate and believable way. People thrown back to the time before machinery and gunpowder would likely rally around those with similar beliefs as one mechanism of their efforts to survive. Those groups who prospered would likely attract converts. Dies the Fire describes that process from several different religious perspectives.

Second, the criticism that Dies the Fire is written for D&D fanatics by a D&D fanatic are equally baseless. How else would you survive in a world without guns, engines and electronics if not for swords, armor, archers and castles? How does climate and geography impact the choice of these weapons and fortifications? Who of the 21st century, male and female, would survive and prosper in such a world given such choices? And who would die, become slaves or turn cannibal? These are among the questions Sterling tries to answer in this book, and the rest of the Emberverse series. I don’t think Sterling has a D&D fetish. But he does seem to have an inexhaustible grasp of medieval history, particularly warfare, field fortifications and individual combat. I used to be an infantry officer and a military history buff. I find very little within his description of combat to quibble about, though admittedly I was never trained in swords and lances…more’s the pity.

Sterling is a very descriptive writer. If you don’t like detail this book (and the series) are not for you. There is a tremendous amount of medieval-style warfare, combat and combat logistics, training and political intrigue, written in a way that puts you right in the middle of the action, or right in the mind of the speaker. That is interspersed with a great deal of descriptive information about primitive agriculture, horsemanship, construction and a host of other related aspects of survival. He describes the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the environment, the food, the terrain, the battles and the human relationships, providing the listener with a multi-dimensional landscape that few authors can replicate. I love the style and the detail.

Add to this the truly amazing performance of Todd McLaren. He is one of my favorite narrators, giving life and a unique personality to each character. Yes, as a former Marine, his pronunciation of the word corpsman (pronounced core-man) as “cores-man” is a bit irritating…both times he says it in the book’s 22 hours. I can live with that. He has an ability to change voices from male to female, young to old, Irish to Jewish to English to mid-western to just about anything without missing a syllable and doing so plausibly. No two characters out of the book’s dozens sound the same. Men sound like men, women like women. The Celtic accents, and most of the others, sounds fairly genuine to me. No one person can do all that without a few voices sounding…odd. But some real people sound odd, so I’m not finding fault with that either. His reading style, the tone of his voice and his patterns of speech are easily understood and conducive to listening for hours at a time comfortably.

Overall, it’s a great book and a great series. Sterling takes late 20th Century society, throws it back to the 13th century and lets human nature adapt and build a new world. The stark contrast between good and evil seems apparent at first. But later you find yourself questioning what you would do, what you would believe and how you would go about surviving. There are countless nuances to survival that aren't captured in most survival stories. This book makes you think about the world and the end of the world as we know it in a very unique way. I highly recommend it.

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Jim Gant: Hero or Villian?

Revisado: 07-08-14

I don't know Jim Gant, but as far as I can tell I don't know him any better after listening to Ann Scott Tyson's account of him, his career and their apparent exploits together in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The biggest problem with the book in my opinion is that it's written by his lover, a woman obviously deeply enamored with him and appearing to use her book in an attempt to make us feel the same way.

If you believe Ms. Tyson, Major Jim Gant was a warrior's warrior, the only person in the US military hierarchy who knew how to win the war, the only person who really understood, and was capable of understanding, the soldiers he led, the enemy he fought and the tribesmen he so successfully collaborated with. Every tactical decision he made was perfect, every strategic thought was brilliant and if the bureaucrats in Kabul and Washington had put him in charge, or at least left him alone to do...whatever he wanted to do, we would be well on our way to winning instead of losing the war.

All of that may be true. Or maybe not. There is no way to tell. Her effusive and incessant praise of everything Gant did or said, coupled with her equally incessant derision of anyone who disagreed with, got in the way of or didn't support him in precisely the way he, or she, thought he should've been supported calls everything about the book into question. Some of it is undoubtedly factual, corroborated by other sources. But much of the book sounds like a fictional glorification of people and events based somewhat loosely on a true story.

In the end I felt sorry for both of them, not because a noble and brilliant warrior was betrayed by the dishonest, incompetent and jealous bureaucrats of the US military. Again, that may be the case. I feel sorry for them because ultimately her book comes across as a blatant attempt to make us believe that Jim Gant was a great man and a hero, and fails miserably.

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