K. McG

A fun read

Revisado: 05-19-23

Very obviously inspired/influenced by Lovecraft, this good was a fun read. The performance was fantastic (but Ray Porter is always fantastic). It's well worth your Audible credit for the listen. :)

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Provides a lot of food for thought

Revisado: 10-27-22

This book was recommended reading after attending a "how to survive an active shooter" seminar for work. (The person who recommended it was a police officer.)

The subject matter of this book provided a lot of food for thought and perspective into why people do what they do in emergencies. That, in itself, was fascinating. Some people see potential danger and get up and go. They assess the situation, trust their gut, and leave. Others see potential danger and hesitate. They return to their desk, send an email to a client, flip through their calendar... then when they realize people are leaving, they will put their computer to sleep, search for their keys, rummage through their drawers... and then leave. (And most likely die because they waited too long.)

And that hesitation -- that drive to "get your stuff" or uncertainty about what's really happening -- is so illogical that it seems preposterous to the outside observer when you first hear about it, and yet TONS of people do it. All the time. (And often die because of it.)

The book was an eye-opener for sure. I feel more confident now that if I suspect I'm in danger, I'm heading for the damn exit, not my desk.

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Still a great book!

Revisado: 10-27-22

I read this book as a kid in the 80s after seeing the movie. I loved the book then, but only read it that one time. I recently had the opportunity to see the movie again (not the remake) and decided to re-read the book -- this time in audio format.

The performance was wonderful. Dennis Boutsikaris did a great job and his narration kept me engaged the entire time.

The story itself was great -- and it's aged very well. I may be in the minority when I say this, but I feel that a lot of King's more recent books are mediocre at best. They just seem... lackluster. (Of course, King is a different person now than who he was 30+ years ago -- we all are.) His older books, on the other hand, have an edge to them that his newer stories lack.

Firestarter, IMO, is classic Stephen King. Highly recommended. It's well worth the read.

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A swing and a miss

Revisado: 10-23-20

Susan Wokoma is probably a great narrator, just not for this particular book. She tries very hard to do male voices, particularly Horde male voices, but it just does not work and ends up being cringy. She was not a good choice to narrate this book. All of her female characters range from good to great, but... Thrall? Shaw?

Not so much.

If they had cast her to just do the female voices and cast a man to just do the male voices, that would have been so MUCH better, but gruff male voices are not her forte.

That said, the story itself was 'meh' at best. I've generally enjoyed the last few Warcraft novels (Before the Storm, Tides of War, Illidan, etc.), but this one is just okay at best. It's not terrible -- it's just 'meh.' And I'm not entirely sure if I feel that way because of the story itself or because of the narration. I find myself enjoying the scenes with Bwonsamdi and the Alliance hunt for Sylvanas -- but then I feel like I'm slogging through other sections of the book and just don't care. I even skipped half a chapter toward the end of the book because it was so damn boring -- and look! -- I didn't miss anything by skipping it!

The voices of the void that continuously tempt Alleria are interesting, but there's no real time spent exploring it. Voices from the void are constantly tempting Alleria to do terrible things and one would expect that her inner conflict regarding those voices to become noticeable to the people closest to her -- like her paladin husband -- and yet there's nothing. All of that potential family disfunction/friction/drama just doesn't happen. The woman is married to a paladin of the light (and her son is also a paladin) so one would expect some obvious conflict and family discord to come from that. Nope! It's all pretty much glossed over.

Granted, the Windrunner family drama could fill up a book all on its own, but ignoring the (obvious) conflict between the light and the dark doesn't work, either. At least dig deeper into the marriage drama that (should) be there (but kinda isn't). Turalyon is going along with everything Alleria does and is helping her mind rape people by holding them down for her.

Now let's read that last sentence again: "Turalyon is going along with everything Alleria does and is helping her mind rape people by holding them down for her."

A paladin of the LIGHT is helping an agent of the VOID torture people. Are we just going to ignore that? What's going on in his head? Is he SERIOUSLY okay with this? Or is he going down a dark path, too??

Well, don't expect any of those questions to be answered! (Or even hinted at.) Maybe Blizzard plans to flesh that out in the game... somehow. Whatever.

Personally, I would have liked more development with Lilian Voss and Calia Menethil as new leaders of the Horde. (In fact, I was kinda expecting it.) Calia Menethil is Arthas' sister and Arthas (in a roundabout way) created the Forsaken and now she is (more or less) leading the faction. How do the Forsaken feel about that? Is she hated? Feared? Respected?? I don't believe for a second that the Forsaken are indifferent to her. Sooo... shouldn't there be SOMETHING? I get that Talanji is learning how to be Queen during a very difficult time, but so is Calia.

Also, how does Lilian feel about her new role in the Horde? She was so damn bitter (rightfully so) earlier in the lore but she's mellowed out and has shown real compassion lately. Digging deeper into that would be way more interesting (to me, at least) than half the other stuff in this book (especially the super forced Shaw/Fairwind romance).

Speaking of Shaw/Fairwind -- the two of them only seem to be in the book for no other reason than to make them a romantic couple. You could remove both of them from the book and events would have played out pretty much the same. I see the reason for Talanji and Rakhan and Blightcaller and Alleria all being in the book... just not sure why Shaw is there other than for us to learn that he likes the way Fairwind smells. But, whatever. They're a couple. Good for them.

Overall, this book was a huge disappointment. I do not recommend reading/listening to it.

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Seriously great book

Revisado: 12-14-18

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was educational, yes (very much so), but it was also highly engaging. The tale of how the Shia and Sunni split is a great story OUTSIDE of the historical importance of it. There's drama, envy, politics, conflict, war, tragedy, etc. It has every key ingredient of every great story that has been told throughout the ages, but this particular story continues to reverberate in the hearts of Muslims today... which makes it all the more interesting and insightful. (Especially for someone like me -- a Christian living in the US.)

The author narrates the book and I thought she did a great job. Definitely worth a listen.

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Amazing series -- limited by lack of audio books

Revisado: 11-24-18

If you have gotten this far into the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series by listening to the audio books, consider yourself warned: there are no audio books for volume 4-8. At least not yet. And this is a huge problem because this series is amazing.

Yes, of course you can still read the book on kindle, etc. However, if you're listening to the audio book version there's probably a good reason for that and reading it on the kindle doesn't really fix the problem of books 4-8 being unavailable.

Considering that the audio book for vol. 3 was released in Nov. 2016, there's no reason (logistically) why the other books shouldn't also be available... but that is not the case. Tim Gerard Reynolds is still narrating. Simon & Schuster Audio is still publishing.

And yet, Legend of the Galactic Heroes ends at volume three.

Please continue this series on audio. It is a fantastic series with engaging characters, interesting subplots, political maneuverings and manipulations, etc. etc. This is a gem of a story and it is worth continuing.

SIDE NOTE: Yes, this series is available as an anime. It's not the easiest to find and was done in the 80s, but the anime did a decent job following the plot of the books. If you don't mind reading subtitles, I suggest you check it out.

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Yes, it's THAT good

Revisado: 09-12-18

Ray Porter is one of the best narrators available today, IMO. He does an amazing job of giving each character their own unique voice and quality that can really make a mediocre book *great.*

No, I'm not saying that 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' is "mediocre." It isn't. I'm just saying Ray Porter is excellent. However, Mr. Porter's talent for narration shines the best when the story he is reading is also equally excellent -- and 'We Are Legion' definitely qualifies.

Bob is a great character. Dennis E. Taylor created a very good "every man" -- Bob is smart (but not too smart) and flawed (but not too flawed). Bob has quirks, hang-ups, hopes, fears and everything in between... and his geekiness only makes him all the more fun for those of use who shares those interests in common with him.

But, I can see how someone NOT into Star Trek, etc. would find that part of his personality to be annoying or off-putting. 'We Are Legion' DOES use pop-culture and nostalgia as a hook for part one of the trilogy and if someone is turned off by that, then there is a good chance they will be turned off to this. (I was turned off by it in 'Ready Player One,' but that's an entirely different subject.)

If you like sci-fi space adventures, DO give this series a try. Book one does pull from a lot of pop-culture, but I think Mr. Taylor does a good job of balancing the pop-culture references with his universe building and character development -- something that is not easy to do. And, Mr. Taylor has done a good job of explaining complex computer programming concepts/actions in a way that doesn't make the reader scratch their head in bewilderment OR make them feel like they're being spoken down to.

Also, I don't think the publisher summary does the book justice. If that summary was all anyone knew about the story, I wonder how many people would bother purchasing the book. It is so much more than "Bob has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets."

/yawn

My rewrite would be: Bob has been uploaded into computer hardware and is on a mission to save humanity from extinction -- and live the dream "to boldly go where no one has gone before" (while also fending off enemies -- both Terran and interstellar).

The bottom line is this: 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' has a 4.7 star rating from over 59,000 reviews (as of Sept. 2018). There's a good reason for that. A very good reason. This book is well worth your Audible credit or the $14 asking price. Give it a listen.

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Excellent

Revisado: 07-26-18

I loved this.

I didn't at first. The first chapter provides an overview of the universe with a brief history lesson, but no real 'hook' other than a budding curiosity. I can see some people being turned off by the first chapter, but I encourage those people to stick with it.

This book reminded me a lot of Dune. The world building, the politics, the "plans within plans" is very much Dune-like. And both Yang Wen-li and Reinhard von Lohengramm are compelling characters.

The narrator also does an amazing job voicing the various characters. There are A LOT of people and names and places to remember in this huge epic of a story, and Tim Gerard Reynolds does a fantastic job giving a unique voice to each character. I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to his narration.

Recommended.

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Good story, poor choice for narrator

Revisado: 07-26-18

The story itself is good. I have no real complaints with it. The narrator, however, was a poor choice for this particular novel.

I would listen to another book narrated by Justine Eyre, just not a book that had any Orcs, Tauren or Trolls as characters. Justine does a decent job portraying male humans or elves, but male Orcs? Tauren??

Good grief, no.

It's not that she doesn't TRY to voice them correctly; with gruffness and brutishness. She does try. The problem is that Justine has a very feminine voice. She's pleasant to listen to, but the moment she tries to voice an angry Orc, like Garrosh, (or any other male Horde race), it just doesn't work. Worse, it just sounds comical.

There were several points during the narration where I thought, "I don't think I can keep listening to this! She sounds ridiculous!!" -- but I pushed on. Because, as I said, the story is good.

For anyone who is considering picking this up, be forewarned -- Justine Eyre was probably not the best choice to narrate this particular book, but she does try very hard to do the male Horde characters justice. The problem is she simply doesn't have the deep, vocal range to do it. Not her fault. And, as I said before, I would absolutely listen to another book narrated by her... just not one with Orc, Tauren or Trolls... ;)

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Oh hi, readers!

Revisado: 10-05-17

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook. I picked up this book because 1) The Room is such a bizarre (and hilarious) movie that I had to know the 'behind the scenes' story about it and 2) with the movie, 'The Disaster Artist,' due to come out in a few months, I wanted to read the book before heading to the theater.

In the book we learn quite a bit about the making of 'The Room,' but we also learn a lot about Tommy Wiseau. Or, we learn as much about him as Tommy (and Greg) are willing to reveal. Tommy is a very guarded person, painfully so, and that only adds to the strangeness of him. About halfway through the book I felt that the more I learned about Tommy, the less I understood him.

Is he a grifter? Is he doing all this to launder money? Is he just insanely narcissistic?

Then we learn about "Pierre" and a sense of admiration for Tommy begins to unfold. He had a dream and he went for it. He created something near and dear to his heart and then gave it to the world to accept or reject. It takes courage to do something like that.

Kudos to you, Tommy.

As far as the audiobook itself, I can't say that Greg Sestero is my favorite narrator of all time, but he did a decent job and his impersonation of Tommy's accent was spot on. His retelling of his time in 'The Room' had moments of me laughing out loud and then feeling pricks of sadness. Overall, it was enjoyable and I'd recommend the book to others.

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