BigbobbieK

Overall good, but a little off

Revisado: 10-13-23

Wait, performance is 4 stars, story is 4 stars, but overall is only 3? HOW CAN THIS BE?

The main issue with this is that changing a character's voice can easily change their personality, even with the same author writing the same style dialog for them. Whether that's when audible changes narrators between novels or if you're listening to a book you've read in paperback in the past. Smythe loses his dry wit and is a more animated speaker, Sims no longer has her predominantly professional demeanor, Nagatha isn't a stuffy older aunt. Adams giggles. GIGGLES. ADAMS. DOES NOT. GIGGLE. Skippy and Bishop are both done by RC Bray and remain the same, but for the others, the best way I can describe it is that they were performed out of character,

Had those same performances been presented as new characters, or characters we are not so familiar with, they would have been perfectly fine performances, hence the 4 stars on performance.

I will say that while Kate Mulgrew lost Nagatha's stuffiness, getting to hear Janeway drop f-bombs and be condescending and sarcastic to people was a true joy.

One other problem this performance faced was the clunkiness of the dialog. This is a byproduct of being an audio dramatization with no narrator to describe actions or the scene and no visuals to fill that gap. The characters have to describe the scene and what they're doing for you in dialog in character, so you get awkward things that no one would actually say like "Let me pick up this thing and carry it around this obstruction and through this door on the south side of the room..."., or they have to repeatedly identify who they're talking to even if it's a private conversation. There's no getting around it with this form of media. I've listened to several other audio dramatizations (the Aliens ones are really good), and this was probably the most awkward one I've listened to. Not terrible, not overdone to the point of distraction, but it was more noticeable than in other dramatizations.

But all that said, the plot itself is really good, every bit as good as the other Ex Force novels. I do recommend listening to it for the plot so that you're not playing catch up in the next book. But for the out of character voices and clunky dialog, I only give this 3 stars.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Main Character too good to be true

Revisado: 08-25-21

I write this as a review of the first three books in general.

There is a great story in this series. The setting and conflict are are both interesting, and you are definitely left wanting to explore more about both as it goes on. The technology is intriguing, but occasionally becomes a crutch for the story progression.

The problem with it is the main character, Alex Racine. He's unrealistically perfect and talented. He's the smartest person in two solar systems, he's the only one with any ideas to solve big picture problems, all his ideas always work out, no one can compete with his mental or tactical capability, he's bigger and stronger than all but like one person, he's ridiculously attractive but too shy to have any romantic encounters until he meets "the one", all the men admire him, all the women want him, and everyone always does what he wants because he's always right and can do no wrong. Nearly every other character in the series is a prop for Racine, and wholly dependent on him for most things.

On top of that, the women aren't very well written in the three books I read. There are very few scenes between women that pass the Bechdel Test (and it's almost always Alex Racine they're discussing). Every prominent female character spends some time fantasizing about Racine, and most of them second guess themselves in some way until he props up their self confidence. If he's ever dissatisfied with something they did or could be held responsible for, they worry over how that will affect their personal relationship with him until he reaffirms them in some way.

By the end of the third book, I was sick of Alex Racine, and looked at the synopsis of books up to the 20th, looking to see if maybe they'd be far enough in the future that he wouldn't be a character, but that does not appear to be the case so I won't be continuing the story. Which is a shame, because I really was interested in seeing what happens next, just not in reading 17 more books of "How Alex Racine near-single-handedly saved the galaxy".

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Dark chapter at the start, tones down after

Revisado: 07-14-21

This last installment starts out real dark, and has several bad reviews on account of one of the chapters. It's really dark, and I can easily see where some people might not only be bothered by it, but depending on personal history could have a severe reaction to it. I listened to only enough of it to confirm nothing was going to stop what was coming, and then I skipped the rest of the chapter.

After this chapter, the rest of the book is more of what we got in the first book, One in the Gut. Ryan does express remorse and guilt for things he was forced to do at the beginning of Three in the Heart. The conclusion is fine, though I would have liked it to go on in the epilogue just a little more and expand on the aftermath more.

Below is the chapter summary, and after reading this you can skip it altogether and go straight to 5 and still have all the details you need for the rest of the plot.

It would also be understandable if you skipped the book completely.

***Spoiler***

Chapter 4 involves the main character engaging in acts of violence against children. It's their avatars, and he's not in control of his actions due to events of the story, but it does happen. He's inserted into a children's game by Deep Dive, as they intend him to take the game down from the inside. The first 10-ish minutes of the chapter are about him, planning, arranging, and justifying his attack for when they arrive, and the last 15-ish minutes of the chapter are a very grisly description of him carrying out this plan.

It was a very disturbing thing to listen to, and as I said I only listened to enough of the chapter to confirm nothing was going to stop him and then skipped the rest of it. I'm pretty tolerant of dark material, but I'm also a father and even I found this all to be too much. I didn't need the details of him attacking and killing kids.

In chapter 5, any remaining children have fled the game and he engages in a boss fight with a game admin, and some details of what's been going on in the outside world are revealed. There's some mental justification for what he just did that takes place in ch 5 but it's obvious that even at this point he is struggling with what happened in ch 4.

Hopefully my review helps you decide whether 9r not this book is good for you.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Better than Dead Moon

Revisado: 03-05-21

This installment goes back to what made "14" and "The Fold" so good. It's got science fiction elements, but since that portion is unique to this setting it's easy to digest and accept, as opposed to "Dead Moon"s bad use of real world science.

This builds on "14" in a way that it's almost like a true sequel, instead of the "set in a shared universe" nature of "The Fold" and "Dead Moon". If you haven't read "14" yet, I would do so before reading "Terminus" ("The Fold" can be read at any point in relation to the others, it's actually the first I read).

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Long and drawn out with no real development

Revisado: 09-13-20

I've read a wide range of sci-fi, from books that play fast and loose with science to those that get so technical that I had to look up the concepts to understand what was happening in the books. I've enjoyed most of them.

So I've always heard that "The Andromeda Strain" was a pillar of science fiction and one of the classics, and it's highly rated on Audible, so I figured I'd give it a try.

I didn't finish it. At the point where I thought things might finally start picking up to an actual plot, I realized that there was only about 2 hours left in the book, and I lost interest. Most of this is a slow, agonizing trudge through various past events that took place before the book started and has very little interaction between the characters or what they're doing now. Mostly it has to do with how the program the characters belong to was started and the building of their top secret base. It'd be like listening to a super villain monologue for several hours but not about his current plan for world domination, but about exactly how and why he built his lair over this particular dead super volcano and what kind of features it has and materials it uses.

To not leave myself hanging I read Wikipedia's summary of the plot, and found it to be a more engaging read than the novel itself was. Even the narration was lackluster. lacking any inflection or excitement, and with little difference between characters and even narration.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

The less science you know, the more you'll enjoy

Revisado: 08-18-20

I'm a fan of Peter Clines, and I've never been disappointed by one of his books until now.

Simply put, the biggest problem Dead Moon has is that the science involved just doesn't work that way.

That's not what happens to things exposed to a vacuum.
That's not how heat transfer works in a vacuum.
That's not how the moon's geology is.

Even something as simple as measuring things is wrong; characters repeatedly ask if measurements given in kilograms is "Earth weight or moon weight?", but kilograms measures mass, not weight, and that doesn't change just by going to the moon. That's the whole point of using SI in space in the first place. And these are characters who underwent training for a job on the moon that involves moving mass.

Maybe if each of these was one or two instances in the novel, I could overlook them and suspend disbelief. But all of these come up again and again.

It's one thing to play a little loose with science to insert something "incomprehensible by humans" and make that the canvas of the plot; that's essentially what the other two Threshold books were and I enjoyed them. It was even a point in "The Fold", where even the scientists working on the device didn't understand what they were doing and how it worked. You want to give me alien entities? Sounds great. Other dimensions accessed by barely understood means? Totally fine with that. Zombies on the moon? Okay, kind of weird but the explanation works. Even something like other sci-fi novels, Star Wars, Frontlines, or Skylark with FTL drives, laser swords, energy weapons, or other fantastic technology with no full technical explanation that defies science as we know it? All "sufficiently advanced technology", it's all good.

But science fiction with straight up bad, BASIC science? That killed this novel for me. And I'm really disappointed because of how good Peter Clines's other novels are.

All that said, I found the characters themselves believable, it's written well, and Ray Porter is awesome as always.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not that interesting

Revisado: 03-22-19

After reading this, I thought to myself "I wouldn't have missed out on anything if I hadn't don that".

This story is literally all over the place. It's like the author couldn't decide if this was scifi or urban fantasy, so they just threw it all in there and hoped it worked. Kind of like "The Stepford Wives" where they they started with the women being brainwashed, then changed their minds and ran with robots, then changed again to finish with brainwashed. A genetic alteration to humans results in the supernatural ability to summon flies (from inside the human body), out of nowhere there's suddenly magic and witches, toss in the Illuminati because why not, butcher about a dozen myths and ancient religions to be pertinent to the events of the novel, wrap it all up as the mother of all tinfoil hat conspiracy theories but wait it's turns out to all be true.

I understood what was going on throughout the novel, but there were so many moments where a new element is introduced that just left me wondering why that was included or what the the author was trying to go for because I feel they missed the mark.

One of the big let downs was the motivations of the story's villains, or the complete lack thereof. The first half of the book, the antagonists are hell bent on stopping a few people who have stumbled on what's happening and are trying to prevent it. There's actually some really tense moments and a lot of build up to the antagonists seizing control. But once they control an area, all they do is over indulge in social vices like sex, drugs, and rock and roll. There's no insidious agenda, there's no grand plan to be enacted once the takeover is complete. It's just "Let's listen to loud music, do some drugs, and randomly make people kill themselves." It's like I went into the book expecting a really gritty "Independence Day" and then the plot twist was that it was actually just a really gritty "Reefer Madness".

And for all that, you'd think "Oh wow, maybe that advisory about graphic violence and sex is accurate", but it's really not. Like everything else in the book it seems hyped up. There were maybe one or two parts that I was disturbed at what happened, but not because it was necessarily graphic rather because of the nature of the event itself. Like when the boy dies at the end of "My Girl", or the dog in "Old Yeller". It's not that I had to sit through a graphic rendition of what happened, more that I was shocked that it happened at all. Ultimately I'd say it's no worse than Game of Thrones in as far as the level and manner in which the violence and sex is presented.

The narration is really bad. John Waters is easy to understand, but there's little to no change in voice between characters. It frequently became difficult to follow in scenes where dialog is shot back and forth. It's super easy to lose track of who's talking and get confused. And every time someone asks a question, that lilting inflection at the end of a question is carried out of the actual dialog and into the third person narration. People who are described as being terrified deliver lines as though they were discussing the merits of different products at the grocery store.

All in all the entire thing fell flat. Sure, there were times when I had a strong reaction to a particular event like the unexpected death of a character, but even a bad horror movie can get a cheap scare out of you with a well timed monster jumping out.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great entry in the series, but all new plot

Revisado: 10-19-18

This was a really good novel, with lots of adventure and action though not a lot of mystery, really. The first two did better in that department, but this was very well written in it's own right and didn't really need the mystery aspect.

I wouldn't really say this was a "conclusion" to the trilogy, though. The plot of this novel is more of an "aftermath" story to the events of the first two in the series. It reminded me of Abercrombie's "Best Served Cold" and "The Heroes" in the "First Law" world: The character's story continues after the events of the main story, and major developments take place by the end, but it's not really necessary to the main story. It's there for those who want more after the main series.

Like I said, "Warlords and Wastrels"is every bit as good as "Swords and Scoundrels" and "Legends and Liars", and if you enjoyed those two you'll definitely enjoy this one. If more in the series came out that are like "Warlords and Wastrels", I'd definitely be interested.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

An all time favorite

Revisado: 03-14-18

One of Lovecraft's best. Many references to other horrors and works give depth to the whole Mythos, weaving interactions between them that is often lacking in their mentions in other works.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Good, if a little tedious

Revisado: 03-10-18

Some of the elements of the series are starting to get a little stale, but it's still good enough to continue. The plot of each book is good, and the meta-plot is developing nicely. It's just that some of the same things happen again and again from book to book, and it does get a little tedious.

We'll see where Book 5 goes.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña