Samantha Selman

Bad Quality

Revisado: 09-17-24

The audio quality is not great. The narration stops and skips mid-sentence which is not what you want from an audiobook. I got the audiobook to prepare for an upcoming trip and I was really interested in the content. HOWEVER. The narrator has trouble pronouncing the place names. Like nails on a chalk board every time.

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Don't Bother

Revisado: 08-26-24

The story itself didn't grab my attention, but I still would have finished it if the pronunciations from the narrator weren't so bad.

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Informative, but too many mispronunciations

Revisado: 04-15-24

It is very clear nobody informed the narrator how to pronounce some of the words properly. The one that immediately comes to mind is Caracalla...he pronounces it like Dracula. There are other instances, but that one is really noticeable.

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New narrator, please!

Revisado: 06-21-23

I need a narrator who actually knows how to pronounce the proper names properly. Every time he mispronounces something (which is quite often), it's like nails on a chalk board to me. I know it's only two hours long, but I can't make it. Not worth it.

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Book isn't bad, but Narrator is!

Revisado: 01-17-23

I listened to this audiobook on 1.7x speed and that seemed to help the narration, but there were still moments here and there when it was just grating. I started the audio on normal speed just to see if the narrator was really as bad as what other reviewers have said, and good Lord...I couldn't do it.

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Doesn’t Know His Antiquities

Revisado: 05-06-22

Several times he refers to something that’s Roman as Greek. For instance…”the great Greek philosopher king Marcus Aurelius”…Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor, not a Greek king. Tsar/Czar is the Russian form of “Caesar” the title used for Roman rulers, not Greek rulers.

I know his specialty is Russian history, but this is pretty basic stuff especially for a historian.

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The content- great! Narration...not so much.

Revisado: 12-15-20

I enjoyed the book and it held my interest, but I could have done with a different narrator.

The narrator read way too slow and mispronounced a lot of words that completely took me out of the story. I had the narration speed on 1.6x just to get it to a normal speed. I would've gone faster, but I listen while working and didn't want too fast.

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The end killed it for me

Revisado: 05-25-19

The book for the most part was very informative without delving into too much detail. HOWEVER at the very end...the author lets us know how he really feels about communism and that Russia is a great example of how it's a horrible idea. And that's fine. Communism is bad and we get that, but I also didn't listen to this book for 1950s "Red Scare" rhetoric.

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It Was Okay

Revisado: 05-07-19

It was short and brief, but informative. I did take issue with the narrator mispronouncing "Il Duce"...how did nobody catch that?

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I only had a few issues

Revisado: 04-01-19

I loved the book and the narration wasn't bad, but there were a few things that did annoy me. The author is not from Texas and it shows. There were many instances where the author referred to Texas towns (like Bryan) as being in East Texas. Bryan is not in East Texas. Houston is not in East Texas. I know those are little details, but they're simple details that could be gained by just looking at a map or asking any Texan in the area. Aside from that, I really did enjoy the book.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas